How did you come to Fly Fish?

uh...huh, um, ma truck. :lol:

It came to me through a gift to my brother who said one day while we were spinfishing in a dhalo area that we should try fly fishing. We progressed through the bait and spin genre and like Jack found the DHALO areas appealing because you could fish year round. Then we noticed lots of people using fly rods, (before the movie). So I bought him a flyrod, Martin bubble pack I believe, for Christmas. He returned the favor by getting us into a fly tying class, the instruction and depth of knowledge interested me profoundly. ALthough, living in WPA at the time, I followed the dry fly thing too religiously and caught only a couple fish that year on flies. All the while watching people wacking trout on nymphs. So I started fishing nymphs more adamently the next year. After learning more and more, I began to get it. And it was no turning back after that. (except for the few times a year I fish minnows with spin gear) Some things however noble, cannot replace a really good method.

I think sometimes when flyfishing we try to take it too far when another method would do a better job.

Maurice
 
Does that mean all outfits balance,or none do?
I'll worry about that all nite and I have to be up at 4.
 
Like others, sorry to hear about the pending layoffs. My wife faces the gauntlet yearly working for a big corporation. But she is a hard worker, and it always passes her over. Always say the day they lay her off, they will close the doors. Sounds like you have a plan moving forward either way, so I am sure you will be fine. I know it is stressful, but hang in there, it will soon pass. Heard a good quote today on the radio -"If you are going thru hell, KEEP WALKING!"

I came to know flyfishing by being blessed with an uncle who was an outdoorsman. Gave me a couple of wooly worms about 30 years ago, and taught me how to tie them. Fished them off of a bobber on my trusty Zebco 202 and caught bass from my neighborhood pond. Decided I had to get a flyrod to fish flies, and he helped pick out my first flyrod- flirted with flyfishing throughout high school and put it down. Had a roommate my senior year at PSU who was an avid FF'r and he rekindled my interest. Graduated, got into biking, golf, wife and kids- get a call out of the blue from my old roommate- and he rekindled my interest for good! Gave up golf and the bike (kept the wife and kids!) and been a die hard ever since, freshwater and salt. I am blessed with an understanding wife who knows when we go on vacation, the rods come along no matter where, as I am up for the challenge to catch whatever fish swims nearby with a fly.

Still consider myself a rookie to the sport, lots of people probably out fish me,my casting can be down right ugly at times, but I love the sport, even on the fishless days, which thankfully have become fewer and fewer. Now my oldest son is hooked, so I now have a partner on the stream. Not long and he will outfish me too, but at least for now he still thinks his Dad may know a thing or 2 about catching fish with a fly. Still working on my youngest, not sure if he will find a passion for it, but we share other things together- like the love of classic cars.
 
I really have enjoyed reading the posts. My son turns 12 tomorrow and it had me thinking of how I spend my time with him now. I look forward to taking him out this weekend. Like me at that age, not fly fishing yet, but enjoyed the time out fishing.

I spent a fair amount of time with my father and uncle fishing on lakes and ponds. My Uncle would take us out in the Poconos for trout, I think it may have been Tobyhanna. I remember playing in his tackle box when I was really young too. Why they let mess around with treble hooks at that age I'll never know.

We took a lot of family vacations in Canada. My dad would go bass fishing morning and night. We would end up with a few pike. I think he considered them junk fish back then. I would love to catch pike on a fly rod now.

In 1983 while in college and bar tending I had some teachers that would come into the bar during their summer break. They ended up talking me into going up to Potter County and fly fishing with for a August weekend. I think we caught mostly fall fish and a few trout, but it was enough to really get me going.

These guys really taught me how to fly fish over the years. I think it really took me about five years until I really felt I had things figured out. Still one of the highlights for me is to head up to Potter and fish with these guys every year in the spring.
 
I am self taught, In those days they they didn't have any of vids but did have a few books on the subject. I did a lot of sitting over at the Run at Boiling Springs just watching and lots of time spent in the back yard.

I always used a fly rod even when I fished with bait, so I already had the rod to start.

Once while fishing in the breeches I watch this trout rising to who knows what. I had three flies that my Son give me for my birthday in my vest, which I never used, you know the kind, ugly and cheap ones. Anyway this trout keep rising so no one around to see me, I gave it a try. On the second cast if you could call it that, I hooked and landed the fish and have never used bait since, I feel in love with flyfishing!

I still remember the spot and everytime I pass it I remember that day!

PaulG
 
My experience is almost the same as Jack's. A lifelong bait and spin-fisherman, my best friend and I came to like fishing for trout on rivers with spinners because of the wild surroundings and the fact that you actually have to plan your approach and stalk your prey on rivers. Fished a lot of places in PA for about 5 years this way and finally decided we wanted to try those FFO areas we kept having to pass over. We found that fly fishing was more fun cause it was even more active and required more skill and thought than spin fishing, even if, truth be told, we caught more big fish (but not more fish) on spinning gear.........

