Raising a Fisherman: Part Two

As I recall, it was early Summer. We got to the river just after daybreak. I could tell it was going to be warm and bright, but the cool, dawn mist hung in the air and hid the sun. I chose an area fairly safe for a little boy. It was a slow, flat turn in the river that couldn’t be seen from the road. We parked the truck and donned our waders. The rods were rigged and ready. We had tied everything up the night before. I had taught him what I consider to be the essential knots of fly-fishing, the Duncan’s Loop and the Perfection Loop. He rigged his own rod using Duncan’s loops. This was no small accomplishment for a little boy. I’ve taught fly-fishing clinics to grown men who struggle with the process. Rigging a fly rod includes attaching backing (a braided line) to the reel first. Then you have to connect your rubberized fly line to the backing line. Then you attached a tapered monofilament leader to the rubberized fly line. Then you attach your dry fly to the end of the tapered leader. Because we were fishing the dropper rig, a section of tippet (small diameter fluorocarbon fishing line) is attached to the hook of the dry fly. And finally, a small, bead-head nymph is attached to the tippet. Jake could do this by the age of seven.

We walked silently through a grove of trees and came out on the bank of the river. I whispered to Jacob that we should take a little time to ‘read’ the water. All too often, fishermen approach an area to fish very quickly and begin casting right away. I have found that if you can stay fifty or sixty feet away from the water, crouching to keep a low profile, trout will reveal themselves. They will either be rising to sip bugs from the surface or finning, tails up and nose down, picking nymphs from the bottom. Sometimes they just slowly drift one way or another. Either way, they can be seen by careful observation even though they are magnificently camouflaged. At first they are almost indistinguishable from bottom rocks, but rocks don’t move. Eventually, a trout will move. Once the fish gives away his location, a good fly-fisherman will move covertly to a location where a fly can be presented incognito. Trout can see upwards conically and outwards through the water for at least fifty feet. If they see you, it’s game over, typically. Spooked trout lock down in protection mode for a few hours.

We were crouched on the bank about seventy-five feet from the water. Within five minutes, several trout materialized. A couple of nice ones were feeding in the eddy below a large boulder. Jake judged the boulder to be good cover and sneaked into position, climbing the upstream side of the large boulder. He was able to stay hidden, and with a flick of the wrist, drop the flies in behind the rock. It was as if the brook trout was waiting for them. He bit the Renegade aggressively and Jake played him out. The next generation, Reel man fly fisherman was hooked that day.

Today, Jake is a professional fishing guide in Washington State.