First Fish on a Fly!

[djs12354]

Fishing, Saturday, Feb 25, on the Little Leigh.

Thanks to the efforts of the Heritage Angler and Foxgap239 I can announce that I have finally caught my first fish on a fly! (And my second one, as well!) :-D

I honestly am not sure if those two gentlemen were not more excited than I was; but I am sure that they were at least as excited!

Have you ever been fishing with people behind you, cheering you on? Hard not to smile when that's going on, believe me!

I don’t have a picture of the first one to post, but H.A. did take some photos of it and I’m sure will be sending them along. I did hand off my camera to H.A. to snap some shots so that I could show the second one to Joy when I got home, so I will attach one of those.

Conditions were not what I thought would be conducive to me being able to even cast, never-mind get into any fish. I can assure you that what I thought was wind last week was shown to be a gentle breeze in comparison to today’s weather.

While Dan and I were waiting for HA and Fox to arrive, we sat through snow squalls that were so furious that we could not see from the truck to the stream. Wind was so bad when we were gearing up that the piece of carpet I use for getting in and out of my waders was blowing away, things in the back of the truck (under cover) were being blown around and my rod was blowing sideways on top of the truck.

The weather kept changing most of the day, snowing, blowing, sunshine and warmer, then back to snow. Water was cold, but I’m not sure of the temp.(Yeah, I know. I need to buy a stream thermometer.)

Surprisingly, I managed to keep my line and flies out of trees, (for the most part, anyway) and was able to do something approximating a cast despite the wind.

Once again, a large THANK YOU to the Heritage Angler and Foxgap239 for taking a neophyte under their wing and showing him how much fun it is to not just fish, but actually bring a couple of trout to the net!

Dave

 

[Bruno]

Congrats. What did you get him on?

 

[djs12354]

Thanks,

Number one was on a pink worm with egg imitation. Number two (the one in this picture) was on a bead-head pheasant tail nymph

 

[outsider]

great post. Can't speak for Foxgap, but you are in good hands with HA. Now maybe you caught the disease known as fly fishing.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Congratulations Dave!

It was just KILLING me to wait for you to make this post! Yeah, Foxgap and I were just a wee bit pumped up for this. You caught your fish in some pretty horrendous conditions, and handled everything like a veteran. Many, many more fish will see your net - Fox and I both agreed, your skills are growing exponentially.

Rest assured, we'll do this again! Here's a couple more pictures - gotta love the smiles on both your face, and Foxgap's on your first fish on the fly. It's the essence of what PAFF is all about in one picture - the veteran helping a newbie - sharing knowledge, information, and giving encouragement, so that we can all better enjoy our sport.

H.A.

 

[djs12354]

Heritage-Angler wrote:
Congratulations Dave!

It was just KILLING me to wait for you to make this post! Yeah, Foxgap and I were just a wee bit pumped up for this. You caught your fish in some pretty horrendous conditions, and handled everything like a veteran. Many, many more fish will see your net - Fox and I both agreed, your skills are growing exponentially.

Rest assured, we'll do this again! Here's a couple more pictures - gotta love the smiles on both your face, and Foxgap's on your first fish on the fly. It's the essence of what PAFF is all about in one picture - the veteran helping a newbie - sharing knowledge, information, and giving encouragement, so that we can all better enjoy our sport.

H.A.

Sorry for quoting the entire reply, but I'm still grinning over how excited you and Fox both were as I hooked up with that first fish!

And I cannot say enough about the people on this forum. I have received a great education just from reading the posts and then you add in the time you and Fox spent on me!

Hoping that we can now get Tom into a fish soon.

Thanks Again!

 

[Foxgap239]

I was really the fortunate one this week! I got to see two guys catch their first trout on certain flies. Earlier this week I got to share with a really nice PAFF guy his first trout on something other than a woolly bugger and today I got to share in Dave's experience. Thanks to both of you for letting me share a fun moment with you. I think we were making Dave nervous through because every time his indicator stopped, so did my heart and sounds eminated from my mouth! I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to share that experience with a newbie, grab it man! I won't soon forget either one.

I would be remiss if I didn't throw a shut out to Moonbeam (new to PAFF), a friend of Dave's who joined us today. Both guys made today truly enjoyable and that ain't easy in 40 MPH gusts!

 

[djs12354]

Fox,

Gotta say, Thanks again. It was great to meet you and have time fishing together.

It wouldn't be fair to say you were making me nervous. it was more like, "Is he seeing something that I'm not?"

Thanks for the lessons on technique. It certainly improved my fish to cast ratio!

Thanks,

Dave

 

[zenherper]

Congratulations! It sounds like you were in good hands.

 

[delta_dog]

Congrats Dave I know how excited I was the first time I got a trout in hand. Two weeks ago! Since then I have been very fortunate to bring just under 3 dozen fish to hand and hoping to add to that total tomorrow. I hope you have continued sucess and hope to fish with you and some other members that will be attending the newbie jam.

Dan

 

[IdratherbePhishing]

Congratulations! Good story!

 

[billm67]

Congrats on the first fish on a fly. Sounds like you're hooked!

 

[djs12354]

billm67 wrote:
Congrats on the first fish on a fly. Sounds like you're hooked!

Thanks, Bill

I've been hooked since the idea was first put to me by my friend, Dan.

by delta_dog on 2012/2/25 23:59:32

Congrats Dave I know how excited I was the first time I got a trout in hand. Two weeks ago! Since then I have been very fortunate to bring just under 3 dozen fish to hand and hoping to add to that total tomorrow. I hope you have continued sucess and hope to fish with you and some other members that will be attending the newbie jam.

Dan

Dan,

Thanks. I hope I can continue the success. I've enjoyed every trip to the water, catching the two fish on Saturday was icing on the cake. Hope we can get together at the Newbie Jam.



by IdratherbePhishing on 2012/2/26 0:33:28

Congratulations! Good story!

IdratherbePhishing,

Thanks! It was great to be able to write a story with a "happy ending"!

DAVE

:lol:

 

[snag]

Way to go Dave, congratulations!!! Thats awesome!!!!

 

[WildTigerTrout]

Sounds like you are really hooked. Congratulations on your first trout. No matter how many you catch in the future you will always remember that first one. Good job.

 

[JackM]

I was scared my first trout on the fly-- it was dark, I was alone. No picture. How cool that you have an actual photograph of your very first. Congrats to you and props to your mentors for their "good deeds." Verily they had their reward! Nice job all around.

 

[pete41]

scared of the dark or the fish?

 

[JackM]

PM regarding an "old joke" sent.

 

[csoult]

Congrats man, big moment! Now you're hooked.

 

[littlelehigh]

Congrats it's always a blast hanging with H.A. There sure is a lot of knowledge in his noodle! And he is always so kind to share it.