I have good news! I just saved a bunch of money switching.....nah. Better than that.

I am an extremely rookie fly tier. I bought a vise and then tied a dozen Becker Lake Special's for Al's bench. Tied nothing since. Some friends got together just to tie. I was shown a couple of weeks ago how to tie a beadhead semi-seal leech. We got together again the other night and I tried to do it on my own. Man I just totally blew it. I forgot about doing the dubbing step.....just blew the whole darn thing. I was so put out with myself. I finished it off and put on some head cement and just quit for the night. Silver Creek has a rep for good fish but very hard to get a strike. I tied on that fly I tied....it is the very first fly I ever tied that I ever tried to fish with. It has to be the ugliest semi-seal leech ever born. I threw it out there and a 19" female hammered it! She was pretty tired when I landed her and thus treated quite gently. I was sorta one foot on the water's edge and other foot up on bank. So, since I usually have trouble getting hook out of net....I just gently laid the net and her behind me up on the flat ground and stepped up there to get her loose. She flopped over one time and laid there...all dirty. I saw the fly already loost about a foot away. My friend said hold it and quickly measured with a tape....19"! Biggest trout I ever caught. I immediately gently picked her up and got her in the water. She gently swam away...she was pretty pooped out. She left caviar on the bank. I was surprised it was orange instead of the red salmon eggs you see in the store. I swear I did not treat her poorly but she still left eggs. Point is....the fly certainly does not have to be tied very perfectly to catch a trout.

I was so concerned about getting her back in the water I didn't get a good look at her to remember her by. She had rolled in the dirt and was covered with it. Clean.....I could have really taken in every second of her beauty forever. However I wanted to get her back in the water. It all happened so fast.

It was a very big day for me. First time I throw in one of MY hand tied flies and get a 19" trout. WOW. What a hoot.

Gem