How old was you when you started flyfishing?

[hungNtree]

I only started fly fishing last year, at the ripe old age of 37. Now, I hate the fact that I wasted 37 years fishing regular when I could have been fly fishing. I've got a 5 year old boy that loves to fish, and at least for now he wants to be like Daddy. (I realize and dread the days that are coming when he no longer wants to be like or even with Daddy, but for now I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.) He doesn't have the attention span for fly fishing yet, but I got to wondering what would be a good age to hand him a fly rod? Then I got to wondering how old everyone was when they started fly fishing?

So, how old was you?

What kind of rod did you have?

Where did you go?

Who with?

What was the first fish you caught?

Come on, its not like I asked you how old are you now? I know most of you are 39. A free trip down memory lane is sure to bring a smile to your face. The holidays are starting, we can reminisce. That is, unless we have the attention span of a 5 year old.

I'm sorry, what was I saying?

hNt

PS anyone know how to spell reminisce? remenisce? reminiss?

[kbproctor]

So, how old was you? 55

What kind of rod did you have? Bass Pro Shops White River Dogwood Canyon 9' 6W

Where did you go? South Platte River in Waterton Canyon

Who with? Just me

What was the first fish you caught? Brook trout 2 years later.

[Lotech]

So, how old was you? Probably about 10

What kind of rod did you have? 9' 3 piece, Montague Flash
Bamboo
Where did you go? Can't remember (52 years ago)

Who with? Dad

What was the first fish you caught? Can't remember
(52 years ago)

We mostly still fished, but I practiced some with casting in the yard. I was using a black Perrine automatic reel with white fly line. (I still have the rod, reel and line)

Here is a link to a story I wrote about the rod, and fishing with Dad. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/feat...cast/rc136.php

[quivira kid]

I started fly fishing 2 years ago at the ripe old age of 23. Being in western Kansas at the time, I learned alone. Not many folks out there understand that you CAN flyfish for fish other than trout.
My first rod was a 9-ft 5-wt Pfleuger beginners setup, and on my first trip I caught a few small bluegills from Cedar Bluff reservoir.

[maodiver]

So, how old was you? 30ish

What kind of rod did you have? 9' 6wt Wally World Special with a reel from the same store.

Where did you go? Boise River, Barber Park, Boise, ID.

Who with? My Bro-in-Law

What was the first fish you caught? Rainbow stocker

I am mostly self, book, and of course FAOL taught. I have been fishing since I could hold a rod. Am now about to turn 40, and looking forward to where I can spend the 2-3 weeks a year I get to fish. I have caught almost all trout, of various species, from dinks to 20". I have been tying my own for about 5 years, and find it much more satisfying. One day I will bite the bullet and teach myself how to build one.

One of my regrets is that I haven't had a chance to fish with some of the fine folks (past and present) of FAOL. This will change. I am sure glad I found you all, the other bulletin boards I have participated in for ff-ing aren't fit to fish in the same river.

MAO

[LadyFisher]

I was ever 11 years old? Good grief
I had been fishing with my grandfather for some time, bait rod and worms. He was the fly fisher and I bugged him until he taught me to cast. Steel telescopic rod, hard-cover book under the elbow while standing in the water. "We aren't going to get the book wet now are we dear?" I remember it well. First fish on a fly rod, same rod, brook trout, grandpa called them 'specs', Ocqueoc River, north of Rogers City with grandfather, a week or so later. I saw the river a year ago when we were in Michigan for the Fish-In. Great memories.

[tailingloop]

I started at age 13 with Garcia Conolon 8"fly rod, pflueger knock off fly reel, and S.A Air Cell fly line. Fished the lakes around the San Francisco Bay Area, Stanislaus River, Yuba River and some others I forget. Don't recall whether my first fly caught fish was a bluegill or trout. I fished with my brother and our friends. By age 16 I had given up fly fishing and focused on bass fishing with plastic worms, and hard lures.

I picked up flyfishing again at age 30 with a cheap Berkeley graphite 6wt rod (it did cast ok) that I caught a lot of bluegill, bass, and crappie with before supplemented with Fisher Streamfisher 9ft 5wt. I mostly flyfished alone for a couple of years before connecting with other local fly fishers. Sixteen years 70 plus species later I'm still having fun.

[Sully]

I started fly fishing 2 years ago at the ripe old age of 23. Being in western Kansas at the time, I learned alone. Not many folks out there understand that you CAN flyfish for fish other than trout......

BLASPHEMY!!!...total Blasphemy!!....

[Lew]

My first trout on a fly was a golden trout, on a borrowed fly, on an ultralight spinning rod, on a tributary of the San Joaquin river in the Eastern Sierra. I was about 22 years old. I'm 67 now. The guy I borrowed the fly from was fishing the pools with a bamboo rod, and I thought that it was just the neatest thing I'd ever seen. Watching that golden come from the bottom of the pool to take the fly that I dapped on the surface, hooked me good. When I moved back to Idaho shortly after that, I re-connected with a friend who was into fishing wet flies on the South Fork. He encouraged me to buy one of the newfangled Fenwick glass rods in a 7wt. I still have the rod, which is about 3 inches shorter today, and I still fish heavier flies with it. That's something over 40 years. I had lunch with Kelly Glissmeyer a couple of days ago, and told him the above story. One of his bucket list goals is to catch a golden trout. It was years after the above described incident that I realized how improbable it was. I didn't know how rare a thing it is.

[sagefisher]

So, how old were you? Probably around 7 years old but got serious at the age of 14.

What kind of rod did you have? An old bamboo until I was 15 then a Herter?s fiberglass that I built.

Where did you go? Silver Lake up by Mt. Baker when I was young, then from 14 to 16, for two weeks each summer, we spent three years on the Metolius River in eastern Oregon.

Who with? My Dad when I was young and a neighbor and his grandson when I was 14+

What was the first fish you caught? Rainbow

Larry ---sagefisher---