It's early in the morning and the valley is shrouded in a fog. It twists and rolls as the first early morning breeze stirs in the trees making the scene quite ethereal, almost otherworldly. Everything is covered with dew; like glimmering crystals the tiny droplets catch and scatter the shifting light turning blades of grass into kaleidoscopes reflecting a spectrum of color. The thick fog shrouds the landscape and all of nature is wrapped in a fine gray film like a soft moist blanket.

It had been ten days since a fly had been put in the water. That is getting close to being a criminal act. I decided that it was a good day to head out to a pond. There were combines out all over the place. I looked at the wind direction and headed for a pond where I knew the dust would be minimal. I took a fiberglass rod that I had not used this year.

In this installment we will be covering sheepshead, pompano and gray (mangrove) snapper. A couple of years ago I had some friends from Georgia fishing with me and the gal hooked and land her first sheepshead on a fly and was astounded, telling that she had been told that you could not catch sheepshead on a fly.

It was a small shop in Lacey Washington called the Fly Fisher. Having driven past it a hundred times over the past 6 months impulse finally got the best of me on a spring day in 1989 as I pulled into the small shopping plaza and parked in front. It was a fairly non-descript shop. A basic storefront with a small logo above the door, small enough that you could easily drive past and never know a fly shop existed there. One of those places nobody knows about unless you fly fish.

One of the first major hatches of the season on many rivers in the western United States is the Salmonfly hatch. This hatch starts on most rivers in late June to early July on certain rivers. The hatch unpredictable but even if the hatching insects fail to appear in good numbers the nymphing along banks is very effective.

Just a few of my memories from 2014. I'm looking forward to making many more in 2015. I hope that you are looking forward to making some good memories this coming year.