Another new-be guided trip.

I often find myself fishing public waters that have plentiful people fishing and saying things like “I’ve been fishing all day and I haven’t caught anything, there’s no fish here”. Now I’m not so cocky as to think that I could not have a bad day on a trip to think that I might have one of those skunked days. I’ve had plenty. But usually even if the fish are being totally uncooperative I can catch at least one. So I start fishing and shortly I have caught several right where those people who have just commented that there are no fish there.  Sometimes, actually more than not I start getting the 1000 questions routine’s.  How do you do that, what kinds of flys do you use. And on occasions I have been asked to guide someone for a few hours. Now I’m a computer engineer and guided trips are way below my pay grade.  A day trip for a good guide in my area is about 150-200 a day depending on the area and the water.  Several guides I know on public water, utilizing their boat and equipment are getting 150 for four hours.  Four hours of untangling lines, explaining what to do and repeating myself a few dozen times isn’t my idea of a great day on the water. So I usually say yes I’ll do it for a couple of hours no charge.  The pictures I have posted are from one such project with a little twist. An experienced guide friend of mine had this friend who he was working with trying to teach him how to fly fish. After a couple of days of training he called on me and said he was out of patience and would I consider taking his friend out for a couple of hours. He warned me that it might be an impossible task because he had been working with the guy and he hadn’t caught a single fish nor even had a bite. Bobby is one of two guides that I know that I would just about always try to help out when I can. So I took the challenge. After a while I realized that this was going to be tough but I persevered and after I hooked a few fish trying to show him technique and fly presentation he caught on and caught a few nice fish.

Hadn’t been posting much

 Sometimes you can get so busy that you lose out on the time and don’t get a chance to do anything with your life except work. I have been extremely fortunate for the last twenty five years to be able to make enough money utilizing the least amount of time which allowed me to travel and spend a lot of time focusing on my favorite activities of fishing and hiking and camping.  Three years ago I accepted a position as an engineer at one of the largest companies in America.  This was a result of Hewlett-Packard selling off the company’s software division wherein I had become a principal consultant. That role evaporated because while HP allowed for independent consultation and partnership between them and other entities the company that bought them doesn’t.  I have a number of friends who have left doing business with that company because their rates are so low that you can’t afford to work for them.  I fell into that category so I had to go back to my engineering roots that doesn’t allow me to make the same amount of money and demands more time.  So since then I have posted very little on my blog.  I only just recently started posting things because someone reminded me that I had a lot of experience in multiple areas that someone would benefit greatly from.  So I’m going to make an effort to post something regularly and I will catch up with a number of posts now.

Deer Hunting

 I met my lovely wife almost 50 years ago at church.  When I was dating her she informed me that her entire line of male members were avid deer hunters.  I had never entertained or even considered hunting for deer growing up. Well the reasons are simple, or at least some of them are. Firstly when I was growing up in southern Florida deer were extremely scarce and most were in preserved habitat and called “Key Deer” they are about the size of a medium sized dog.  The second reason was because of the socialization that was introduced by our media. What’s that you say? Well I learned in college about the method that our media has used for decades to promote their agenda. It starts with the entertainment sector which develops various forms of propaganda used to influence young minds. What was mine you might be asking. It was the Disney character of Bambi.  So when my wife told me that her entire male group of family members were heavily engaged in deer hunting I almost freaked out. I thought I had come across a bunch of Neanderthals and savages that were barbarous buffoons. And now I am dating the one who I’m in love with and thinking seriously about marriage.  So I asked her why did they want to kill Bambi? She replied that they loved venison and ate it regularly. What eat Bambi how could they do such a thing!!! Little did I know that they would set me up soon. I regularly called on my now wife, well regularly wouldn’t describe it adequately. I was over the house as soon as I got off work and stayed for dinner every night and only left when my soon to be sister in law chased me out the door.  One day her husband asked me if I liked steak. Of course, what red blooded young man who grew up in a family of 11 brothers and sisters that only had it occasionally didn’t.  He said that they were going to have a good meal of it tomorrow evening and that I should bring a healthy appetite for it.  I showed up early with the expectation of eating a fabulous dinner.  I could smell it from the kitchen and I couldn’t wait until it was served. I sat down adjacent to him and proceeded to gobble down as much of the steak covered in gravy with onions and potatoes.  As I was literally mopping up the few pieces of meat in the bottom of the container and draining the last few ounces of gravy into my mouth he said, well you like eating Bambi huh. My jaw dropped like a ten ton weight hitting the table top. But as I thought about it I realized why they had become avid deer hunters. I believe that this was the best steak I had ever tasted.  So I went out after that and bought a 30-30 and started hunting with them. I never got to see a deer during the first three years of hunting but one day I got my first one and I have forever been a deer hunter since.  I was never a horn hunter but I had countless times when huge ones came along that I never got to get.  I am still hoping to get a shot at one of these big ones.  I kill a deer almost every season and I have passed up more chances at smaller ones than I can count.  I generally don’t kill one unless I’m running short of venison in the freezer. And I have become a little more active in horn hunting lately allowing deer to walk to the dismay of my friends and family who tell me that they would pay for the processing if I didn’t want to kill one because my freezer has enough. I still let them walk, only this year did I shoot one so my brother in law could have a little bit for his freezer.  Here’s a couple pictures of some I have been hunting including one that I had been after for three years that a lady killed while literally hunting for deer almost in her backyard. 

