Whats your story? Who got you into Fly fishing?

[yetavon 0]

On 8/24/2020 at 7:45 AM, Bill_729 said:

Does Patrick F. McManus count?  (You started late, so you may not know who that is, but others will tell you).

No he doesn't.... But I'll give Rancid Crabtree some credit. 

I really dont remember my 1st time fishing, or my 1st fish... thinking it was a yellow perch from pond fishing with my grandfather about 5 or 6. But I do remember my 1st on a fly. I grew up about 200 yards from the Esopus Creek in NY and me and my trusty Zebco 77 tossing spinners gave the trout a good workout. Was around many of the visiting purist fly guys that would fuss at me for keeping fish... wearing jeans, canvas sneakers,  wet wading and Y branch with trout hanging off my belt....this 10 year old kid mostly out-fished them. My stepfather had and old bamboo fly rod but never seen him use it, and I was forbidden to touch it... At 11 or 12 went to a YMCA camp on a boy scout trip, and one of the class choices was fly fishing and tying. I didn't catch anything .... outside the driving desire to catch something on a fly rod..... but where could I get one????? wait ... the old bamboo one thats in the basement that never gets used... I caught something alright... Stepdads belt... back then it was called discipline not child abuse... Then the SOB had the balls to introduce me to a few folks needing work done, cut grass picking up yard stuff ect and told me to buy my own stuff.... Again today its called abuse.... so at the ripe old age of 13,  I spent my entire life savings (about $30) on a flyrod kit, you know , the broomstick kind 9ft 8wt... still have it LOL... So now here I go... off to super slow start... almost broke the damn thing across my knee a few times... and it got tossed into the creek more than once... The watching purist got there laughs out of my attempts....Then it happened.... Was in Fleischmanns  NY visiting family Sunday afternoon and took a few minutes to fish the creek behind the town park. Small creek with a little rapid running into a pool about 20 foot across. I toss my #10 Adams dry just above the rapid and let it drift down into the pool...  Just as I started to lift,  the water EXPLODES!  I missed him... I spent the next few minutes repeating the drift when again.... BOOM.... FISH ON.... and what a fish it was... several runs and jumps.... I'm sure hes gonna break off. I end up walking in the creek following him upstream (and in my Sunday church clothes.... more child abuse followed) before finally dragging out an 18 inch Rainbow... biggest fish of my life up to that point by far. I was shaking I was so excited...  My next purchase was a landing net.....

[niveker 0]

10 hours ago, yetavon said:

my 1st on a fly

Well told.  

[Sandan 0]

On 2/13/2021 at 10:48 AM, yetavon said:

No he doesn't.... But I'll give Rancid Crabtree some credit. 

I really dont remember my 1st time fishing, or my 1st fish... thinking it was a yellow perch from pond fishing with my grandfather about 5 or 6. But I do remember my 1st on a fly. I grew up about 200 yards from the Esopus Creek in NY and me and my trusty Zebco 77 tossing spinners gave the trout a good workout. Was around many of the visiting purist fly guys that would fuss at me for keeping fish... wearing jeans, canvas sneakers,  wet wading and Y branch with trout hanging off my belt....this 10 year old kid mostly out-fished them. My stepfather had and old bamboo fly rod but never seen him use it, and I was forbidden to touch it... At 11 or 12 went to a YMCA camp on a boy scout trip, and one of the class choices was fly fishing and tying. I didn't catch anything .... outside the driving desire to catch something on a fly rod..... but where could I get one????? wait ... the old bamboo one thats in the basement that never gets used... I caught something alright... Stepdads belt... back then it was called discipline not child abuse... Then the SOB had the balls to introduce me to a few folks needing work done, cut grass picking up yard stuff ect and told me to buy my own stuff.... Again today its called abuse.... so at the ripe old age of 13,  I spent my entire life savings (about $30) on a flyrod kit, you know , the broomstick kind 9ft 8wt... still have it LOL... So now here I go... off to super slow start... almost broke the damn thing across my knee a few times... and it got tossed into the creek more than once... The watching purist got there laughs out of my attempts....Then it happened.... Was in Fleischmanns  NY visiting family Sunday afternoon and took a few minutes to fish the creek behind the town park. Small creek with a little rapid running into a pool about 20 foot across. I toss my #10 Adams dry just above the rapid and let it drift down into the pool...  Just as I started to lift,  the water EXPLODES!  I missed him... I spent the next few minutes repeating the drift when again.... BOOM.... FISH ON.... and what a fish it was... several runs and jumps.... I'm sure hes gonna break off. I end up walking in the creek following him upstream (and in my Sunday church clothes.... more child abuse followed) before finally dragging out an 18 inch Rainbow... biggest fish of my life up to that point by far. I was shaking I was so excited...  My next purchase was a landing net.....

