My first trout on the fly!

[johnnyb]

Well the wife and kid(s) -- that's the boy and his sister in utero -- headed up to the cottage a day ahead of me, since I have to work tomorrow, so at 4:00, when they left, I figured I had a few hours to run up to the Forks of the Credit and see what was happening before game 7 started.

Got a tiny little brown on an even tinier Panther Martin pretty quickly, but really wanted to practice the fly-fishing skills. At the first couple spots, I got some lookers, but nobody would commit.

I had been fishing just south of the Grange Sideroad, in the Trout Unlimited special regs area...but decided to drive further along Forks of the Credit Road to some spots I'd never tried. Came along a few cars parked on the side of the road, so I hopped out and asked the guys who were rigging up where I could access the river...as they were parked along a fence marked "no trespassing". The guy I spoke to looked like he knew what he was doing...and he was happy to tell me where I could hop in. He had permission from the people who had the fence up to go in, but suggested I drive up the road to some public access. He asked me if I knew the usual pattern....I told him I was still pretty green to the flies, and kept my spinners handy as a fall back. He said "put that spinner away...this section of river is fly-fishing only", and proceeded to tell me that "The Usual" is an actual pattern, and pulled one off his hat and gave it to me. I tried to turn it down, but he insisted on giving it to me...said it floats, but as it gets soggy and starts to sink, to just fish it like an emerger, as the fish have been hitting them underwater lately.

Ok...thanks! Away I go, new fly in hand, up the road where I see a few more cars parked. I hop in, and on the first drift behind a nice big rock, already have a fish rising on my fly. A few minutes later, I actually land a fish! My first trout on the fly...small, but oh so sweet!!!!

 

I was happy enough to go home and catch the game, but now, with my new found confidence, I had to try a few more likely looking pockets. And I was rewarded with a suprisingly hard hit, and this beautiful brookie...another first for the fly rod. Woohoo!!!

 

I pretty much floated back up to the car...next purchase will be some fur, thread, hooks and a vise!

[Dara]

another one hooked eh....and I don't mean the fish

[splashhopper]

beauty pics

 

wtg

[BillM]

Good job man!!

 

Hit the river in the evening and match the hatch, you'll catch a tonne of fish if the river has a decent population.

 

BTW, "The Usual" is a wicked fly

Edited June 13, 2009 by BillM

[GoneFishin]

Nice pictures. I use to be hooked on fishing them with dry flies. Get some black dubbing and the smallest dry fly hook you can find.. From experience putting a tail on the fly is a waste of time for those little buggers. Tie the dubbing on, drag the little thing across the water and you'll get a fish!

[crankbait]

Good job! really nice colors on it.

[wallacio]

BTW, "The Usual" is a wicked fly

 

Yeah, it's OK I suppose

[solopaddler]

WTG Johnny!

[Musky or Specks]

The usual is on of my favs

[JohnF]

Nice. I'm gonna figger this fly stuff out one day - right after I master the baitcaster and being married (happily). Have I got enuf years left???

 

JF

Edited June 13, 2009 by JohnF

[limeyangler]

Thats something i've got on my to do list...catch a fish on fly tackle.....WTG JB!

 

 

Now...back to the important stuff....lol....when ya gonna catch a walleye?....just kidding.

 

Good stuff man!

[kennyman]

Congratulations. Nice lloking fish.Both are just coloured up beautifully. I would have ben pumped too. My goal this year is to catch a trout on the fly. I'd really like to get a decent sized brown by the end of the year. Not sure why, I just need to do it. Keep'em coming.

[douG]

Congratulations on your first on the fly. Very nice fish.

[alphaalpha]

congrats!

 

just started with teh fly rod this year myself and still working on landing my first. Thanks for sharing it gives me hope

[johnnyb]

Now...back to the important stuff....lol....when ya gonna catch a walleye?....just kidding.

 

Oh buddy...you know me too well! Technically got a couple this year, but too tiny to report on...I'm workin' on it, I'm workin' on it!!

[bicephalic]

...when ya gonna catch a walleye?....

 

hahahahahahahHAHAHA.

[Zubris21]

Great work! I think I'm starting to get the fly fishing urge. The angler you ran into really showed the "spirit" of angling, he could easily have been a jack and told you where to go, but instead offered a helping hand! hats off to him!

[Jonny]

That first success really hooks ya, doesn't it!

 

I've never really mastered the art of fly fishing. It doesn't help that most of my trout fishing has been on brushy creeks (can you say "tag-alders"?!) where you often barely have room to flip out a worm with a spinning outfit.

 

I've come up dry (no pun intended ) lots of times in fly fishing, but man oh man when you get it right, it's awesome. A couple of my best times were in two little Rocky Mountain lakes (Picklejar and Carnarvon) where the cutthroat trout loved my presentation so much that I thought I was becoming an expert. A float trip down the Bow River south of Calgary quickly disabused me of that notion!

 

When I get frustrated with flies, I go to the old standby of a worm on a plain hook (sometimes with a red salmon egg also attached - that can be a killer at times).