Baseball, unfortunately, has gotten rid of the doubleheader. Two games for the price of one. Oh, those were the days – hot dogs, a coke (I was too young to drink then) and beautiful Wrigley Field.

Well, we do have doubleheaders in fly fishing – sort of. This past week we graduated two new guys to the FATC in two days – Michael Gordon and Tom Petrie. On Wednesday, Michael was the “starting pitcher” and was thrown in the barrel on a sunny but chilly day at Montauk State Park. He was joined by Al Blair, Bill Grelle, Roy Stueber, Harold Bates, Don Varner, Bob Hassett and of course Kenny Klimes. On Thursday, Tom Petrie was called up from the “pen” and was named the “starting pitcher” for Thursday’s trip. He was joined by Don Varner and Bob Hassett, who stayed the night at Montauk and Pete Drochelman and Kenny. Two days and two different weather forecasts. Wednesday was sunny with cool temps in the morning with warm afternoon temps. On Thursday the forecast was rain, but we were spared, and we only got a little rain after 2pm. Overall, cloudy skies filled the day.

As in baseball, two different days and two different results. Yes, both graduated, but overall Thursday was a little tougher fishing than on Wednesday. Not sure why? I would have bet the opposite because of the weather. I like cloudy skies to fish. It seemed there wasn’t one particular fly that was the best – midge larva, San Juan worms, egg patterns and ESN nymph patterns seemed to catch fish. Overall, no rising fish yet although we saw several light hatches – midges and tiny mayflies.

So, two of the 18 guys that have taken the last class (both Springfield and St Louis) are now graduated. But we have a long way to go. On weekdays, the parks are not crowded yet but in another month they will be. If you are a new guy, then let’s get graduated soon. We have two trips next week (Wednesday and Thursday) – the Thursday trip has a “graduation spot” open. As the water warms the trout will get more active. Bring a thermometer and check the water temps. Remember the trout will really turn on when water temps get into the 50 – 55-degree range. See you out there!!