Archive for May, 2007

I’m getting more excited! I’ve finally managed to firm up a date for fishing with Stevie Munn when I’m in Northern Ireland. The day will be the last full day that I am visiting Northern Ireland – so I hope nothing goes wrong – and I’m wondering how I will have the patience to wait for it while I’m visiting and doing other things.

I don’t subscribe to Trout & Salmon magazine but one of my acquaintances does, and mentioned he had seen Stevie’s name mentioned in relation to some Irish angling articles and/or reports.

I’m also hoping he knows I’m not expecting a “typical” guided experience, where the guide bites his tongue while the client screws up the possibility of a fish – instead, I hope he elbows his way right in there if need be, and shows me how to catch the fish while not worrying about making sure the client caught more fish – some guides seldom do any fishing at all when they are “working.”

I prefer a guide who is of the sort that is willing to say, “Here, let me show you how it’s done here…” and I can learn from observation as well as my own experience. If he wants to tie on my tippet and flies, that’s fine – most of them have time saving tricks that ensure the fly gets into or onto the water faster – but I like a guide that will have fun as well.

Anyhow – wow – time flies. Won’t be long until I’m there!

One of my friends who hadn’t fly fished in quite some time remarked that fly fishing was like riding a bicycle – once you know how to do it, even if you’ve been away from for it a while – it just comes back to you.

I’m not so sure about the truth of that statement – but in other ways – some forms of fly fishing are like riding a bicycle. In fact, my butt hurts like heck.

What does fly fishing have to do with my butt?

Well, I’ve just got back from a couple of days of “loch style” fly fishing, learning more about what to expect in the upcoming Canadian Fly Fishing Championships which will be primarily a loch-style competition.  Fly fishing from row boats. The competition rules allow the competitors to sit on “thwart boards” – boards that sit across the gunwales provided they are no more than about 2″ above the gunwales.

Sitting on those things while trying to cast long distance is hard on the butt.

Anyhow, more on the location I was at soon.  In the meantime, I need a cold beer.  Not only the thwart boards got to my butt, but also the seven hour drive.

Oh – I am proud to say though that during one tough fishing session, my “Malteser” came through yet again – this time proving successful on a lovely Rainbow Trout.

So it was a nice day and David had been asking, “Daddy, when are we going to go out in a boat?”

I still had some work to do, but figured “what he heck – let’s go fishing!”

So of we went to the club and discovered only about two other people around. Got the rods set up (just in case David wanted to hold one) and paddled out.

It was funny to see David a bit startled at first when he first stepped into the boat – he wasn’t expecting the boat to move a little. But he bravely carried on, set up his “lunch bag” with our treats beside him, and sat down.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in a rowboat myself – so after discovering once again my right shoulder is stronger than my left shoulder, compensating, we made a straight line for the middle of the small lake and then to the east end as the breeze that was blowing seemed to be coming from the east – made for some nice drifting back.

David just loved it! You can tell by his smile (the pics are clickable – you can see larger images if you click on them – use your back button on your browser to return):

I had brought along my 7′9 Sage 2 wt for David to hold if he wanted – but he was more interested at the time in enjoying the sailing. I had my own rod – and used it – but didn’t really do much serious fishing as this was the first time I’ve fly fished from a such a small watercraft with someone else in the boat – and I was more interested in sharing David’s happiness about simply being out in a boat. He had been looking forward to it ever since his life preserver had been purchased.

Eventually, we did come back to shore, and I spent a few minutes fly fishing from the dock. By that time, the temperature had dropped quite quickly – although there were some hatches on – and the odd fish hitting the surface – nothing much was going on.

In fact, others who had been there all day had told me that the fishing had been very tough.

I tied on a Wooly Bugger, had a few casts – but nothing. Then, an interesting thing occurred: I was very slowly stripping line, when I thought I should just let the wooly bugger sink deeper, and watch it’s action as it sank – when a fish hit it. I didn’t have more than 10′ of line out in the water plus the leader.

It was a nice rainbow! David was very excited to discover a fish was on the end of the line – as was I, of course. While playing the fish, I fumbled around for my camera – this fish simply did not want to be brought to hand at all and put up a great fight.

Finally got the fish close enough to the dock that I could kneel down and pull it up, removed the hook, and managed a quick picture before releasing it:

I had second thoughts about keeping it for breakfast – but decided that I’ll do that another time.

David ended up having a great time even though he didn’t catch anything. He didn’t seem to care much, and enjoyed the holistic experience. I did manage to get him trying out some fly casting – but we’ll leave that for another blog post.

And perhaps tomorrow, David and I will make it out again!