TO LAUGH OR NOT TO LAUGH?

August 2, 2010

The truth is I did get my laugh for the day, or maybe the week. We had gone out to the creek
(DePuy Spring Creek) so I could get a little water practice casting with my left hand or using a very controlled, elbow-in-no-shoulder-motion right handed casting. [Bad shoulder – you know]

Most of the casting on the spring creeks is really short stuff. No need for double haul or monumental long casts. Short 20-30 foot casts to fish you can see. Nephew Tom and my husband Trav had discussed with me a way I may be able to cast without tearing up my shoulder. It involved not using the shoulder as I just described.

So Trav had a specific place in mind, the small pond called the ‘House Pond’ directly in front of the late Warren DePuy’s dream house which he called Tara. And yes it looks like the house in Gone With The Wind. 

However, almost in the middle of the pond was a McKenzie-type drift boat with a guide and two anglers. It is allowed, but a belly boat really is more appropriate. There are really big fish in the pond, but trust me, they were off hiding on the bottom in the weeds. The angler in the front of the boat had on a bright orange shirt which you could see for a mile. (Meaning the fish could see it too). Then there was the problem of casting. The orange shirt was doing some sort of cast where the rod was over his head with the arm fully extended. As the cast went behind him it hit the water. Then the forward cast splashed out. The other angler could cast somewhat better, but he must have seen some of the big fish because he had buck-fever and his casting fell apart. Once in a while he could manage to get a nice cast out, but then he would rip the whole line up off the water leaving a rooster tail of water where the line had been. By watching we guessed they were using nymphs and they actually caught a couple very small trout.

The guide wasn’t any help at all. He did a little rowing, but we didn’t see him attempt to help his clients with their casting or line pick up.

It was funny - and very sad. Those anglers would probably go home and tell everyone what a great time they had. But they really could have had a wonderful time and caught some of those big fish. Just the difference in knowing how to cast and manage their line.

Tom commented that many of the folks that hire a guide don’t know what to look for - and aren’t prepared to fish at all. The guide is there to help you catch fish, and to teach you how to do it. One of the biggest things you can do if you are taking a guided trip is once you know the date, count back 30 days and start practicing your casting just 20 minutes a day. That will get you tuned up so once you and your guide get together he can expect you to be able to put a fly where he tells you. Also, part of the guides job is to know or find out what the fish are eating. If there isn’t a hatch what are they eating? They are eating something.

Be honest, don’t tell your guide you can do things you don’t have a clue about. If your casting sucks, say so. You probably will get the help you need. And if you’ve never been in a boat or raft floating a river you just might tell him that too. Probably will save just a ton of embarrassment.

By the way, we walked a little to another part of the pond and I did get some casting practice in, without a fly on my line. I knew I could cast left-handed, and with a little practice I will be able to cast right handed if I don’t get carried away.

Otherwise I will be relegated to reading a book or painting when I want to be fishing. We’ll get it worked out yet.

 

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