What fish did it?

[jbird]

For all you flyfishing addicts out there....What fish started the insanity for you? Is there one particular fish? Or was it one particular day?

I remember vividly when the insanity took me. My friend took me to the crooked river in Oregon in August of 1988. He fished a 2 nymph indicator rig (thats right! indies have been around for longer than most people realize).
I fished the same rig with 1 nymph. He caught fish like no bodies business. He was, after all, a flyfishing guide on the middle fork of the snake river 2 months out of every year. He knew exactly what he was doing.

I, on the other hand, was endlessly tangled around bushes, tree limbs and myself. I never bothered Brent as he methodically plucked fish after fish out of the blue ribbon stream. I quietly observed him.

By days end, Brent had landed probably over 70 fish between 10" and 22". I landed 1! But it was THE one. The one that started the snowball rolling....Its not like I'd never caught a fish before. I was born into a fishing family. My mom is a fishing nut!...tho it WAS my first flycaught fish.

From that day on, for the next 2 months, I made the pilgrimage from Bend (my home then) to the famed crooked river every single saturday and sunday. I became a regular there.

By the time the snow started flying and the best fishing was waning, I too had learned to pluck fish after fish out of that stream just like my mentor.

8 1/2 years ago I moved to the rogue valley. So began the march of the steelhead thru my life. The madness has completely consumed me.

Some men hide things from their wives like...cigarettes, booze, magazines, affaires...I find myself hiding fishing related stuff. She knows I'm hopelessly obsessed. But if she only knew just how much time and money I actually pour into this "vise"...I'd be in even more trouble than I am now!

Jbird

[J.R.]

The fish that did it for me was a nice little rainbow caught on the South Fork of the American at Sand Flats campground. I caught it on a beetle pattern that came from a failed attempt of tying a Humpy. Floated well, had multiple strikes before finally hooking one, and put up quite a fight for a 7 inch rainbow. Not a bad confidence booster for 13 year old on his first flyfishing trip. :D

Every year I'm reminded why I do this. The fresh mountain air, the mountains themselves, the natural beauty of our state and certain little fish called trout. The best example is my last trip of 2005. I was at my uncle's cabin for a family outing and on the third day we hiked up to a small high elevation lake, before we left he told us it was full of nothing but Golden trout. I was so excited I grabbed my vest, but forgot my fly rod, go figure. :oops: I had a great time anyways and my uncles caught at least 6-7 fish between the both of them. This past experience will keep me hooked forever.

There's nothing like great memories.

[Hairstacker]

For me, the journey started over 20 years ago when I started catching rainbows on the surface on size 16 Light Cahill dries up at Lake Berryessa with my Longs Drugstore outfit -- Garcia Conolon 7wt. fiberglass rod and Pflueger Medalist 1494 reel. The madness took over, though, when I discovered bass bugging with a 5 wt. graphite rod for largemouth bass out of an inflatable kayak in the Delta. Then I discovered smallmouth bass. . . . And striped bass. . . . Just haven't been the same since. . . .

[PaulC]

Addiction/insanity wise, I think it would probably be the corbina stalking in the spring/early summer we have down here. Sight casting to spooky fish in tidal current adds that cool challenge to things.
Watching a school of corbina cruising a trough and tailing in the water and sliding back with the recessing tide is a thing of beauty and frustration.
But its that one time you get that perfect cast leading the school. Stripping the bug bouncing off the sand away from the pack. Watching one or two break from the pack and follow. Only to get that split second before they spit your bug or you hook set. And the shocked look on the fish realizing its hooked and proceeding to pull all your line out in a hurry.
Fun stuff for sure. And in the summer...no waders...just running after schools with your dishwashing basket looking like a lunatic. lol.
Below is a picture a friend took from last summer.

Steelhead are right behind. Driving 8+ hours each way for a weekend when conditions are optimal shows you have some form of malfunction. lol.

As for what got it all started flyfishing wise would be watching a native trout way in the backcountry inspect and then decide to sip in a stillwater caddis pattern with noone around to hear me holler. Definitely a thing of beauty with scenery, silience and watching nature in action. I think that was the point the spin rod started to collect dust.