Phoenicia, Shandaken, Allaben, Big Indian? I'm a Hunter boy myself. Great story too.  

[yetavon 0]

 

4 hours ago, Sandan said:

Phoenicia, Shandaken, Allaben, Big Indian? I'm a Hunter boy myself. Great story too.  

Give SanDan the feather for his hat... Big Indian...Loved going to Hunter for the Drive-in, and jumping off Lexington Bridge

[Sandan 0]

Right on for Big Indian. The drive in was sure fun, in Windham. The Mosquito Point bridge was/is pretty darn high, of course you had to climb the girders all the way to the top. I'd ride my bike from Hunter to Phoenicia and around to fish the Esopus. A friend lived in Chichester so I usually didn't have to ride home at the end of the day.

[skeet3t 0]

On 8/22/2020 at 5:36 PM, flytire said:

the recreation department at lockheed martin (martin marietta back in the 1980's) in colorado was offering free fly tying and fly fishing lessons. the rest is history

if its free its for me

Free is my favorite word.

[Baron 0]

On 8/23/2020 at 9:17 AM, mikemac1 said:

1962, 14 years old, my mother signed me up for a YMCA fly tying class in SoCal. Run by the gurus of the Pasadena Casting Club, I took to it right away. Within weeks, the casting club gents had me on their casting pond teaching me how to cast. My first rod was a 7' Wright-McGill Trailmaster, a Pflueger Medalist and some level line.  It would make a good fence post today.  My friends and I would scramble into the remote San Gabriel mountain streams and catch native coastal rainbows—rarely over 8” long. We’d clean and salt a few and cook (so to speak) on hot boulders. After a tour in Vietnam (1969) I ended up in Tacoma, Wa where I purchased my first real fly rod—a Fenwick FF70 at a Rexall Drug store. With new line (the good stuff) on that Medalist reel, I was able to ply waters throughout Western and Central Wa for a few years. Then came the clincher—I got stationed in Great Falls, MT. Needless to say, I learned a lot about fly fishing in the Montana school. I caught my first Firehole trout in 1972 on an Iron Blue Dun wet fly. I left MT in 1973 for tours around the U.S., Europe and Asia, always with my fly tying and fly rods in hand. It truly has been a lifelong passion thanks to those old gents of the Pasadena Casting Club.

Mike, your story hits home, I just gifted a re-wrapped 6.5' Wright McGill and reworked 1492 Medalist (the little one) to my 7 yr old Granddaughter for Christmas. I hope she takes to using it as much as she took to looking at it.She was ecstatic when she opened it.  I set it up for left hand retrieve and it is beautiful if you like the older stuff. Gentle casting... I only use old medalists.

[Baron 0]

62, I poked at my friends that fly fished their whole lives. I chucked worms. 

I thought fly fishing was prissy and silly. I said so to a fly shop clerk in a store up the street from Orvis in VT and he agreed but added that, when the heat of summer was on, FFmen kept catching whereas worm chucker's catches fell off. That made me wake up; it was true. Then two weeks later I had my right hand operated on and they removed a bone that cost me the use of that hand for the summer.  Bought a fly rod. Fished with the left hand, loved it and never looked back.

Recently I poked fun at some folks for tying their own flies, I insisted that I would never do that........yup that's right, I now do that as well.

