I don't have my own biological kids. I wish I did, but I don't. So, my significant other's nephew is 12, and he likes to fish, and he is somewhat interested in fly fishing, and his dad doesn't really fish, so I drove up to Newton Hamilton and took him out today at about 3:00 pm. Last year, I gave him an old 8 weight, and that has piqued his interest more. He and his siblings, along with his cousin, went out this morning with their grandfather. They used minnows, and they didn't catch JACK! Anyways, this kid lives in Newton Hamilton, so the closest stream to him that I figured might give him a chance is West Licking Creek. I don't like that stream.
We drove in to a certain section, and I set him up with a pink worm and a bobber. He didn't catch anything there, but I told him this is all about lessons and not catching fish. He told me he can cast before I picked him up via telephone. He can't cast. We will get to that. Anyways, we moved around the stream, and I was having him pick spots that might hold fish and plunk it in there. I was trying to give him as many lessons as I could. I was teaching him how to make short casts, very similar to roll casts, and to just work on getting that fly into that fishy spot. After no success, although we came to the bridge and could see about 30 trout milling around right there, we moved upstream to an area where there was more broken water. We kept working on his casting, and I taught him a valuable lesson. Lesson one: don't walk by the same waters that a lot of less skilled fishermen bypass. We plunked a sucker spawn into a fast moving riffle, and voila, a stockie bow came to hand. I'd love to say that he casted that fly there, but I put it there, hooked it, and let him reel it in.
Here is what I hate about streams that aren't real trout streams, though. The fish were pretty much only where they had been dumped. There aren't enough wild fish in this stream to hold my attention, and stockies are frustrating, more frustrating than wild fish, actually, and we continued to work upstream dropping nymphs and a tiny Oros into all of the good looking spots, but nothing. We came upon two guys easily in their 20's fly fishing with no kids anywhere in sight. I was going to say something to them, but I didn't. The kid said, "It looks like they know what they are doing." I knew why he said that, but I said "why do you say that?" And he replied, "They have a lot of nice looking stuff." Lesson two: Having nice stuff and looking the part doesn't mean jack. I hope really gets that lesson. There were some other guys up above, and so we hopped in and drove back down to that bridge.
Here, we found stockies acting like trout. Now here was a valuable lesson to teach a young man. Trout were rising a lot. I told him about how the trout were keyed in on a specific bug. We crept down below the pool, and I made him watch for a moment. The air was filled with cream midges. I told him about the midges. I told him what the trout were doing, or at least what I thought the trout were doing, and then I explained what we were going to do. Lesson three: I also explained that had he been there throwing minnows, rooster tails, etc, he would have practically no chance of catching these fish keyed in on midges. The whole pod of trout were feeding with reckless abandon. I tied on a small Griffith's gnat, a size 20 or so, and I tried to have him make some decent casts. I did my best to try to coach him. He couldn't do it. I took the rod for a second, and we let the trout begin feeding again, and I took a crack at em. On about my third drift, one ate it. I set the hook, and I handed the rod to him. Thank goodness this fly had a barb, because he had so much slack on it, but we landed it. Whew. The trout kept feeding, and I did my best to try to coach his casting. He was getting so frustrated that he was on the verge of crying. Lesson four: Hopefully he knows to be humble because fly fishing is hard.
Anyways, it was a cool evening and a fun time. Oh, tomorrow is his birthday, little does he know that I am gifting that whole setup to him tomorrow. It is my old Cabela's Three Forks rod, with a decent reel, a brand new White River Fly Shop line from Bass Pro (that was actually one of the best casting cheap lines I've ever used) and a leader. I will give him a box of flies, too.
I am so glad that we found some trout feeding like trout and actually rising to bugs. What a great learning experience!
Oh, and if you two fellas who were fly fishing are on the board, come on, fellas. It's a kids day!
We drove in to a certain section, and I set him up with a pink worm and a bobber. He didn't catch anything there, but I told him this is all about lessons and not catching fish. He told me he can cast before I picked him up via telephone. He can't cast. We will get to that. Anyways, we moved around the stream, and I was having him pick spots that might hold fish and plunk it in there. I was trying to give him as many lessons as I could. I was teaching him how to make short casts, very similar to roll casts, and to just work on getting that fly into that fishy spot. After no success, although we came to the bridge and could see about 30 trout milling around right there, we moved upstream to an area where there was more broken water. We kept working on his casting, and I taught him a valuable lesson. Lesson one: don't walk by the same waters that a lot of less skilled fishermen bypass. We plunked a sucker spawn into a fast moving riffle, and voila, a stockie bow came to hand. I'd love to say that he casted that fly there, but I put it there, hooked it, and let him reel it in.
Here is what I hate about streams that aren't real trout streams, though. The fish were pretty much only where they had been dumped. There aren't enough wild fish in this stream to hold my attention, and stockies are frustrating, more frustrating than wild fish, actually, and we continued to work upstream dropping nymphs and a tiny Oros into all of the good looking spots, but nothing. We came upon two guys easily in their 20's fly fishing with no kids anywhere in sight. I was going to say something to them, but I didn't. The kid said, "It looks like they know what they are doing." I knew why he said that, but I said "why do you say that?" And he replied, "They have a lot of nice looking stuff." Lesson two: Having nice stuff and looking the part doesn't mean jack. I hope really gets that lesson. There were some other guys up above, and so we hopped in and drove back down to that bridge.
Here, we found stockies acting like trout. Now here was a valuable lesson to teach a young man. Trout were rising a lot. I told him about how the trout were keyed in on a specific bug. We crept down below the pool, and I made him watch for a moment. The air was filled with cream midges. I told him about the midges. I told him what the trout were doing, or at least what I thought the trout were doing, and then I explained what we were going to do. Lesson three: I also explained that had he been there throwing minnows, rooster tails, etc, he would have practically no chance of catching these fish keyed in on midges. The whole pod of trout were feeding with reckless abandon. I tied on a small Griffith's gnat, a size 20 or so, and I tried to have him make some decent casts. I did my best to try to coach him. He couldn't do it. I took the rod for a second, and we let the trout begin feeding again, and I took a crack at em. On about my third drift, one ate it. I set the hook, and I handed the rod to him. Thank goodness this fly had a barb, because he had so much slack on it, but we landed it. Whew. The trout kept feeding, and I did my best to try to coach his casting. He was getting so frustrated that he was on the verge of crying. Lesson four: Hopefully he knows to be humble because fly fishing is hard.
Anyways, it was a cool evening and a fun time. Oh, tomorrow is his birthday, little does he know that I am gifting that whole setup to him tomorrow. It is my old Cabela's Three Forks rod, with a decent reel, a brand new White River Fly Shop line from Bass Pro (that was actually one of the best casting cheap lines I've ever used) and a leader. I will give him a box of flies, too.
I am so glad that we found some trout feeding like trout and actually rising to bugs. What a great learning experience!
Oh, and if you two fellas who were fly fishing are on the board, come on, fellas. It's a kids day!