I think for alot of us, flyfishing has so much to offer. As soon as you think you've figured it out, there is another species. The challenge and education required is ongoing, which is definitely cool. The question is: Will that bug I just tied work better than the last?
-Paul

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Cronin/MB_pic.jpg

[fineandfar]

Growing up sleuthing for small browns in unnamed tribs of the Sierra, CA sealed the deal for me. No flies then, strictly a wormer. Kept at it all through High School & beyond. Always with a deep sense of connection with natural places.
Even though i loathed all my Mom's boyfriends after she left my dad, they did teach me to fish, maybe reluctantly and with the threat of wading in after snagged spinners :? , but they took me along. And they caught the sh#t out of some nice fish that just made we want to do the same. Still remember the slab of a brownie that charged a Rapala across a springtime pool high up in the Sierra. Foolishly perched on a rock and with no landing net the fish was excitedly hand lined from the water. Broke 4# at dead weight :shock:
Took up the fly rod on my honeymoon road trip several years ago & haven't looked back. Averaging 1-2 time a week since then. Has spurned a life & location change and a questionable look at my sanity :roll: .
Wouldn't have it any other way...
"fish finely and far off"
Will in So Oregon

[Darian]

Hmmmm,.... Been thinking this one over and am really having a difficult time settling on one fish or place.... :? Was it my first backpacking trips to Agua Blanca Creek 8) , the Crappie caught at Lake Henshaw 8) , Bonito in King Harbor (before there was a marina) :) :) , Hiking down a 300' cliff for rockfishing at (Rocky Point) Palos Verdes 8) or later, when, on an early winter day, I was lucky enough to catch a Silver, a Steelhead and dig a bunch of Littlenecks all in the company of Elephant Seals around Waddell Creek :?: :?: :) :)

At any rate, after many years of pursuing anadromous species, I lean towards them as the fish that makes it all happen for me.... :D :D (Tho, hiking down a 300' cliff to fish was fairly exciting; the memory of carrying a sack full of fish back up was probably what disqualified this type of fishing :lol: :lol: )

[HC]

It was a baby catfish I took by hand during receeding flood waters, cute litte yellow critter it was. There were hundreds of them. I took some home in a jug and they lived in a 25 gallon wash tube for a while. They grew fast all that spring and summer as I feed them various things like chicken feed and bread and anything I could catch. The dogs were jeolous and a little curious too. No we did not eat them! They got a full pardon and were released right where I found them the next winter. First tackle caught was a little yellow and green sun fish, of course I let it go. First fly caught was a prothro creek brooky who took my calaveras mosquito right of the surface with very little comotion, pretty as you please. You guessed it I let it go. These event were long ago but freah as ever in my mind. HC

[mems]

The next one I catch, Mems.

[Wingman]

Mems,

Great answer!!! :D
I am going to adopt your attitude as my own. :evil:
Now just to get out to catch that next one! :wink:
I really enjoy your posts and photos. I spent many falls traveling to Maui to windsurf and knew locals who trolled from their boards and caught all kinds of fish. I would see both gear/bait and net guys but never a fly fisherman there.

[mems]

Aloha Wingman, I like it that way. There are plenty guys fly fihsing on Oahu now for bonefish. I got two over here on friday and a barracuda to top it off. If I showed you where I caught them you would just laugh. There are fish all over, you just have to try. I am getting a new generation turned on to fly fishing over here. It is nice it is my son and his friends. Guys keep asking me about Maui. I fished it a couple of years ago at a soccer coaches convention and got some small papio. There are fish everywhere in Hawaii. You just need to have patience and the will to crack the code. The fish will eventually give up their secrets. Now if I can only figure out a way to get awa, milkfish to feed, you guys will be lining up to fish Hilo. Take care, Mems.

[OregonSalmon]

Lemme think....I was 18 at UCSB....there was a kegger...and a cute girl with blond hair. Then we went back to my room...whoops...sorry...this was about your first fish right?
Can't think of my first but I worry about my last.

[SteelieD]

I'm with mems! Though I think the answer jbird was looking for is... Steelhead on the Trinity. Not that long ago, but things haven't been quite the same since!

[jbird]

Heres a fish from today. This is the creature that has me totally captivated. I have caught 100s of them, maybe 1000, but this one was just as good as the last one and the first one.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/mypicturees021.jpg

[Gregg]

Oh man, I can't wait to get back to Oregon... I'm gonna show those fish who's boss. Or is it the other way around? Great fish, JBird!

[Ed Wahl]

For me it was bluegill in lake chicamauga, thats close to Chatanooga,Tn. Been hooked ever since. Growing up in the midwest I was always fishing for something, fly fishing was just something you read about in outdoor magazines, which I devoured every month. Mountains and trout were at best a distant daydream, not really something I would ever be involved with. Now there is still an element of unreality about it every time I hit a trail into a new area. When I look around at the big trees, clean air and water I think of the muddy lowlands I fished as a kid, I think to myself, man, I am really living the dream. My first trout on a fly was on the Rubicon River, and it changed everything for me. It wasn't a big trout, but it did take me half a day of fishing to put together what I had read about it and how to actually do it, then it was on for the rest of the day, and every fishing day since. So I guess it wasn't one particular fish that "did it" for me, but a long series of events and luck that ended up here.