How did you get started fly fishing?

[hidden_hatch]

I got started because of a TV show that TU had some years back.  I came home late one night after a date and it was on.  I didn’t know people still fished like that.  The next weekend I came home about the same time and the show was on again.  The next day I went out and bought a fly rod from wal-mart.  I still have it 7 years later.  My high school German teacher found out that I was into fly fishing and he gave me all his tying materials and taught me to cast and everything.  The rest as they say is history.   

I don’t know if anyone else has posted about this stuff but I always think it is interesting to see how people got started in this.   

[jarrod white]

I got started about 26 years ago, I saw an older man flyfishing and has burned in me since then. I have spent my life since that day eating , sleeping, and breathing this stuff. I started tying all my own flies close to 20 years ago, and I think its a worse addiction than the fishing part. I would hate to see a print out of the time and money that I have invested in this addiction, but, if I had it to do over, I would spend more I love it.

[dbradyh]

My grandfather and his brothers used fly rods to fish with and I continued this tradition and eventually this led me
deeper into fly fishing..... I can't believe that was over 30 years ago.

[Leo deMonbreun]

kinda like Jarrod, and old man got me started (long before most all of you were hatched), and while at first I thought it was an odd and antique way to fish, I still loved it and loved the feel of casting a fly rod.  Then came fly tying and then rod building and I still to this day love all 3.  The addiction continues, and as a great poet has said many times..."the tug is the drug".

In all those years, a lot of changes, especially in equipment and in the tying materials, but get a stick of bamboo in your hands, throwing dries or nice wets at a rise and it doesn't really matter about the changes because all we are doing is carrying on a tradition and also one of the oldest forms of fishing there is.

[Mike Hill]

Somewhere abouts 40 years ago, I was reading a 1964 Herter's catalogue.  If you haven't read a Herter's catalogue from years past - you ain't lived - see me, I have collected a few over the years.  Reading one is sorta like the first time you kissed a girl.  You didn't know how good it could be and why didn't you do it before.  I, personally was a little slow in this ( or  )  Their prose, made you  to want to order right then!  About that time, a Tack-L-Tyers fly tying kit came back on return at the Sears my Dad was working at and he bought it for me.  Right after that a white fiberglass Shakespeare or Ted Williams (I'll have to go in the garage to find out) rod and Pflueger reel also came in on return and he bought those also.  I proceeded to tie a couple of what I judged to be panfish flies.  Took them to Lake McQueeney near San Antonio, and proceeded to catch a Rio Grande Perch of all things on about the 5th "cast" (I use the term cast loosely)!  And I was hooked.  Then I really got hooked on the gentility and the history, and lore about 15 years ago.  My wife got me a trip up to Wyoming to photograph wildlife and the landscape.  I decided that since I would already be there why not try some trout fishing.  So went out with Westbank Anglers down the Snake and got really surprised at how large them cutthroat could get!

[David L. Darnell]

My mothers dad always attended "church" on Lake Elaine near Flat Creek. I remember seeing him cast but he was a hard man to get to know. Didn't care to share his style of fishing with anyone.

Then came 1974, I got my drivers license and the rest is history. My dad ran the Shell station in Lynchburg. I'd leave work after school  or in the summer and head down to Bedford's bait shop to get me some junk food on my way to the river or the lake. I kept looking at the long rod in the rack, finally parted with the $20 or so the outfit cost, man if I'd knew what it was really going to do to me, I'd thrown that $20 in the trash can

Started out with the rod, a blue 1963 VW Bug and live crickets at Lost Creek causeway wearing out the bluegill. About ever boat that came by would stop and watch me, and usually say, I remember my granddad having one of those fly rods. I seemed to be out of place with the long rod. But I've never looked back.

If and when I make it to the nursing home and Alzheimer's don't get me, I plan on looking back on a life well wasted.

[EDD]

I started  back in the late 60s when a friend of mine had a cheap bamboo fly rod he wanted to sell.  Like today, I lived to fish so I bought it from him for , I think for $5.00, and taught myself to cast.  I still have the rod and have been fly fishing ever since.  Now, I exclusively fly fish and can't imagine fishing any other way.  I'm like most of the others who post here; it's what keeps me going.  I can go out all day and never catch a thing, and still consider it a great day. Everytime I go I learn something new.

A while ago, I showed the old rod to dleo and he talked to me about restoring it.  As soon as I can slow down working a little, I'm going back to see him again to start restoring it... and to see if I can bend  tne new 2wt  I bought from him too.

[Travis C.]

