I only started fly fishing last year, at the ripe old age of 37. Now, I hate the fact that I wasted 37 years fishing regular when I could have been fly fishing. I’ve got a 5 year old boy that loves to fish, and at least for now he wants to be like Daddy. (I realize and dread the days that are coming when he no longer wants to be like or even with Daddy, but for now I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.) He doesn’t have the attention span for fly fishing yet, but I got to wondering what would be a good age to hand him a fly rod? Then I got to wondering how old everyone was when they started fly fishing?
So, how old was you?
What kind of rod did you have?
Where did you go?
Who with?
What was the first fish you caught?
Come on, its not like I asked you how old are you now? I know most of you are 39. A free trip down memory lane is sure to bring a smile to your face. The holidays are starting, we can reminisce. That is, unless we have the attention span of a 5 year old.
I’m sorry, what was I saying?
hNt
PS anyone know how to spell reminisce? remenisce? reminiss?
What kind of rod did you have? 9’ 3 piece, Montague Flash Bamboo
Where did you go? Can’t remember (52 years ago)
Who with? Dad
What was the first fish you caught?[i] Can’t remember
(52 years ago)
We mostly still fished, but I practiced some with casting in the yard. I was using a black Perrine automatic reel with white fly line. (I still have the rod, reel and line)
I started fly fishing 2 years ago at the ripe old age of 23. Being in western Kansas at the time, I learned alone. Not many folks out there understand that you CAN flyfish for fish other than trout.
My first rod was a 9-ft 5-wt Pfleuger beginners setup, and on my first trip I caught a few small bluegills from Cedar Bluff reservoir.
My first trout on a fly was a golden trout, on a borrowed fly, on an ultralight spinning rod, on a tributary of the San Joaquin river in the Eastern Sierra. I was about 22 years old. I’m 67 now. The guy I borrowed the fly from was fishing the pools with a bamboo rod, and I thought that it was just the neatest thing I’d ever seen. Watching that golden come from the bottom of the pool to take the fly that I dapped on the surface, hooked me good. When I moved back to Idaho shortly after that, I re-connected with a friend who was into fishing wet flies on the South Fork. He encouraged me to buy one of the newfangled Fenwick glass rods in a 7wt. I still have the rod, which is about 3 inches shorter today, and I still fish heavier flies with it. That’s something over 40 years. I had lunch with Kelly Glissmeyer a couple of days ago, and told him the above story. One of his bucket list goals is to catch a golden trout. It was years after the above described incident that I realized how improbable it was. I didn’t know how rare a thing it is.
What kind of rod did you have? 9’ 6wt Wally World Special with a reel from the same store.
Where did you go? Boise River, Barber Park, Boise, ID.
Who with? My Bro-in-Law
What was the first fish you caught? Rainbow stocker
I am mostly self, book, and of course FAOL taught. I have been fishing since I could hold a rod. Am now about to turn 40, and looking forward to where I can spend the 2-3 weeks a year I get to fish. I have caught almost all trout, of various species, from dinks to 20". I have been tying my own for about 5 years, and find it much more satisfying. One day I will bite the bullet and teach myself how to build one.
One of my regrets is that I haven’t had a chance to fish with some of the fine folks (past and present) of FAOL. This will change. I am sure glad I found you all, the other bulletin boards I have participated in for ff-ing aren’t fit to fish in the same river.
I was ever 11 years old? Good grief:rolleyes:
I had been fishing with my grandfather for some time, bait rod and worms. He was the fly fisher and I bugged him until he taught me to cast. Steel telescopic rod, hard-cover book under the elbow while standing in the water. “We aren’t going to get the book wet now are we dear?” I remember it well. First fish on a fly rod, same rod, brook trout, grandpa called them ‘specs’, Ocqueoc River, north of Rogers City with grandfather, a week or so later. I saw the river a year ago when we were in Michigan for the Fish-In. Great memories.
Nine. But had been spinning for a couple years before that. Would have been in SW Washington, the Wind River, with the Wonderod dad gave me, and almost certainly steelhead or salmon smolts for the first fish.
I started at age 13 with Garcia Conolon 8"fly rod, pflueger knock off fly reel, and S.A Air Cell fly line. Fished the lakes around the San Francisco Bay Area, Stanislaus River, Yuba River and some others I forget. Don’t recall whether my first fly caught fish was a bluegill or trout. I fished with my brother and our friends. By age 16 I had given up fly fishing and focused on bass fishing with plastic worms, and hard lures.
