Glad nobody was looking

Have you ever had times you made a fool of yourself and was glad nobody was looking. It happened to me yesterday. I get out to the water, go to pull off my leader from the reel and found the leader stuck in the reel. So I removed the spool and pulled off half the line until I got my leader in hand, reassembled the mess, tied on a fly and started to strip off line. Just then my reel fell off. Worse yet it fell in the river down a deep hole. So I had to pull out all the line and backing to retrive the reel and reassemble the mess a second time. Never again will I build a rod with a slip ring seat. Finally Im casting and having a great time until I see my rods tip section floating down river.
I was feeling kinda stupid since all the above was preventable and I should have known better.
But as I was fishing I looked up and saw a guy standing across the river watching me. He was 7 ft tall and weighed at least 250 pounds. Do you remember when we were kids how much fun it was to find a bobber? well this guy starts climbing a tree and shimmies out on a branch to get a 25 cent bobber while at the same time talking on his cell phone. After watching him I did not feel quite as stupid… FB.

Missed the dock while exiting the row boat one time. Landed on my feet in very cold, waist deep water.


Eric “nighthawk”

American veteran and proud of it!

Well…truth be told, I have one of those moments on nearly every trip. Sometimes I amaze myself that I keep doing this;-), but I suppose I wouldn’t have it any other way…

Just the opposite of Eric…going out fishing instead.
My buddy did a reverse stroke at JUST the opportune time AS I was stepping for the bow. A bit deeper water and a bit more showy on the water entry, but what a HOOT anyway!

Sure I know how that feels, that is why I try and fish by myself. I share a ride to the river but once there I rather be alone.

-ST


[url=http://www.flyfishingwis.com:38489]www.flyfishingwis.com[/url:38489]

My son and I drove 2.5 hours to the river only to find we had left our waders on the floor in the garage at home,Duh! We learned to double or triple check before leaving the house. We still laugh about it though!


“A smart man learns from his mistakes,
A wise man learns from others”

Doing some fishing in the middle of a Hendrickson hatch I noticed my fly line had become entangled with my wading staff. As I was undoing the tangle, I noticed a pesky “dun” just kind of hovering around my face. I swatted it and ended up with the Red Quill I was fishing imbedded in the palm of my hand. Fortunately the hook was barbless and nobody was watching. So embarrasing.

I guess it was a good imitation of the naturals…

The first time I went fly fishing I didn’t know what I was doing and I was making some ugly casts(I never took any lessons). I’m still not quite sure how I did it but the fly came back and hit me in the lower lip. Yes it stuck and no it wasn’t barbless, so I had to force this hook through my lip again so the barb was sticking out and go and find someone with a pair of wire cutters. Luckily enough (I think) my sister lived nearby and I drove to her house and had my brother in law cut the hook. That was 12 years ago and they still break my stones.


“If it was easy anybody could do it”
Timothy S. Furey Sr.

So many stories so little space…lol. Just this past week I was fishing the yellow breeches catching a few nice Brownies…small nymphs 7x tippet. Hooked and fought a nice 16" trout and worked it into the shallows. I reached down to remove the hook with my forceps and immediately the trout turned around went right between my legs easily snapping the tippet taking my fly with him back into the run… I stood up and looked around looking for who would be laughing…

[This message has been edited by pafisherman (edited 17 November 2005).]

This was my buddy not me, I always breakdown a rod before driving to another location.
He has an old little car with a sun roof, drops the rigged rod through the open sun roof and drives on. Well he forgot to fasten the fly to rod or hooker keeper and starts driving the loose fly catches a branch and starts pulling out line. Meanwhile I see what’s happening as I follow, blowing the horn and flashing my lights he keeps on going. Finally out of backing the spool stops and the rod shoots out of the sun roof. the rod and reel land with a thud. He finally stops, I’m LMAO and he picks it up and starts winding all back in. Well the amount of backing and line is long, so he turns the car around drops the rod back in and starts driving and winding, needless to say you can’t wind in a line fast enough to keep up with a moving car which runs over the line, winding stops, he doesn’t release his grip on the reel handle or put on the brakes and then the bad thing happens, snap!! Can’t land a 3000 lb car witha 5wt.

A quick way to make of fool of yourself is to backcast a slack line in a headwind. That is how I got a no.12 Adams dry stuck in my forearm. The fly had a turned down barb which as we all know still functions like a barb. I could not get it out so drove home to get a wire cutter and remove it properly. On the way home I stopped for gas, the guy at the pumps said “sir you got a wasp on your arm”. I calmly looked at him and said “no its just a fly”,“Ephemerella subvaria”. Im glad he didn’t swat it,he thought I was a smart ass and walked away…FB.

This one was so stupid that I wish someone WAS watching.

I was fishing the Letort last week and as is my preference I was sitting on the bank on a small log with one foot in the water and one under my butt. A massive mud puddle was behind me so the log offered a “safe” sitting spot.

After catching a nice brown on an olive I went to get to my feet from a sitting position to move upstream and discovered that my leg had fallen asleep. When I went to stand up; I slowly fell backwards into the massive mud puddle. My butt and back were covered with think gooey Letort mud.

It was pretty dang funny even though I had to retreat back to the car to relieve myself of some mud caked gear.

My son and I were fishing the upper Sweetwater river a couple of springs ago. I, with my usual lack of grace, slipped on some moss and sat right down in the shallow stream. Had to build a fire to warm my self up and dry my pants which I had to take off to keep from getting hypothermia. Would have been a little embracing if someone had come by. By the way, he won’t let me forget it!


Wyo-blizzard aka Bloody Tom Bonney

A very cold and windy morning on a pond with sub freezing air temps makes for a lot of ice, numb fingers and a slow brain.

I caught a fish but too much ice had formed on the guides for me to reel in past the loop on my fly line. I grabbed the leader and brought the fish in, then went to grab the net but it had frozen on the boat seat. I tore it off leaving strands of mesh.

I went to pick the ice off the tip guide and too much pressure… snap goes the tip. I sit there thinking how stupid am I and the wind picks up and the rod, which was partially hanging over the boat while I picked off the ice, goes overboard and the reel is naturally soaked and frozen in short order.

Later on, real strong winds fling the broad rimmed hat off my head and into the water so I spend frantic minutes casting with a broken 4wt into 50km gusts.

I got the hat back, caught 20+ rainbows, got a LOT of excercise rowing that boat around and made it home safe in white-out conditions so it was a good day of fishing

While fishing a local river, I stepped into a deep hole and went for a swin. Fortunately it was July. It was late, so I decided to call it a day. On my long walk back, I noticed a car parked in the woods at the end of the path. I thought the angler probably had a laugh when he saw me take a swim. As I approached the car, I had to walk up against it. When I peered inside, there were two teenagers having a good time. The expression on her face when she saw me was priceless! Not an embarassing moment for me, but a “fish story” I’ll never forget.