[Editor’s Note: Last week, we introduced a series by Orvis’s Mike Mckinney, who is learning to fly-fish after avoiding the sport for as long as an Orvis employee can, with a post called “Resistance is Futile. We’ll follow Mike’s successes (and failures) along the way.]
I had a great day fly-fishing in on Saturday at Big Branch and Roaring Branch–my first time fly fishing, after 25 years of working for Orvis. Thanks to Steve Hemkens for his patience and instruction. I lost a half dozen flies in the trees and only set the hook on about 10% of the strikes, but I did land about 10 small, native brook trout. I’m looking forward to doing it again.
Here are some things I learned about brookie fishing in the Green Mountains:
• Bring bug spray, a long-sleeve shirt, polarized sunglasses, a cap, and a neckerchief thingy.
• Check for trees before backcasting.
• Fish upstream.
• Don’t strip the end of the fly line through the tip top.
• Work with less line until you’re comfortable. Simply keep moving and use same length of line.
• If you make a less-than-ideal cast, fish it.
• Work the water closest to you first.
• If you don’t get a strike after a few casts, move on.
• Never leave fish to find fish.
• Repeat: Check for trees before back casting
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I came up with a cool product idea, too:
Watching Steve retrieve many of my casts from the nearby trees (did I mention that you should check for trees before you backcast?), I couldn’t help but do a statistical analysis of how many more flies Steve was able to reach and save than I could have on my own. I am an Information Technology geek, after all. I would estimate that for every 3 inches in height, you have a 15% better chance of saving the fly.
Imagine the value of telescoping snips!
Mckinney’s first ever fish is quite the fish indeed. Mike’s new love of fishing has raised his golfer’s handicap though 🙂