I fish with either hand now. 

[niveker 0]

Love reading these stories.

[DarrellP 0]

I like this thread.

I grew up in North Mississippi where the name of the game was crappie and catfish.   My Grandfather fished with minnows and jigs.  My Dad would fish to be social, but much preferred hunting and guns.  My Grandfather died when I was 10.  My Dad and I would fish for catfish a few nights but we mostly hunted together.

In college I had some friends who were pretty good Bass and Crappie fishermen.   We had fun with spinning gear.

I never picked up a fly rod until my late 20s.  A yellow eagle claw with worms or popping bugs.  I loved catching bluegill.

I joined a corporation and moved to Oregon, Florida, Colorado, back to Oregon, lower Alabama, back to Florida, back to MS and now back to Oregon.  I loved every minute.

I didn't really get into fishing until I turned 40.  Now it is sort of an obsession.

I took my first fly tying class from Charlie Craven.  I learned a lot from Mark Noble.  I took some saltwater tying classes at the Church Mouse in Fairhope, AL.  I took casting lessons from Tim Rajeff.  So I got into this after I could afford decent stuff and instruction.  I have collected a ridiculous amount of stuff.  Both gear and feathers and fur.

My daughters fly fish some, and go with me when life doesn't get in the way.  They also like plastic worms fishing.

I am not a purist.  I got into Bass fishing with plastic worms, in a big way, too.  From my kayak.  But fly fishing and tying are my favorite pass times. 

[Baron 0]

Nice story Darrel,

You sound like a Chevron employee. My son is and some of the locations you lived are some of the choices he has to choose from in the area of his specialty. I often wish I weren't so self taught but at this time in life forums and the internet are best. I lived in Eureka for a year and two months in Brookings OR. Then back home to PA where we began hatching a family. 43 years with the perfect wife. Grandchildren are beginning to fish now. I will encourage them to fish all platforms and I see you have done the same. BTW, I have been using all fiberglass fly rods, all repaired by me, some re-wrapped by me, all excellent casting 4 and 6wt rods with one of my beloved medalists on it. They are all late 50's and early 60's Wright McGill, wonderful rods.  

[Fisherboy0301 0]

From the ages 9-13 I lived in a small neighborhood on a big lake in central Fl. “Ponderosa club” was a tight knit community of rednecks on the shores of lake George. In my family, I was the only one who fished. My grandfather took me and introduced me to it some when I was younger, but I would get home from school every day, dump my books and grab a rod and be off until dark. I was offered a fly rod that our neighbor no longer wanted around the age of 11. I remember the butt of the fly line being tied directly around the arbor of the reel.  I had some flies that I had tied with guidance of members of a TU chapter at the annual Umatilla, Fl Black bear festival.

Fast forward a year, several panfish and small bass on the cheap eagle claw rod and my shoddy flies, and I found myself at a 4-h sponsored tying event hosted by an orvis fly shop nestled in a carriage/horse racing museum/resort behind my grandparents home. I can vividly remember tying a wooly bugger with orange marabou, brown chenille, and grizzly hackle, while an older gentleman told me how he’d taken “everything from redfish to grayling” on that fly.  

I had permission to fish almost the entire lakeshore and canal front property in the neighborhood, and one older gentleman in particular saw the spark in me and decided to fan the flame. He taught me nearly everything I know about conventional bass fishing, as well as headstarting my love for fly fishing, fly tying, and lure making. His name was George Kner and he taught me the basics of casting, how to work a foam spider for big bedding bluegill in the shallows, tie a tapered leader, and eventually introduced me to his son in law, a saltwater fly guide and African big game hunter, who gifted me a basic fly tying kit from bass pro shops that year for Christmas and I haven’t looked back since. I left Florida in 2013 and returned to see George once in 2017. We would spend an hour or more on the phone at times talking about fishing. He passed away in December 2020, and man do I miss him. 
Undoubtedly, this forum had a big part in shaping me as a fisherman/tier as well. This has proved again and again to be a fantastic community willing and able to support newer generations journey into the sport.