When I grew up in Remsen, Iowa my dad ,who was not a fly fisherman, wanted me to be exposed to fly fishing. I was quite young then. He bought me a South Bend bamboo fly rod with the reel and line and handed it to me with nary a word of instruction. Having fished long bamboo poles and some sort of bait casters I rigged up with a pear shaped weight and hook with a worm on it...... and knowing that you threw the line backwards then forwards I proceeded to do that .....the first time the weight hit me in the back of the head as did the second and third time. With that I folded things up went home never to think about fly fishing till moving here the the Great Northwest.

I doubt that the fishing was as good then around there as it sounds like it is now.