Just a little bluegill, but a fish! (And I know I need to seriously revisit my fish-photographing etiquette. but just then I wasn’t thinking about that I was too excited. I just yelled at my sister to run for the camera, got the picture, removed the hook from its mouth, and set the fishy back in the lake. I wasn’t even planning on catching any, I was primarily focusing on my cast not the retrieve. But it was awesome because I was actually able to get the line to lay down almost all at once, smoothly and with no coiling and very little slack. And also was able to cast about twice as far as I ever had before. It was beautiful.
I caught this little guy on a plain foam spider I had made just made setting out because I knew I wanted to practice casting and I wanted to use a fly that I wouldn’t be sad about losing to a tree. hehehe
Just wanted to share with you all!
And a big THANK YOU to JohnScott, without whose generosity it would have taken me a lot longer to celebrate this success!
Great job! Now YOU are “hooked” too!! Get ready for a great time from this point on. I did notice, from the picture, that you might want to put more backing on your reel as it will help with less line coils.
I look forward to more pictures from you with more fish.
Actually, I had to take a lot of the backing off of my reel in order to make the fly line fit. Should I have cut off the back end of the fly line instead of the backing? I know the fly line takes up much more space for and equal amount of length but I was under the impression that one should not cut a fly line because that would interfere with its casting ability.
No, never cut the fly line. You might try this but it is not a lot of fun and is time consuming but you will have the right amout of backing on your reel and your fly line will fill the spool closer to the rim. You strip all the fly line and backing off your reel. Take the front end of your fly line and start it on the reel and wind all of it on the reel. Then attach your backing and keep winding until the backing comes within 1/4" of your reel edge. Now pull all the backing and fly line off the reel and attach the backing to your spool and wind it plus your fly line onto the reel.
Not a lot of fun, but, it works…Hope this is clear and it helps
Good goin’ AlbaSurf ! Now you’re on your way. Oh, sometimes ppl save that first fly they’ve tied once it catches a fish. Seems to trigger memories down the road when gazed upon.
AlbaSurf, congrats! First fish on a fly, later you might have the first fish you caught on a fly that you tied yourself. You might want to save that fly as a souvenir.
You were a real flyfisherwoman even before you caught your first fish. (You can call yourself a fly angler, should you wish to go gender neutral.) I hope that other newcomers to our sport will pay particular attention to your comment that you caught the fish while you were trying to perform the mechanics of the sport correctly. I hope that you have a long and happy affiliation with the sport. Perhaps some of us will meet you at Fish-Ins in the future.