BTW, the FFO waters weren't the heaven we'd thought they'd be either.....made me stop whining about water I can't fish and focusing on enjoying the water that I can fish.....
 
It all started with me spin fishing with my grandpa. I actually started fly tying before I ever went fly fishing. Every week in middle school we had a fly tying club. Our teacher would teach us the basic flies and then sometimes take a few kids fishing on the Donegal. Never caught anything at the time. I got away from it during high school and college. Once I graduated I had a lot more time so I started back up. I wish I would've never stopped for those few years. So, that brings us to the present.
 
My first wife's uncle was a fly fisherman, and at family get togethers, would talk a lot about it. He invited on a weekend trip to Kettle Creek, - in 1980,- so I went. It was early in the season, and things were pretty slow, but I did catch a few trout on stonefly nymphs.
But I wasn't real impressed with it - fishing subsurface like that seemed pretty much like bait fishing to me.
I didn't try it again until 2 years later, when he asked me to go again - this time we went up to Kettle creek at the end of May.
We hit the green drake hatch on one of those drizzly days when the fish just rose all day. I caught more fish on dries that day than any newbie had a right to - nice wild trout from the catch and release area. I really learned what it was all about that day - in 1982,- and have been hooked ever since.
My wife and I broke up shortly after that, but I still fish with her uncle Pat, and am really thankful to have met him. If I hadn't, I might still be fishing with spin gear, and missing all this fun
 
I learned from my dad, who was self taught. He started me fly fishing (a little) when I was about 9 - I had used bait before that. This was about 1977. My tackle was all hand-me-down from him, (some of it still is) but he bought good stuff. Dad's "teaching style" was pretty hands-off, so it took me a long time (years) before I caught a trout. Its surprising in hindsight that I stuck with it. I probably would have caught more fish if I had used nymphs more, but my dad rarely used them back then and I didn't really know how. I use nymphs about 80 percent of the time now. My parents were divorced, and when I was a teenager there was a period of years where we spent virtually every other weekend in spring and early summer camping in Potter county with my dad - mostly along Cross Fork. (This was much better from my perspective than the late summer and early fall when we spent most of our weekend visits laying in firewood for the winter). I learned a lot about trout watching them from above off of Campbell bridge. I fished NW and NC PA with my dad until I went to college in MI, then fished MI streams like the Ausable and Manistee for 7 years or so, then moved to the DC area, where I fish SC PA and Maryland streams for the most part.

My daughter is six and my son is 3 and they both enjoy catching perch and sunfish on worms. We'll see how long it takes before they can handle a fly rod.
 
I was a hard spin fisherman since I was probably 6 years old. When I was about 11 or so, I was trying to trout fish with my bass gear and an older gentleman taught me all about ultralights, size 12 and 14 unsnelled hooks, and 2-4 lb test line. I had many, many 50 fish days and never really thought it could get any better. All through my teen years, I'd fish probably 2 times a week all year except the dead of summer and winter.

In time, spin fishing for stocked trout felt too easy and I wanted to try fly fishing. I had an old martin combo that I got at one of the "Marts", and figured I'd give it a try. As the trout season progressed, I found myself using it more and more as the fish began to key on insects. I had a wheel of cheap flies which I'd use at that time and they probably lasted me 2 years, catching trout on almost all of them. You know the type, pink wings, webby hen hackle, etc. Not a single one floated, but they caught fish anyway. I eventually graduated to tying my own flies, mainly buggers and chunks of marabou lashed to long shank hooks.

One day, I was spin fishing and saw a guy fly fishing and slaying trout in some water where I couldn't even see any. It's funny how the wilds aren't green in the water like a stocker rainbow. He convinced me to get the fly rod out of my bag and gave me a sulphur to try. He got me hooked on fly fishing and showed me some of my favorite water. Taught me the basics of everything, and most of the knowledge I have today is at leased based in what he told me. Over the next two years fishing with him, the spinning rod started to get put away more and more. The second year, I realized that I only had to spool up my spinning rod with new line one time. I decided to go full time fly fishing at that point.

My friend died that year, and I kind of had to move on to being "self taught". Aside from him, I never really had any fly fishing friends before I started meeting people here, so I take pride in the amount of self-discovered stuff I know.

The spinning rod only comes out once or twice a year for trout. I still use the spinning gear for a good amount of warm water and salt fishing.
 
