I didn't quite get a real professional lesson but I certainly had an experienced fly fisherman try to teach me. Try being the operative word.
Wynne, my teacher for the day, decked out like a pro.
When I was in Lake City with Liddy, she convinced her patient husband, Wynne, to take me out on the river and try to teach me to fly fish.
Decked out in all of Liddy's gear, with a pole in hand, I hit the South Fork of the Gunnison River. Wynne wins the prize for patience and determination. We started near a bridge on their property. He instructed me on the proper way to cast. Then he told me just to fling it. He was being pretty realistic about my skills. Trying to keep my wrist straight, I got pretty good at putting the fly close to where I wanted it.
Decked out in all of Liddy's gear, with a pole in hand, I hit the South Fork of the Gunnison River. Wynne wins the prize for patience and determination. We started near a bridge on their property. He instructed me on the proper way to cast. Then he told me just to fling it. He was being pretty realistic about my skills. Trying to keep my wrist straight, I got pretty good at putting the fly close to where I wanted it.
Wynne was smart and put a bobber on my line, knowing that the trout are pretty quick and by the time I felt one, it would be gone. But guess what? Even SEEING the strike, I missed the fish.
We tried closer to the bridge, on the other side of the bridge and even through the bushes and upstream to a deeper spot in the river.
Three or four strikes, no fish. I was too slow.
Threatening skies and thunder echoing through the mountains cut my lesson short.
The fish were safe for another day.
BUT...
I've done it before and I WILL do it again.
Thirty something years ago I caught this one little trout...also in the South Fork of the Gunnison, also in Lake City. As I know so well, lightning CAN strike twice in the same place. Just not this time.
A much younger me pretty delighted with myself for catching a fish!
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