The Natural

I wondered why I am still blogging after a month. I'm not really interested in having anyone read it. It seems I like writing down what happened so I can go back and remember what great fishing enjoyment I had. I think I'm fishing more now just so I can have something to blog. Or maybe I'm just now realizing how much time I spend fishing.

This past week I had the opportunity to introduce another person to fly fishing. I had invited Dan to go fishing and he agreed that I should show him how to fly fish. He had fished before, but never with a flyrod. So I took him to Irondequoit Creek in Penfield in the evening. I really did not think we would do well being it was summer. So I showed him some drifting skills and a simple roll cast. I was amazed at how quickly he picked up on everything I was teaching him. Then I let him practice his technique while I rigged up and drifted a fast riffle. Dan worked some slow back water for a while using his knowledge of Bass fishing to entice the first hit. But I explained that these were trout waters and the fish like oxygen rich water and feed very well along the seam of the riffles.

I could tell he was needing more than a drift cast to prove himself. I then instructed how to cast over head the basic 10,12,2 o'clock technique. After a few minutes he was tossing the fly right on target. I believe Dan to be a natural born flyfisherman. After a couple more instructions on how to manage the stream, I began teaching him how trout feed and their holding habits. We moved into some shallow gravel riffles and drifted wet flys for a while. We continued to find great places to locate fish but nothing was hitting. Dan tied on a dry fly and I had him work a tail out of a deep pool. As we navigated more of the stream we reached my favorite part of this creek: a double pool section where I always find fish holding. And so it was that Dan landed the first Trout. From the markings I determined it was a brown trout fingerling about 4 inches. We continued to get hits and Dan soon learned the difference between hanging up on the bottom and true strike. I connected with a Rainbow about 5 inches. Before we were done we had hooked up with another two fingerlings and Dan held up a 6 inch rainbow. Next year I figure Rainbows will be plentiful in the Spring. Until then, keep fishing!