I picked up flyfishing again at age 30 with a cheap Berkeley graphite 6wt rod (it did cast ok) that I caught a lot of bluegill, bass, and crappie with before supplemented with Fisher Streamfisher 9ft 5wt. I mostly flyfished alone for a couple of years before connecting with other local fly fishers. Sixteen years 70 plus species later I’m still having fun.
3.5 years first fish a bluegill on a size 12 black ant, cast under a willow bush at the side of a small lake in Western Idaho, caught it on a rod reel combo purchased at wally world, fishing by myself soon after found this site and have been hooked ever since.
I started back in 63’ in Laramie Wyoming, I was 20 and caught the most beautiful fish I had ever seen, a brown trout in full color. I was HOOKED. The rest is history. My son who also attended UW, just never " caught the bug" about fly fishing. I never forced him into it . We still fish together ( he’s 42 now) and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
About 13 I think. With my dad’s glass rod which I still have. My brother and I took turns using it to cast to bluegills on the beds in the lake across from our house. We used the public swimming beach for an access site until the lifeguard made a fuss about leaving the fenced area as we were out lf his sight but since we entered there he felt responsible for us. An elderly (maybe as old as I am now?) Chicago woman with a huge summer place heard the argument and invited us to enter the lake from her yard which we did thereafter.
I was 9 years old in 1970. My fly rod was a Fenwick 5 weight. I still have it and fish with it a couple times a year. I went fishing at Rockridge Lake in Denville, New Jersey. My first fish on fly was a pumpkinseed sunfish caught on a royal coachman.
I started fly fishing when I was 17 I am now 47, I was using a Fenwick HMG 8’ 6 wt. my first fish was a stocked rainbow, from Rush creek in the eastern Sierra and the fly I was using was a black wooly worm with a grizzley hackle and a red tail. I have been hooked ever since.
So, how old were you? Probably around 7 years old but got serious at the age of 14.
What kind of rod did you have? An old bamboo until I was 15 then a Herter?s fiberglass that I built.
Where did you go? Silver Lake up by Mt. Baker when I was young, then from 14 to 16, for two weeks each summer, we spent three years on the Metolius River in eastern Oregon.
Who with? My Dad when I was young and a neighbor and his grandson when I was 14+
What kind rod? A Shakespeare glass rod, with a South Bend automatic reel.
Where? The pond in the local town park.
With whom? Nobody. There was no one I knew who fly fished. I already had five years of bait/gear experience and my parents let me fish alone.
First fish (on a fly?) A chain pickerel, on a muddler minnow. The pond was half frozen over; I cast the fly onto the edge of ice and pulled it off. The “pike” hit the fly just as it came over the edge.
So, how old were you? Probably around 12 - I saw Gaddabout Gaddis do it on TV and I had to give it a try. Taught myself by imitating Gaddabout - I’m sure it was an ugly picture back then but in “my world” back then it was only Gaddabout and me who knew how!
What kind of rod did you have? Roddy HCH - I begged my parents for an outfit and finally got it for Christmas. A Fly Tying kit came my Birthday a few months later.
Where did you go? Fisherman’s Retreat - No longer exists but it was a small camp area outside of Riverside CA that had a few small ponds
Who with? My Dad and Uncle
What was the first fish you caught? Bluegill of course!
It was 1963 and I was 7
My family was camped at Mooseloolmeguntic Lake in Maine and on the drive up my father had filled my head with tales of trout and famous flies.
In camp, my Mom was knitting something with olive colored wool
[LEFT]I took some of that wool I ‘tied’ myself up a fly on a bait hook. Then I snuck Dad’s Conolon rod out of camp and headed to the lakeshore.
[/LEFT]
I remember that the casting didn’t come easy, but I caught a fish anyway.
It was only a smelt, but it was a fish and I did it all by myself
After that summer I got my own rod. A 9’ Japanese bamboo with an H-I reel.
I still use that reel once in a while. As for the two rods, I’ve rebuilt the Conolon and it’s still a POS. The cane, which as I remember cost all of $3, will never be fished again but I still have most of the pieces :rolleyes:
I’ve got a 5 year old boy that loves to fish, and at least for now he wants to be like Daddy. (I realize and dread the days that are coming when he no longer wants to be like or even with Daddy, but for now I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.) He doesn’t have the attention span for fly fishing yet, but I got to wondering what would be a good age to hand him a fly rod? Then I got to wondering how old everyone was when they started fly fishing?
A free trip down memory lane is sure to bring a smile to your face. The holidays are starting, we can reminisce. That is, unless we have the attention span of a 5 year old.