...went pretty well this evening. The first hurdle will be getting used to opening the hemostats. Michael's never used them before so this has to be practiced as well. Once he had that down then he had to work on grasping the hook with them. This took a bit of help since he tremors a bit. He can steady his hand on a table or his leg and get the hook. Then he worked on getting the loop on the hook which was the more difficult part but he finally was able to get it. We left the fly on the tackle-tamer while he hooked up, fewer things to lose sight of if dropped. I tried to be very specific about how to grasp the hook to get the loop on and off easier (low muscle tone is also an issue), but he got it on and off pretty well. A few more tries and he should become fairly proficient with it.

Now, on the water it'll be a whole different deal. We'll go outside and practice more when it warms a bit. We were put off by snow and a stiff, cold wind today.

Tim