Unbelievable

 I have been a guide for a few years in the North Georgia region.  I used to often take people out for free and give them a day of instruction all in public water where they learned the basics and ended up before the day was over catching several fish.  But the most unrealistic and unexpected occurrence was during a day of guiding a large group.  Several members of the group were experienced fly fisherman but this one girl had never been fishing in her entire life, she didn’t know anything about casting, presentation nor what was expected from her to land any fish much less a trout that had seen hundreds of flies presented by experienced fishermen turning down their offerings.  After a couple of casual casts and much effort by her guides she landed the most stunning, unbelievable fish that anyone who is an avid fly fisherman would give a left arm to catch. A huge brookie that was a tad off the world record. And her reaction? You’d be wrong if you thought she jumped for joy. She said “who cares” huh lol well all the people who spent lifetimes trying to catch one that’s even close to this beast.  Beginner luck wouldn’t be a good caption for this event. 

Bass man too

 Before I got into trout fishing I was an avid bass fisherman.  I started out fishing for bass and brim in the dozens of little canals that were in the area I grew up in. I regularly caught numerous bass every day in my forays from the canals to the occasional lake.  I actually fished several times at the lake where Jackie Gleason, aka Ralph of the Honeymooner’s show. The golf course was known as “The Inverness” in Pompano Beach Florida.  There were a number of smaller lakes in this area and my first experience was fishing in a crystal clear lake with earthworms catching loads of bass and shell crackers.  Soon I was on to catching 10-12 pound bass in lakes in the area.  I never kept the bigger fish because they were terrible eating. The 1-3 pound ones were fabulous fare. I only kept one big one because I accidentally killed it while trying to get a camera to take a picture. These were the days before GoPro and digital cameras. And a young fella like me wasn’t interested in taking pictures to document the huge fish I was catching. That’s why I accidentally killed the one in the photo.  

Trout Fishing on the Mighty MO

 I spent two weeks in Helena Montana fishing the Missouri River several years ago. It was during the three months I spent fishing all the major rivers and streams of Montana.  I am planning a return expedition in a short time to explore some smaller streams that feed into the river. I’ll post one where I caught several fish. Wolf Creek in a different posting. It took me a couple of days to figure out what these fish were eating. Many times you can use similar flies from one region to another and get similar results. But after going through almost every fly in the 1000’s in my boxes I found a small fly shop that made a few suggestions. These fish are extremely picky and they are under extreme pressure from hundreds of float boats that at times look like a traffic jam on a major highway. I saw dozens of 20-25 inch fish laying in relatively shallow water and when I threw a cast in the direction they darted away 100 yards up the river.  There a a lot of side offshoots along the river that are slow moving water where they lay but any disturbance that isn’t natural causes them to bolt up these channels like a freight train. I eventually landed several decent cut bows and a 20 inch brown.  

One of my favorite fishing friends

 Fishing is all about comradery. But unfortunately gone are the days of laughter until I almost wet myself with the dry humor of one of my favorite fishing friends. Natalie Sharp of Sharper Bites Fly Fishing. We spent a many a day guiding some of her best clients into private water in the north Georgia area. Or just fishing one of our favorite rivers The Toccoa.    She’s thrown in the towel and retired from her many years of providing quality fishing experiences and a wonderful high quality five diamond shore lunch with her special trout spread appetizer.   Age has a way of working on all of us and climbing river banks and tying  100 fly lines and untangling lines from trees and your clothing for unappreciative clients for meager wages finally got her to toss the waders out and spend time with her fat old cat in a rocking chair on her front porch.  She’ll be missed dearly.  Thanks Natalie for all the wonderful memories of days on the river.