Thought I would go for a walk on the boards to kick start my New's Years resolution of getting myself back into fighting shape. Haven't hit the scale in a bit and it's time to get back on track. Of course I brought my "stuff" just in case. With a E-NE wind and incoming tide things were just too good looking to not get some exercise.
Anyway, just as I was done a few hours after I started I saw two fly-rodders out on the groin below me. I figured I knew them so I took the short walk to say hello. To my delight it was a daughter/father team out fishing in the snotty weather. How cool is that. I had met Greg this fall while out on the bay and it's the first time I met Morgan. It really touched my heart and made me realize that I better start working on getting my youngest into the sport before electronics and social media, and boys, get in the way.
Erin, now 11, has been fishing with me from time to time over the years. I blew it with the boys, concentrating more on the fly rod, then just enjoying the sport of fishing. This spring I did take my oldest out, and we had fun, and he did catch a nice fish, but I could tell fishing isn't his passion, which
is okay as he has his own things that peak his interest. Erin is more into it and this summer I bought a couple of spinning rods to get her and Lauren into fishing. While fluking is fun, and they both caught, its the fly rod I would like to see in their hands. I remember one of Erin and my first "fly fishing "
trips. It was the summer of 2009, Erin was just 4 years old, and we headed out to Round Valley Reservoir. I can remember how excited she was to catch one of her fish fish on the fly, and in 2017 I hope to do the same with her in the saltwater. I can't imagine how much fun it must be for Greg and
Morgan to share not only the passion of fly fishing, but also precious time together as father and daughter. I am sure there are more lessons learned and topics of conversation than how to cast and present a fly. Like they say, going fishing is more than just trying to catch a fish.
So today was cool, kind of like the day last week when the wind and tide were up and the rain kept you damp and slippery. Todays wind was E-NE which always turns the fish on, no matter what size. I started in the dark and didn't get a tap and moved to a pocket where a few bit and were landed. What
was cool was getting fish to eat both flies on my tandem set-up. Some would take the green and white Deceiver, others the smaller trailing black fly. I was hoping that maybe a few bigger fish might be found in the mix, but out of the eight landed the biggest was just over 20 inches.
The other cool thing today was that no matter where on the incoming tide I was, the water was always rough but clean and didn't chase me off the rocks. Even at high tide only the biggest waves crashed at my feet, just getting me more wet, but never off balanced. I did manage to get wet enough
to have water sloshing in both feet of my waders. Soon, I'm not sure just when, I'll back them up and send them back to Orvis for a new pair, as they were just opened up and put into service this year.
I checked in on Facebook and found a friend, JM, who broke open 2017 this morning with a nice fish down south. He said the birds were diving and by the look of it there's still some nice fish around as the bait is also and the water temps are still up in the mid 40's.
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| JMB photo |