Remember your first time casting?

[williamhj]

Another thread got me thinking about the first time I cast a fly rod, wondered if others remember their stories as well.

I didn't learn to fly fish growing up. Have a good friend who got me interested. I got my first rod for Christmas one year, a Cabelas 9' 6wt combo. Was living in Michigan so had to wait and wait and wait to get out on the water. Once the season opened and ice started getting off the rivers I took the rod to a park in Ann Arbor. There was still an ice shelf and the river was fairly deep at the point. Having no idea what I was doing I tied on a dry fly and tried to get it out beyond the ice shelf.

By the time I was done I'd lost flies on the ice, trees, ground behind me, and bushes on either side. Ruined the tapered leader that came with the kit, and realized I had no idea what I was doing. That first year I learned a lot, the following even more and I keep on learning. Funny to think back to that first time out. Anyone else have a story?

 

[itchmesir]

I remember I bought a pack of a dozen flies at a local store here. Lost almost all of them from either cracking the whip or catching them on the grass behind me. Now it's awesome when I can go the whole day fishing the same nymphs I tied on at the beginning of the day.

 

[smilingduck]

I was taught casting at the Oakland Casting Club by Rodger Moon. My first lesson was about roll casting. I practiced that cast my first few lessons then moved on to the basic fly cast. I remember having trouble with breaking my wrist so Roger strapped a leather harness to my rod and wrist keeping it in perfect position. I can tell you casting with that harness on was torture I couldn't bend my wrist at all. I wasn't allowed to go fly fishing until I was a good fly caster.


Today I took my daughter to the park and gave her a casting lesson. I told her about where and how I learned to cast. We had fun and she wants to go to the casting ponds next time.

This coming weekend I am going to try Spey casting so I will have another story about my first time casting soon.

Thanks for starting the thread brought back lots of good memories

Dylan

 

[pab1]

When I was about 12 years old I started sneaking my dads fly rod out to a local creek that my friends and I would fish all summer. That rod was off limits to me at the time. I taught myself to cast while fishing with it. I didn't take any other flies along so I only had the one fly that was tied on the line. I caught quite a few fish on that fly and luckily never lost it. Its over thirty years later and my dad passed away a few years ago. That rod and reel is now on my wall along with the last fly he tied on it. It brings back memories every time I look at it.

 

[lv2nymph]

I remember well, My first rod was from a tackle shop/hardware store. I got the whole set up for about $70.00 + vhs tape of casting w/lefty. Practicing out back of the townhouse was an adventure but nowhere else to go. People looked at me like I was a nut case.

 

[jimp]

My first experience with a fly rod was about this time last year, and had bought a Cabelas combo to start out with. I went to a isolated dock/boat ramp not far from the house and go to it. I wore a big floppy hat so I would not be wearing a ear piercing in the immediate future. I had some nice pretty casts but had more ugly casts than nice, was cracking the whip, and even buried the hook on the little popper I had tied on up to the body of the hopper one time in the dock railing. I had to cut or carve the hook out with a small pocket knife I carry. Was fortunate enough to even create a few wind knots as well. :yikes:

 

[ia_trouter]

I was a strapping young lad. About 40 years old perhaps. Cheapest Cabela's 7WT I could find because I thought I was going to go pike fishing. I had just completed extensive video training with Brad Pitt. It was really ugly and I didn't try again for 10 years or so.

 

[eastfly66]

I'm still learning 45 years later .........

I am trying to teach the guy next door , I think I better leave the instruction to the instructors. Showing someone isn't as easy as I thought !

When I first started with a bright yellow Eagle claw the safest bet was to get the line out as best I could and let the current carry the rest, did a lot of streamer fishing with my Mickey Finns. I read "Simplified Fly Fishing" - cant remember who wrote it. The rod , the book and my bike I was armed to the teeth for action !!!!

 

[angelo1987]

3-years ago I started, I made sure I was in the opening so I wouldn't lose my flies in the tree's well that was a success but still was able to lose 8 flies by whipping the line to hard (hate that cracking noise). I had tangles and more tangles, tripping over my line..oh it was just horrible

 

[dhaynes]

A while back I posed a bio.. it contained this section about learning to Fly Fish in my teens, circa 1968.

I don’t think I saw more than two fly fisherman on the river during those days but somehow I got interested in learning. Like most people around there, I was a bait fisherman --corn, salmon eggs, worms, hellgrammites we collected from Town Creek. I later graduated to spin fishing and followed a normal progression. (I guess) I bought a big Shakespeare fiberglass Wonderrod; nine feet long and, by today’s standards, as floppy as a spaghetti noodle. It came as a kit with an automatic reel that I learned to hate immediately. I switched it for a South Bend copy of a classic Pflueger reel. I still have it. Almost all reels then were designed to be right hand crank. The fishing orthodoxy said you cast with your right hand and then switch hands to crank with your right hand. The South Bend is right hand crank so I don’t use it. However it is still perfectly fishable.

