......I caught my first fish on a flyrod! It was the day after my 13th birthday and I was fishing just below the confluence of Laurel Creek and Beaver Dam Creek in Damascus Virginia. I had received a new True Temper tubular steel fly rod for my birthday, got it rigged with a wind up self retrieving reel and a primitive fly line. The fly was a Black Gnat wet fly sold in a cellophane pack at a local store for .25. The fish was about 16-17'' long caught in a long riffle beneath a waterfall. I checked it on Goggle Earth a while back and it looks just the same now as it did then. It looks like I could go back there today and catch a fish in the same riffle.
Turning 85 yesterday and looking back, July 28, 1951 was a turning point in my life that helped define what the rest of my life would be. I have caught thousands of fish since then and still look forward to the next one eagerly and with much enthusiasm. The fish have been great and the fishing buddies equally so. Trout live in beautiful places and I have visited their homes in many areas around the country and Canada. Fly fishing has been an adventure that never grows old and I have been blessed to be able to do it well at such an advanced age. Since any outing now could conceivably be my last I treasure each one and treasure the outstanding fishing buddies I have made over the years.
Thanks for the memories gals and guys, nowadays you are the real reason I still go fishing.
Turning 85 yesterday and looking back, July 28, 1951 was a turning point in my life that helped define what the rest of my life would be. I have caught thousands of fish since then and still look forward to the next one eagerly and with much enthusiasm. The fish have been great and the fishing buddies equally so. Trout live in beautiful places and I have visited their homes in many areas around the country and Canada. Fly fishing has been an adventure that never grows old and I have been blessed to be able to do it well at such an advanced age. Since any outing now could conceivably be my last I treasure each one and treasure the outstanding fishing buddies I have made over the years.
Thanks for the memories gals and guys, nowadays you are the real reason I still go fishing.