dirty
New member
Hi all!
I recently had the pleasure of reading a bunch of fiction that featured fly fishing heavily, and it sounded like something I’d probably enjoy doing. It turns out my father-in-law has a rod and reel (and some leaders that say ‘best if used before 2007’) and, as my wife is always happy when I get her dad out from in front of the TV, it seemed like something fun we could do together.
So here I am! I’ve done the requisite millennial googling of everygoddamnthing (and somehow now know even less), but managed to catch an incredibly small/gracious/patient bass this past weekend in Maine using borrowed gear.
I was idly watching the sun go down, thinking about walking out to the little dock to try to figure out if I could make a tight loop (unlikely) while also avoiding the wild blackberries behind me (extremely unlikely). I saw what I assumed was a black vulture cruise high in the tree line, and then as it picked up a little speed on the downwind leg, banked hard, snagged a fish and flew off, I realized that that would be pretty fancy behavior for a vulture, not to mention that this thing looked more like a flying 2x6 and less like something with pronounced dihedral--and that it would be an especially fancy vulture with its white head and tail. I figured that this display of angling prowess was a sign from the fishgods that I should at least tie a fly to the tippet if I was going to be hunting blackberries. (The bald eagle was almost immediately mugged by another for his fish--I am not sure how that fits into the fishgod narrative).
I tied on a nymphy, crooked-cigar-shaped fly that my FIL had multiples of (assuming I'd lose it to the aforementioned bushes), aimed said cigar-shaped thing at the ripples expanding near the definitely-not-crooked-cigar-shaped water skeeters, fired, stripped it in (more to shorten the line and raise my chances of surviving the back cast than any earnest imitation of aquatic insect behavior), and repeated. Eventually, the line tightened--for the first non-vegetable-based reason of my adult life--and the rest is history.
I almost immediately ordered a 4wt Echo Lift combo. I’d have gone for something used, but craigslist and facebook marketplace seemed pretty dry; plus the Echo had some good reviews (Excellent action for beginners! Good value! Room for growth!), and I was happy to learn that the company is based in Vancouver, WA—as I’ve spent some of the best days of my life on the Washougal river nearby. I opted against the usual 5wt first rod because A) the place I was ordering from didn’t have it and B) I liked the sound of the 4wt and confirmation-biased myself into thinking it was a great idea after reading a few “4wt Is The New 5wt” articles.
I’m excited to have found the paflyfish.com community—as I’m at risk of being tainted by reddit and/or my father-in-law, who has a couple of juicy old-dude knowledge bombs hidden among a minefield of exaggeration, assumption, and good old-fashioned lies. I’m looking forward to searching up your old posts when I’m at risk of becoming the 15th person to ask which size of parachute adams I should be using, (or if maybe I should be using a vanilla adams instead) and hopefully meeting some of you in meatspace out on a river somewhere.
If you made it through that expository dump, maybe you have some knowledge bombs and/or lies and/or exaggeration you’d be kind enough to throw at the following questions:
1) If you lived in Philly and didn’t mind driving an hour or so, and also didn’t mind a little hike (might even be preferable), but wanted to avoid a crowd/audience, where would you start? I walk the dog occasionally at the Wissahickon—might be a little crowded for me (at least the places on it that I’ve been—maybe you can get away from the trails and have a more relaxing time). People seem to like the French? My father-in-law says Valley Forge is a great place for wild brook trout (lies?!)? Other suggestions?
2) This past weekend I converted some old trail shoes into Wading In A Mucky Maine Pond Shoes. Is there any way to get the warmed-over-death smell out of them or is that just a thing you learn to love?
3) Anyone in the area want to fish with a total noob (once UPS gets here) or two?
I recently had the pleasure of reading a bunch of fiction that featured fly fishing heavily, and it sounded like something I’d probably enjoy doing. It turns out my father-in-law has a rod and reel (and some leaders that say ‘best if used before 2007’) and, as my wife is always happy when I get her dad out from in front of the TV, it seemed like something fun we could do together.
So here I am! I’ve done the requisite millennial googling of everygoddamnthing (and somehow now know even less), but managed to catch an incredibly small/gracious/patient bass this past weekend in Maine using borrowed gear.
I was idly watching the sun go down, thinking about walking out to the little dock to try to figure out if I could make a tight loop (unlikely) while also avoiding the wild blackberries behind me (extremely unlikely). I saw what I assumed was a black vulture cruise high in the tree line, and then as it picked up a little speed on the downwind leg, banked hard, snagged a fish and flew off, I realized that that would be pretty fancy behavior for a vulture, not to mention that this thing looked more like a flying 2x6 and less like something with pronounced dihedral--and that it would be an especially fancy vulture with its white head and tail. I figured that this display of angling prowess was a sign from the fishgods that I should at least tie a fly to the tippet if I was going to be hunting blackberries. (The bald eagle was almost immediately mugged by another for his fish--I am not sure how that fits into the fishgod narrative).
I tied on a nymphy, crooked-cigar-shaped fly that my FIL had multiples of (assuming I'd lose it to the aforementioned bushes), aimed said cigar-shaped thing at the ripples expanding near the definitely-not-crooked-cigar-shaped water skeeters, fired, stripped it in (more to shorten the line and raise my chances of surviving the back cast than any earnest imitation of aquatic insect behavior), and repeated. Eventually, the line tightened--for the first non-vegetable-based reason of my adult life--and the rest is history.
I almost immediately ordered a 4wt Echo Lift combo. I’d have gone for something used, but craigslist and facebook marketplace seemed pretty dry; plus the Echo had some good reviews (Excellent action for beginners! Good value! Room for growth!), and I was happy to learn that the company is based in Vancouver, WA—as I’ve spent some of the best days of my life on the Washougal river nearby. I opted against the usual 5wt first rod because A) the place I was ordering from didn’t have it and B) I liked the sound of the 4wt and confirmation-biased myself into thinking it was a great idea after reading a few “4wt Is The New 5wt” articles.
I’m excited to have found the paflyfish.com community—as I’m at risk of being tainted by reddit and/or my father-in-law, who has a couple of juicy old-dude knowledge bombs hidden among a minefield of exaggeration, assumption, and good old-fashioned lies. I’m looking forward to searching up your old posts when I’m at risk of becoming the 15th person to ask which size of parachute adams I should be using, (or if maybe I should be using a vanilla adams instead) and hopefully meeting some of you in meatspace out on a river somewhere.
If you made it through that expository dump, maybe you have some knowledge bombs and/or lies and/or exaggeration you’d be kind enough to throw at the following questions:
1) If you lived in Philly and didn’t mind driving an hour or so, and also didn’t mind a little hike (might even be preferable), but wanted to avoid a crowd/audience, where would you start? I walk the dog occasionally at the Wissahickon—might be a little crowded for me (at least the places on it that I’ve been—maybe you can get away from the trails and have a more relaxing time). People seem to like the French? My father-in-law says Valley Forge is a great place for wild brook trout (lies?!)? Other suggestions?
2) This past weekend I converted some old trail shoes into Wading In A Mucky Maine Pond Shoes. Is there any way to get the warmed-over-death smell out of them or is that just a thing you learn to love?
3) Anyone in the area want to fish with a total noob (once UPS gets here) or two?