My dad got me interested when I was a kid and I was hooked! I got fly tying equipment for Christmas when I was 11 and have been tying and fly fishing off and on for the last 37 years. As a kid, I lived in Berwick and rode by bike to Barry Beck's family's tackle shop for materials and tips. At the danger of being flamed for mentioning his name on this board, he was a big help to me as a kid. As a teenager, my family moved to Benton where my dad and I could walk through the Benton Park to Fishing Creek. I thought I was in heaven! I went to Penn State and fished a little in that area when I was there, but the college life really slowed down my fishing. There is no doubt that my major in environmental biology was a result of my interest in fly fishing. I stopped fly fishing for a while after college and through my twenties, but picked it up again and have been trying to turn my kids onto it. It still comes back to my dad, though, as we still make occasional fishing and camping trips to Pennsylvania trout streams. We don't always catch a lot of fish, but we have good times.
 
I owe my fly fishing experience to my employer. 10 years ago when i started I was somehow sent to a managers meeting in Breckenridge, CO. Now I mean I just started like two weeks before this. Well my boss was on the way out the door and her boss asked me to go in her place.

So I am in colorado in a town i know very well. I grew up spin fishing for everything and had fished alround the summit county area when i lived there. During the week long meeting they gave us an activity day. Now everyone on this trip was 10 / 15 years older than i was. So i looked at the sign up sheets and saw no one had picked the flyfishing, everyone went for rafting. So I went for a full day of guided fishing on the company dime. It was great. The guide was great and the fishing was good.

I came home. My girlfriend, now wife bought me a 5wt st croix and I am going brookie fishing tomorrow.
 
Ray Bergman, Vince Maranio, Charlie Fox, Mu Uncle Paul, Fishermans Paradise and me.
 
Thanks for the great topic. I grow up in Binghamton NY, a short ride to the Catskill streams. Believe it or not, in High School in the 60’s I was reading Ed Zern “Exit Laughing”, Cory Ford “Lower Forty” & Bob Ruark “The Old Man & the Boy” these were all fly fisherman. Along with my best buddy, whose Dad took us fishing on the Beaverkill, E. & W. Delaware etc. and we both slipped into fly fishing for the tradition and excitement. Of course the biggest influence was my first Hendrickson hatch on the Beaverkill. Big trout slurping dry flies, we got spoiled! And the clincher was my Uncle Frank and his 3 buddies, all were bait fisherman. Please understand he did teach me a lot, about life, drinking and fishing (after watching him shot craps and embarrassing me shooting pool, the lesson I learned is DON’T, someone is always better, he’s saved me many dollars gambling, and he was a WW2 Infantry veteran and I have a real appreciation for how tough those GI’s were, especially after I served in the Army). If I hit a hatch and got my limit (In those days, we kept and ate the trout), when I got back to the car he would yell in his gravelly voice, “You got LUCKY. Larry, you got LUCKY”. Of course if I got nothing, he’d yell in his gravelly voice, “Larry, what the hell are you doing! Quit waving that rod around and get back to fishing bait. I’d just say “Yah, yah Uncle Frank, you’re right”, and either way I’d get a big grin as I turned around so he wouldn’t see me laughing. He passed away in ’75, too much drink and smoke, and I still miss him. But I still fly fish. Because, there is absolutely no other fishing, or any other outdoor pursuit, as intimate as fly fishing.
 
I am 41 and don't remember NOT flyfishing,Have been fishing since I was real young and remember being about 6 or 7 and using a fly rod then.(didn't say i was any good then but I was using one).Also got my son started with flyfishing when he was about 6.He is now 14 and you should see how good he is.Never to young to start them I figure.
 
As a kid my first job was at a local grocery store in Richboro PA. During my breaks I would grab an Field and Stream magazine and look for interesting stuff to read. I didn' read real well then and still don't but I had enough time to read 1 article. There seemed to be a lot of stories in them about the great limestone streams in PA and may a few freestone streams too. They also had Lee Wulff writing back then about Atlantic Salmon. This is what piqued my interest.
When I was about 21 I got myself a fly rod and tried to learn the technique, but with only minor success. I only once tried fishing for trout with spinners, once with bait too. For the last nearly 40 years, I've been flies and C&R, unless I'm fishing a stocked stream, then once in a while I'll keep a meal.
 
Last year I went through a very difficult time, which I would rather not get into on a public forum. I decided to avoid a weekend with my wife's aunt by heading up to Berks county, and took a side trip to Cabelas. As I wandered around, I realized I ought to spend more time outside.

Selling my wife on the idea of a shotgun would be difficult, so I headed over to the fly shop. I bought a rod and taught myself to cast over the weekend. Now I go fishing whenever I get the chance.

If fly fishing is an addiction, I must have a very addictive personality. It's fascinating, and has really helped me through a hard time.
 
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