1999 South Dakota Fish-In

[Steven McGarthwaite]

How times flies, when you least expect it. Hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since I attended the 1999 FAOL Fish-In, hosted by Al Campbell, in Hill City SD.

I spent the spring months, prior to the Black Hills Fish-In, practicing my casting daily. I never gone fishing for trout before, and all of this was very intimidating, having only started fly fishing a few years earlier.

Craig "Chub" Thorpe

What a wonderful week, that changed my whole life. First the there is Craig (Chub) Thorpe, who I share a ride to the Fish-In with (and I did not upset him too much that week so I also got a ride home), and Craig and I bunked with Dave (Slicfoot) Ulmer.

Al Campbell on Castle Creek

I got to spend 3 days with Al Campbell as my mentor, riding all around the Black Hills in his red fishing truck (with "Buford the Wonder Dog" flatuating in the back seat).

Castle Creek

It was on Castle Creek, that I caught my first trout, after 3 days of frustrations, under the tutelage of Al Campbell (reason I got to spend 3 days in with him). It was right after catching my first trout that, I found myself in a Bull Fight on Castle Creek, with a angry bull.

Motley Crew of Fish Bums: (right to left)"Chub","Al", "Ken","Grizz","Parnelli"

Later in the week, we all went up to Deerfield Lake area, to fish the world famous "Ditch Creek"! It was there that I was tested, with my newly aquired casting skills, with a difficult presentation.

Parnelli being Tested on Ditch Creek
You can see the eddy, where the trout were stationed

There was a fallen tree across the creek, was directing the water around the tree, creating a new course for the water. There was a cord pile of trout, position in the ebb of this water, waiting for foods to pass by in the swift water current.

To get the fly position for presentation, I had to cast over some tall grass along the now submerge far shoreline into an area about the size of small lunch plate, just short of a bunch of thorn bushes behind the landing area. Then I had to lift my fly rod high into the air, so the fly line would not snagged the tall grass protruding from the water.

As the fly got into the area of presentation to the trout, I had to entice a trout out of the cord of stack fish, upstream so the curtain of grass would hide the strike and the retrieval of the trout.

All of this was happening while Mr. Birkholm was taking pictures with my camera, as I attempted to "Hit One Out of the Park"! At the same time Deanna, was commenting on my tight loops, as I false cast the line over the water, trying to judge the correct length of line and positioning for the lay down.

My first attempt was perfect, it landed exactly in the center of the small area that I had to work with, and the fly presented itself, and I entice a trout out of the pile, and missed the strike.....

Then I had to again attempt the impossible, rookie up to bat in his first game, to see if it was just sheer luck on the first attempt, or if I could do it again.
2nd attempt was just as good as the 1st, again with Deanna's words soothing my ears with praise of my casting skills. But again a fish was induce to follow the present fly behind the curtain of grass, only to miss the strike.

3rd Time the Charm, Hook-Up (you can see the curtain of submerged grass in this photo)

Now I had casted twice, doing almost impossible placement of the fly, only to miss on the strike. Now I was thinking that the 3rd time would be the charm. Again I hit the spot, the fly drifted exactly where it needed to be to entice a fish out of the eddy. This time every thing went the same as the first two attempt, but this time the strike ended in a caught trout!

Deanna wanted me to have another go, but I decided to end my day of fishing at that point. I was to exhausted from the excitement, and the challenge of the task. It was the best day I have ever experience on a stream, to this very day.

Trout!, It is whats For dinner!

With the trout that I caught earlier, this made two trout for the dinner we were planning for the "Fish-In Cook-Out" that night. This was the only time during the Fish-In that the members did not practice "Catch & Release", we each caught two trout (if we were lucky enough) for our dinner.

It was the 1999 Fish-In, that I caught the Gatti Bug, all the way home after the Fish-In, "Chub" had to put up with my incessant "Got to Get a Gatti!" chatter.

But that is another story for another day. ~Parnelli