Your first fly

[ctwhitelaw]

well firstly this is kind of random
but am gonna see who remembers
their first ever fly

I remember mine about a year ago when i was 12 i was at my local tackle shop and was starting fly fishing not really in my head at the timei was looking at some toby spinners to go up loch ness with my dad and then the shop has all these boxes of flies and i looked and the 1 that caught my eye was a holo viva (black and green) and i said yep thats my first

Craig

[geejayy]

1st fly? , jesus that were a few years ago .

the 1st one i can remember was a large salmon fly that as a nipper i swiped from dads box of assorted scrap fishing gear and stuck in the brim of my hat,
being a sea angler i never used it , it stayed in the hat till i lost the hat.

but as i left school and started work, (yop, as it was then,) in late september i found myself helping the local waterkeeper on the river test.
as i walked up to clear the hatches at the top of one of the beats b4 i went home i got talking to a lady fisher who was on that beat for the day.
we had a brief discussion about the fishing and the state of the river when she pointed out a nymph that someone had lost on the back cast,hanging from a branch, and remarked in discust 'thats just not on, thats a damn lure not a nymph' .
i retrieved the 'offensive' item and stuck it in the lapel of my barbour, later to find out that it was a montana pattern of about 1 1/4 inch.

to actually use a fly , came some years later, when i found myself re-employed on the same hampshire estate, but under a new headkeeper.
after working the winter, 1 warm spring afternoon he says t' me ' about time we taught you to cast a fly' so borrowing 1 a rod n reel and a hand ful of old flys, he put me on a quiet beat that was to remain unfished that day.
his intensive training went thus;-

the cast is simple , just flick it back,... then forward. start with 3-4ft of fly line out of the top of the rod , as you flick it back, draw more off the reel, then let go as you flick forward, till you think yo've got enough line out then lay it on the water,
don't worry about casting too far just try to get the line to go out straight with the fly landing last.
he demonstrated a couple of cast then left me to it for an hour or so.
returning he found me sorting yet another tangle in amongst the undergrowth behind me,
'getting the hang of it then? got any flys left' he remarked.

well sometimes the cast was getting nearly where i want it, and occasionally presentation was nearly good.

ok you've thrashed this bit to death now wander off down to the carrier and try to catch one, he says and so off i went .

on the carrier i was now eager to catch and so wandered quietly up the bank chucking my royal wulf at every fish i saw untill inevitably my lack of casting skill would put them down.
so i stopped at 1/2 way for a fag break and to rest my aching wrist, just watching the river flow serenely by with out a care in the world.
ok try again, i rounded a corner to find a fine rainbow on the fin,over a gravel patch between 2 weed beds .
ok this is the one, get it right this time.
standing well down stream so as not to spook it , a couple of false casts , that looks about enough line, cast...............................
leader &fly line lands in a big ball of snot about 6ft behind it
not spooked, ok, try again-
good pesentation, but 6ft left of target grrrrrrrrrrrr.
still there? yep.
next cast went better , he turned and took it and after a brief struggle and a run i'd netted my first of many trout on the fly.

its funny how i can remember the good times, yet conveniently forget all the sh*tty jobs , up to my armpits in water/mud and or fish where the only thing that varried was the tempriture,
or gently sorting through literally hundreds of thousands of fish eggs in a freezing cold,wet hatchery by hand with a pipette.

should never have left though

[woollyworm]

first fly? remember it well - it was a jersey herd. i think the appeal was in the shine - eithrr that, or the fact that the man in the shop was giving 'em away. persevered for about 2 months - not a touch so i gave up and started using a well chewed olive nymph that i found on the bank. the amazing thing is that i have never tied on a jh in the 30 years since!

[nimue]

umm decided the only first fly to use must be self tied....oh dear.
gradually decided through the evening that maybe it didn't need to be so small!! Ended up a size 12 lure more than a fly, still, caught a fish on it the next day. Still tie my own and now know that a scruffy fly catches more than an immaculately tied fly. Have since taught my son to tie flies and hope he eventually teaches his son.....unlikely seeing as he's gay!!!
Best of luck. Jules.