June 7^th started off as just another FATC graduation trip to Montauk State Park.  Like some guys we meet on the water, today’s graduate candidate, Dr. David Knight (we call him Dave) was a self-taught fly-fisher and had fly fished for many years before joining FATC.  Today, however, it was about to get reel.  After completing Kenny’s four information packed two-hour classroom sessions and the outdoor casting class, Dave was ready for his one-on-one day with an instructor.  And yours truly (Jim Craig), was ready to take him to the next level of fly fishing.  But, was he really ready to take that step?  We were about to find out.

To support Dave were four other FATC brothers, Dan Staggenborg, Steve Baker, Sid Aslin, and Bob Hassett.  Dan and Steve met us at the park; the rest of us rode in Bob’s truck.  We left the Eureka park’n ride at 6:15 AM.  The ride was full of great fellowship and learning.  Dave’s higher level of flyfishing education began on the ride.  We schooled him in the correlation between the behavior of the cows we passed and the trout behavior we will encounter in the river.  Don’t know what I mean?  You need to join us on the next trip.

We all met at the Naturalist Cabin to gear-up and take a group picture.  From there, everyone headed off to their favorite starting point in the flyfishing only area.  Dave and I headed for the usual student/instructor starting point—just downstream from the bolder.

Dave was ready for our walk-and-talk quiz on the way to the water.  He was well prepared to answer questions about pre-trip research and onsite insect observations.  That left us plenty of time to discuss water flow and rise types when we reached the river.  Dave was also able to correctly identify mayfly nymphs when we turned over a couple rocks.

We got in lots of practice swinging and stripping wooly buggers and a little practice swinging soft hackles.  Unfortunately, this was starting to feel like my last trip when there were few fish in the area and those that could be spotted were not eating.  After about 2 hours, we walked upstream to practiced dead drifting midges near the bolder.  Like most students, we had to repeatedly work through the need to mend his line, but when it came to the hookset, he was crazy (psycho) fast at the slightest unnatural movement of the indicator.  That paid off big.  The first couple fish hit a purple zebra midge.  Unfortunately, the one he hooked fought its way to freedom, teaching Dave the importance of keeping a taught line during the fight.  Dave proved to be a quick learner.  We tried a couple other midges that didn’t get any attention.  Then we tried a psycho prince nymph.  With only two minutes before we had to leave for lunch and a menacing thunderstorm that was only seconds away, Dave set the hook, fought and netted his first fish of the day, thus sealing his graduation.

The rain started but never got heavy enough to keep us from enjoying lunchtime fellowship at the Staggenborg tables.  If I remember correctly, everyone did well.  The overcast weather and moderate number of other fishermen made for a pleasant morning.  Those guys that wet-waded said they were quite comfortable and that wet-wading was going to be something they did all summer.  Lunch didn’t take long as everyone was ready to get back to the water. 

The guys headed back to their favorite places on the river; Dave and I headed for the spring.  Surprisingly, the top of the spring was too crowded to fish.  We found a place to start about 100 yards below the spring (Upper Blue Hole).  Riding on the success of the psycho prince nymph, Dave continued dead drifting that fly as he worked on his mending.  We also took time to work on high sticking in some fast water. 

This was truly Dave’s afternoon.  As we walked and fished, Dave started picking them off.  They didn’t all make it to the net, but many did.  In fact, just about the time I would have him fishing well on his own so that I could make a few casts, he would hook another fish.  It was a memorable afternoon as Dave got the chance to hone his dead drifting nymphing skills.  And what was the killer fly?  It continued to be the psycho prince all afternoon.  The would-be 8th fish provided some unique entertainment.  He broke Dave off above the white airlock indicator.  For a good thirty minutes we watched this fish drag the indicator up and down stream as Dave tried to snag the indicator with a wooly bugger.  We finally lost sight of the indicator and had to wave it good bye.

So, how did the day end for Dave?  Well, with only minutes left we arrived back at the bolder where he caught his first fish before lunch.  On his last cast of the day, he landed his ninth fish.  Dave really did take his fly fishing to the next level on his FATC graduation day.

As the new graduate, Dave got to pick the restaurant for our fellowship dinner.  He picked Missouri Hick’s BBQ.  As usual, they welcomed us and quickly served six hungry fishermen.  A couple of us ordered the Ory Spud.  It was as good and as HUGE as always.  A little cobbler à la Mode was a nice finish to the dinner and to the whole day. 

If you are still reading this trip report, you are probably wondering what were the hot flies of the day.  The psycho prince was clearly the killer fly for Dave and a couple other guys.  Want to know how to tie it?  You will find the video on the FATC website on the Fly Tying page under Nymphs/Larva.  It is the last video in the Mayfly group.  Other flies for the day were the black zebra midge, purple zebra midge, Bennett Spring killer, John Deer, soft hackle under an indicator, big Hurt and black wooly bugger.

Hope to see you on a trip soon.  Want to take your fishing to the next level?  Take advantage of our mentor program.  https://www.flyfishersatthecrossing.org/about/our-mentors/