I've been fortunate

[thinkingredneck 0]

I am recovering from heart surgery, which has given me the time and inclination to reflect on the good things that have happened to me. I was fortunate enough to live in CO, Oregon, Washington, Florida, South Alabama, and MS. My first fly tying class was with Charlie Craven before he was famous. That was a good start. I lived in Lyons, CO and got to know Mike Clark and Kathy, and was able to get one of Mike's wonderful rods. I was fortunate enough to meet John Geirach, A K Best and Ed Engle. What nice guys! While in Washington I was able to take classes at the Greased Line fly shop with Mark Noble. He is a master with deer hair. While in AL I took lessons in Fairhope at the Church Mouse and learned to use synthetics and tie salt patterns from a wonderful teacher named Spencer, the shop owner. This has been a great time. I have had some great fishing partners and was fortunate enough to make trips to AK and MN to fish. Please share your experiences. Please don't misconstrue this as bragging. I just wanted to acknowledge my good fortune and encourage others to do the same. Tight lines!

[mikechell 0]

Nice history, RedNeck.

Unfortunately, I have a terrible memory. I can remember some stuff, some times ... other stuff at other times ... but most of my younger days are lost in time.

No, it's not "drugs" or alcohol ... I've never been into either. I just don't have a memory.

[FlaFly 0]

Good for you Redneck. I remember all my stuff too. I was bragging to my secretary one day about how I was on President Kennedy's honor guard. She told me she hadn't been born when Kennedy was president. Talk about bursting a bubble.

[Poopdeck 0]

I was fortunate in That I had the opportunity to learn from a quite, soft spoken, never famous master. A simple farmer who worked hard and fished for no other reason then it was a short break from all the hard work. The most important lesson I learned was its not where or how you fish it's just that you get out and fish for the love of not working hard for just a few hours. Thankfully I don't yearn to catch one of every species nor do I fret over having the best of the best equipment or far away trips to some place where the grass is alleged to be greener. Yep, you probably already guessed I'm talking about my father.

 

I have vivid memories of him making the ugliest tying station known to man. It was cobbled together with scraps of the cheapest material he could find laying around. Nothing is square nor straight on it, all the tool holes are crooked and all the thread spool posts were at different heights and angles. He tied for years on this station and I would poke fun at him because it looked so crappy. Years later I assembled a fully appointed wood shop and offered to build him a better one. He declined the offer because there was nothing wrong with his and it didn't need to be replaced. When I finally built him a new one he passed before I ever had a chance to give it to him.

 

My brother ended up with all his tying gear but after losing his thumb in a construction accident he gave me all our dads tying stuff including the cobbled together tying station. So I gave away the walnut and maple station with brass rod thread holders to a friend and have been using dads " crap pile" ever since. Although I replaced the dowels with straighter longer ones and did a light sanding on it, it remains the same. He was right, it works just fine and does not need to be replaced.

 

[add147 0]

Well since I have only taken up this hobby in the last 2 years I do not have any memories of fly fishing or fly tying to speak of. I do have the memory of taking my son to my first fly tying expo in New Braunfels, Texas a few years back. We had a wonderful time and what made it even more special is it was on Father's Day week-end. We camp out at the state park and saw some of the local sites. I will always cherish the memory of that 4 day trip!

 

As far as fishing in general I have many fond memories which include the very first time my Dad took my brother and I fishing at Lake Quitman in east Texas. He rented a flat bottom boat and fished with some fiberglass type cane poles. Some where there is a Polaroid picture of my little brother and I in our life jackets holding up a string of fish on the boat dock. I think that was the summer before I started kindergarten so I was 5 and my brother was 3. As we got older I can remember my Dad buying us some Zebco 33 reels which as a matter of fact I still have. My Dad worked in the medical field so he was on call a lot but he did manage to take us fishing. Later on he purchased a 18 foot boat with a Johnson 100 horse motor if I recall and we fished on Lake Tawakoni trolling for stripers and fished for crappie and catfish. We also fished a lot on Lake Wright Patman. I can remember one time we had a contest one week-end with our uncle on who could catch the most catfish on trotlines. We got a slue of fish and had a huge fish fry at my grandparents. As I got into high school we would fish a lot of stock ponds for bass and always had a great time.

 

Age has slowly caught with my Dad he will be 73 in October but we still manage to go fishing every now and then. When we go I take my son so it is special for all of us to fish together. You never know what life will throw your way. Be thankful for everyday that God has bless you with and always cherish the memories that he has provided you. I too have been very blessed indeed with many, many memories that no one can ever take away from me.

