Kenny: Thought you might be entertained by my first solo fishing trip experience. I wanted to go without too much time passing since graduation, but it was hard to carve out much time. My suspicion was that the day was going to be rough as I was making all the decisions of where to fish/what to use/and what technique to use. I was correct.

I spent six hours at Westover, struggling the first three hours with just about everything. I knew that I needed to push through to get to the next level.

My first spot was being vacated by someone else, who told me that he caught 5 or 6 nice ones.  In my first 7 minutes, I lost three flies and two strike indicators.  I did not use the Double Davy and the strike indicators were a new model which I had doubts about.  While trying to put on my fourth fly (with a double davy) my fingers would not cooperate, at all. After five minutes, another fisherman came to the spot and I was being so unproductive, I let him have it.  I spent the next 10 minutes on the bench trying to get the fly on the line.

Decided to move locations back up close to the main building.  They were doing construction and making part of the water very muddy.  Up at the main building, they had taken a break and the pool below the waterfall was clear. I took my fly off the fly keeper hook to see if I could catch a trout that I could see.  Managed to get my line tangled before getting it in the water. By the time I got it untangled, they had restarted the work and the water was muddy again.

I moved up the stream, above the work area, and saw groups of trout hanging out.  While casting to these fish, I got my line and fly stuck in a tree.  Manged to get it out without loss, but nymphing in this stream was unproductive.

Decided to break for lunch. Went back to the last place, and after high sticking a while, I switched to a Woolybugger. Landed a rainbow!!  Almost kissed it!  After some more casts, I decided to go back to the original spot. Got another on the line, but while focusing more on my line than the fish, I lost it.

Noticed that a hatch had begun, and fish were rising, so I switched to a small dry and had to make some longer casts to get of the fish. I got one to bite, and it was pulling hard.  I was too eager to get the fish in the net, and it ended up snapping my tippet.

BUT, I had in the previous hour gotten three on the line with two different flies (wet and dry) in two different locations.  I probably needed to make all the mistakes I made just to get through them. Hopefully fewer next time. By the end of the day, I had put 10 different flies on my tippet. Nymphs, wet fly and dry. More work to be done, but I considered it a success.

I also brought a thermos of hot soup for lunch after being inspired by you.

Hope you have a Merry Christmas.

Peter Harre