I started last year. I know I am just a rookie around these parts. But, I have fished my whole life down to my first word being fish (more like Fshhhh says my mom). My interest got sparked by BD as you know him on here. After a few fly club meetiing in Hendersonville, the guys up there had opened up a whole new fishing world. Thanks guys and gals. I absolutely love it! It actually made my fishing more difficult going to fly fishing. Now, I have a hard time finding time to do other types of fishing that I really enjoy.  Not enough days in the week/month/year. If I can only get my dad into it. That will be fun. Hmm.....

[Looper Flies]

I got started fly fishing for red eye on the Holston River in Gate City, VA.  My family made friends with another family at church that owned a 100 acre farm on the side of a mountain that the Holston ran through.  In the summer me and the boys (3 brothers) would go fishing using spin cast and crawfish Rapalas when my dad bought an 8 wt Eagle Claw fly rod.  I put down the spin cast and tried, miserably, to use the fly rod.  I didn't use it again until about 2 years ago, when adamtn got me to go to the Elk.  A week later, I bought a 5 wt Orvis Clearwater rod and a White River (Bass Pro special) reel and haven't looked back.

[adamtn]

I always liked pond fishing for bass as a kid & teenager, spinning rods of course . I didn't fish at all between 18-22 years old. I got back into after my brother forced me to take a few casts  in the pond behind my parents house .I was hooked again. I did a good bit of bass fishing in ponds over the next year or so.

Then one day i decided to go meet my bro down at the elk and try four some trouts as a change of pace. We went to farris creek and must have just missed the stocking truck. We caught a stupid amount of fish that day and i had the trout bug. We started fishing for trout way more than bass. Over a couple of months of trout fishing using various spinners i saw a lot of fly fishers on the water. Something about the fluid motions of the cast spoke to me and i had to give it a shot. Bought an SA combo at walmart in fall 04 and have been hooked ever since. I started tying shortly after on the rationale that i popped too many flies off just casting to pay $2 each for them.

I've since moved to colorado to really devote my time and attention to fly fishing. There are few places where i feel as happy and content as on the banks of a trout stream.

[grumpy]

WITH A FLY ROD

Grumpy

[icthus]

I was working for a company in Lebanon at the time and the VP was hard to talk to.  A yankee, knew nothing of surfing, and I can talk golf, but find it extremely boaring.  Wanting to get into graces with this VP I started reading about flyfishing.  One thing lead to another and I bought a fly rod.  Just about the time I started getting ok at casting, I was fired, dropped, job less, unemployed, in the dog house with my wife.  So every morning I would get up at 5:00am check the classifieds and apply for jobs until 11:00 and drive down to the mill and fish.  For six weeks I fished almost everyday.  My wife was so pissed, but why waist time off.  Like many others on this board I am glad that someone does not a calculator that can measure time and money put into this sport. 

Icthus


Read a quote when I first started that realy sparked my interest:  "I have never felt as close to God as I did today feeling the coolness of the river rush against my legs, and the sound of my line singing in the air."  Many times I wish I was the first to pen those words because my heart has said them repeade repeatedly.

[iflyfortrout]

I have always fished since I was old enough to hold a rod.  On christmas 7 years ago when I was 14 years old my dad bought me a fly rod and a lot of fly fishing stuff because he thought it would be ineresting for me to learn how to fly fish.  So I wathched the beginner fly fishing videos and practiced.  That next summer my dad and I went to the White River in Arkansas and got a guide for 2 days.  Thats where I feel in love with fly fishing.  We caught a ton of fish those 2 days and I was young enough to fish Dry Run Creek(a trophy trout creek for kids) near the Norfork Dam and needless to say I caught some of the biggest trout I have ever caught in that creek.  I owe a lot to our guide Clint Wilkinson who taught me most of what I know on fly fishing.  After that trip we went back 3 years in a row to fish with Clint.  Haven't been in a few years, but plan on going this May.

[MikeA]

My grandfather used to take me to the Stones river behind my house when I was young and we'd use his eagle claw fiberglass rod to drop crickets and craws around the rocks to catch Redeye. Does that count? 
Other then that I've always owned a fly rod since I first started fishing. It mostly sat in a corner unless I was in the mood for Bream. I kinda got bored with Hybrid and Striper on gear and picked up a fly rod. Trout was first then Bass and Carp and so on and so on.

[JayA]

My dad was an avid fly fisherman and would take me regularly to Lake Elaine in Shelbyville and later to lake Bedford.  I start fly fishing for Brim and Bass at 8 and never really quit.  I moved on to trout about fifteen years ago but I still fly fish for Brim with my son for the fun of it and to honor my Dad for the gift!  I still have my first fly rod and Dads last fly rod.  My son uses them now.

Woodsman,  I noticed you fished Lake Elaine also.  That was a great lake in the 70s and early 80s.  The last I heard years ago it was private now.  Is that still true?