[add147 0]

Poopdeck,

And I bet you would not take all the money in the world for that tying station now would you!!!!

[islander727 0]

I built a spinning rod for my father for his birthday. This was right before split grip handles became the norm, so I wanted to build him something different, something that would stand out from his other rods. Well, it was built. I was excited. Seven days before his birthday, I suffered a brain aneurysm.

 

That was ten years ago. The rod is still in action. Fortunately, I am too...

 

 

 

(Thank you, Lord!)

[Dave G. 0]

You guys have some awesome stories ! If I told you some of my more pertinent ones of mine, you probably wouldn't believe them anyway, plus I'd probably get banned because of speaking of my spirituality. So, yeah, I have memories of fishing going back 60 years and fly tying and fishing for about half of that time. Not to mention rod building. But what is important to me is not the carnal or fleshly or even organic side of it particularly, but from where the peace derived from it stems from.. Indeed there is a source. And I'm very thankful.

[DrVette 0]

Wow, you really were gifted a great adventure through your life.

 

The only "Greats" i ever got to meet were actually through this site. I can't remember his first name, but Beatty did live video instruction through here a couple of times. That was how i was starting to learn mounting Married Wings before they found the Adenocarcinoma.

 

I remember getting hints and helps from Bud Guidry. I really need to recover my spot on the Classic site.

 

I am still hoping FredH pops up one day soon. I would love to see if he would put together a kit to tie about 20 of those lion fish he shows in step by. He taught me to use some crazy things for tying...so far out some were questionable on if they were ties.

 

Steve rebuilt my favorite Orvis into a work of art...i have had a couple of people offer to buy it so they could preserve it...that is not a joke or exaggeration...i stopped them before any figures could even be mentioned. The last day i fish the Arkansas that rod will be in my hand.

Steve also built me the Coolest custom rod to match my Corvette. 2wt fast tip for spring steams and late low waters. The custom elk Antler, the turned Bone seat. The ranges of cork. He gave me it almost as a gift from what i actually paid...They found the cancer while he was building it.

 

The times over all these years that i got to sit and teach kids...some i knew others i didn't...Always gave me the greatest feeling. You always wonder if they will carry it on and continue as you did. If my shoulder were better i would much rather be doing that right now.

 

I remember spending Christmas morning on this site talking about how to prepare dinner. Some of those members are still around. Others i am afraid to ask about...Since they probably didn't survive the hiatus i have taken from here. I am GIFTED in that i got to survive this long!

 

Were is Tarje??? I miss his CDC creations. With his drop dead spectacular photography...And all of the ones i had on my computer got lost a while back.

 

Sometimes this site just feels like were i need to go...

[NohackleHS 0]

I've been fortunate to have taken 27 two-week trips to Idaho and Montana. I had the opportunity to fish fabled streams as Silver Creek, the Henry's Fork and the Montana spring creeks (Armstrong, Nelsons, and Depuys) as well as Yellowstone park. I was fortunate that when I was forced into early retirement due to a medical problem that I was still able to fish my local stream, Putah Creek. I learned that Putah had a remarkable number of fish over 17 inches even though it's about an hour from the East Bay and less than an hour from Sacramento; it was WAY better than I ever thought it would be. I was fortunate to start taping fly fishing TV programs when these programs were more popular than they are today. I have taped well over 500 shows just on trout flyfishing.

 

I'm 70 now and, frankly, I don't know how many years more I'll be able to fish. Thus, I do appreciate each trip a little more and I do stop and look back to appreciate all of the wonderful experiences of flyfishing and fly tying have given me.

[Dave G. 0]

Yeah our minds have big ideas sometimes, but then the body kicks in. Hah !

[vicrider 0]

Okay, since someone mentioned it would only sound like bragging but so be it. I've lived a very checkered life in my 72 years. Born and raised in a small town (Westmont) in Chicago suburbs my Dad was a fisherman who taught my brother and I early on fishing. My brother was lukewarm on it all but I ate up every aspect of it, particularly fly fishing. I learned basic fly tying as a Cub Scout and still have a few of those monstrosities around somewhere. Buddies and I in that pre-video game era used to strap our poles to our bikes and hunt down local ponds catching primarily bullhead, which were eaten with appreciation in working families of that time.

 

After High School I went right into factory work (yes, a lot of that back in the 60s yet) and with a few buddies spent time running up into the Driftless of WI to fish spotted dace. Buying a boat got us onto the Chain of Lakes and into bass and northern besides panfish and Channel Catfish. Fishing some of the rivers for running white bass was great on a fly rod. Shooting carp with a bow in some of the rivers as they migrated in spring was a big thing and with the ethnic mix of our area fish did not go to waste. So now I'm about 25. Marriage falls apart thanks to me and alcohol.

