Cat Fishing This Evening

This evening, I decided to do a little casting practice in the front yard so I rigged the rod with a thread 'fly' and went out front. After about a dozen casts, I realized a neighbors cat was under the shrubs at the edge of my yard so I decided to see if I could lure him out. I cast just in front of the shrub and, sure enough, he decided chasing the 'fly' looked like fun and decided to stalk it. Several more casts later with some slow retrieves, and I had him 'hooked'. It was great practice for placing the fly just within striking distance of the cat and then slowly retrieving it until the 'take'. After about 30 minutes of this, the cat got tired and went back into the bushes. But it was great practice for me and the cat seemed to have a lot of fun as well. So if your neighbor has a cat..........


TxEngr

I did that with a cheap practice line and the cat had a ball.

However a word of warning. The cat would, on occasion, pounce on the knot where the line and leader met. He would grab it with those really sharp claws and that part of the line became a frizzled mess. I have no doubt that there were probably nicks in the leader near the indicator. He also attacked any loops I had on the ground whenever they moved.
So don't use your good line and leader for this.

The cat tried to get the line, but I had to be a little quicker than him (my cat-like reflexes) since I did have a good line on the reel. The leader was an old one and could be sacraficed to the cat. Good point though - it would be bad to lose the end of a $60 line to the cat or - even worse- a really nice fish to a nick in the line I didn't see or feel.

Placing the 'fly' just within reach was a great part of the practice - give him the fly but not the end of the line to pounce on. And it sure made practice a lot more interesting.

TxEngr

Sooooooo.... are you going to share the pattern or keep it a secret? mouse pattern?

My wife bought me an Echo practice fly rod yarn thing...cat loves it as much as me.