I tried to learn to use the setup correctly but I never got the whole picture. The problem was there was no one around who could mentor newbies. I found an alcoholic football coach who showed me about three casts in the gym before he felt a huge thirst coming on. My biology teacher was a fly fisherman and fly tier. He spent a few minutes teaching me but it wasn’t long enough to sink in. Of casting, I knew little: of leaders and tippets, which fly to use, how to present a fly, I knew absolutely nothing.

I tied lazy ikes, spoons, and broke-back minnows to the leader and casted away. A good cast would send it 50 feet but like as not I would snap it off like a whip and send it flying 50 feet the wrong way. I could only fish facing directly upstream or down as every backcast was guaranteed to become tangled in the trees. Eventually I leaned about dry flies and purchased a bunch from Herter’s. Herter’s was the mail-order Bass Pro and Cabelas rolled into one. All their catalogs contained only black and white line drawings of the product. Buying hand drawn flies without any prior knowledge is a dodgy business: all mine ended up in size 12 and were patterns that appealed to me rather than to fish! I still have some of these and I still fish them. I ran across some Adams in an original Herter’s box not long ago. They sold for 12 cents each! The hackle was very sparse but they fish wet as well as any soft-hackle fly.

 

[Rip Tide]

When I was 7
I remember sneaking my father's rod from behind the tent and knotting on a fly that I had "tied" from my mother's knitting yarn.
I slapped that water to a froth with that fly. It was remarkable that I didn't scare every fish for miles. But I got one. A land locked salmon. First fish on a fly that I "tied" myself.

In 6th grade we had a project where we had to teach the class how to do something. I hadn't a clue what to do so Dad talked me into teaching fly casting.... with my $3 Japanese bamboo rod..
That was the day that I realized that I still had a lot to learn.

 

[planettrout]

1974, Gold River, Vancouver Island, BC:



10', 8wt. Fiberglass Rod - Pflueger Rell and a lead core line, fishing for Summer Steel. I banged myself in the head a number of times with that lead core line...hurt like hell...


PT/TB

 

[williamhj]

Great stories! I'm glad I'm not the only one who looked ridiculous when I started. Probably look ridiculous from time to time still!

I remember the first fish I caught. It was not long after that terrible first time casting experience. It was a put and take fishery. Got it on a parachute adams and released it before snapping a picture. This is the second I caught.

Didn't take long before I tired of the put and take fishing and discovered bass in local rivers and trout within a couple hours. Soon after I added a 7'6" 4wt from Albright ($49) to my arsenal, picked up tying that September and built my first rod in November. It really is a sickness isn't it?

Anyone else have stories?

 

[smarty140]

1999, in the Plover River in Iverson Park, Stevens Point, WI... I think we cut the hooks off of a flies to practice with since there wasn't any season open, and there aren't any fish there anyway.

One of my college roommates and I decided we wanted to try fly fishing, so we went to Gander Mountain in Wausau and A couple weeks later when the early C&R season opened, we were on the Tomorrow River (skunked, unless you count shiner minnows). Then there was a spring break trip to the White River in Arkansas - four of us in an extended cab Dodge Dakota all the way to Arkansas... not to mention we were staying in a dry county, which was a little different than central WI.

15 years later, I love fly fishing and get out as much as I can. My buddy that I learned with back then has been living in Germany since graduation and probably hasn't cast a fly in 10 years... pretty sure I saw the same old SA combo tucked away in his storage closet when I visited him and his wife in Munich a couple years ago, so there's still hope for him!

ryan

 

[calftail]

My brother Rich and I were with Dad at a Boy Scout retreat. We weren't even old to be Scouts but Dad was Scout Master of the local Troop and we got to go along. Dad rigged an ole 9 foot cane rod with an auto reel, silk line, leader and a fly and let me and Rich have at it. We thought the way to fish it was like a bamboo pole, bobber and bait, so we just sat there flopped the rig out and watched the fly like a bobber.

Rich and I screwed around for a while ...then Dad realized how we were fishing it. "Care if I give it a try" Dad said. We were on a boat dock and Dad spotted a fish back closer to the shore bank, inches from it. Wish..wish went his back and forward casts and after a couple of tries the fly landed on target...whoomph... a black catfish grabbed the fly. My goodness what a thrill. The fish thrashed and wallowed around and Dad finally got it to his hand for us to take a look. ( 'bout 1952 ).

Rich and I went back to our spin rods, worms and bobbers and caught plenty, that trip, but the fly rod ! The fly rod was going to be my thing.