 

Moved to my folks (stepdad) in northern WI between Ashland and Bayfield on Sioux River and began an education on Great Lakes fishing and spring and fall runs in the river. Not finding work there I ended up at Reserve Mining Co. on north shore of Lake Superior about 60 miles north of Duluth and access to so many great lakes, rivers, Lake Superior and it's tributaries I was in heaven for years. 'Course, good as I had it there friends and I had to run to MI and WI when the salmon stocking program went full bore over there. After I quit drinking I realized there was money for a nice, big, towable cruiser to fish the big lake as it offered a resurgence of fishing. I got my captain's license for 6 passenger and did part time charter boat trips for some years but nothing stays perfect forever. In the turmoil of price dumping of foreign steel Reserve Mining shut it's doors after I had 18 years in.

 

I went back to school 2 years and took a civil engineering tech job with state of MN. Over the 22 years I was there before retirement I went from a person who had said he'd never turn on a computer to Final Design squad doing road designs on 2 screen workstations with some of the most powerful software out there for that. Yep, I tell my kids nothing is permanent. Well moving to St. Paul area I could have had fly rod fishing but got tangled up with some bass guys and found myself stowing all the fly gear. Of course, a bassboat that had to bump 65mph to run from the starting point and stay somewhere near the big guns was in order. Got into tournaments, won a lot of jackpots, placed in a few bigger tourneys, had a knack of walking away with big bass regular in tourneys I didn't even win place money in. So that covered the bulk of my cities time with some trips to North Shore just to fish the salmon in fall.

 

About 6 years or so before I'd planned retirement my wife got a great job in the tri-city area of TN. I spent a lot of time flying down there, moved kids and household down there, and got to know a good old boy who took me out and got into a lot of big stripers in the 15-30# area on Boone Lake and other TVA lakes. Got to do some smallie fishing with flyrod on a few streams. I love that area with a capital L and worked on house for market and got things in order to sell and retire early. Nothing's permanent and wife's job fell thru when bought by bigger company and we're back in MN.

 

The last 6 or so years since retirement I have spent here in western OK fishing local ponds for bass, hybrids, sand bass, crappie and perch (bluegills as we know them). Lots of fun and while health was good made some trips to CO to visit brother and fish those rivers and streams and do a few guided float trips. Last trip back from CO a few years ago had altitude sickness and had to have wife do most of the driving until we bottomed out. Woke up one morning and couldn't get my breathe. COPD and that was the end of the high altitude fishing. Did some time on the White River 2 years ago but haven't caught a trout or fished much in last couple of years. With things going better for me now I am hoping to do the Little Red River and the White this fall.

 

Well, if anyone's still reading I didn't bring up pool hustling, pot bowling, or a couple hundred thousand miles of motorcycle riding. Like I said, checkered and sure hope to add a few more episodes before it's only memories left.

[Poopdeck 0]

Well I don't think that's bragging. That's a heck of a life. Thanks for sharing.

[add147 0]

vicrider...I agree its not bragging its called LIVING and you wouldn't trade for it I don't think. Thanks for the glipse into your experiences!

[JSzymczyk 0]

Well I don't know if "fortunate to live in" and "South Alabama" should ever exist in the same sentence... I lived in the REAL south Alabama (Houston County, outside Dothan) for four years and I can say I didn't take a second look in the rearview mirror as I was leaving. I knew some great people there, and had some very nice aspects of our life, but overall I don't miss it.

 

I don't have nearly the history of some of you guys, yet, but I'm closer to 50 than 40 now, and I have been fishing since I was able to hold a rod. Thankfully my Dad was an avid outdoorsman and I grew up in Northwest Pennsylvania- still one of the last areas of the country where hunting and fishing are accessible to normal people.

 

I've made "home" in Japan, New York, Maine, Nevada, Virginia, New Mexico, Alaska, Alabama, Florida, and Pennsylvania, so I've got to experience fishing quite a few places, and quite a few places in other parts of the world too on a temporary basis. Enough to learn that the only thing that really matters in the end is to be near people you love, and people who love you.

 

I live in south-central Pennsylvania now, and while fishing access is great, access to quality hunting ground is almost as bad as it was in Alabama... if you're not born into or married into a land-owning family it's not easy. Even the fishing here is far from tranquil.. there are just SO MANY people.