- November 23, 2024
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I hope everyone had a safe and merry holiday season.
I will tell you that Christmas was good to me in a couple of ways. The first and foremost was that my wife was with me after she spent eight months this past year undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer.
She was cleared by the doctor, and our lives are back to normal. We’re looking forward to a healthy 2013.
I have just about everything I need in my life (including fishing equipment), so when my wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year, my reply was for some advanced fly casting lessons. She was gracious enough to grant me my wish. I plan to tell you why I asked for those advanced lessons in a future column.
A fishing trip with my friend Bruce Hedetniemi on Christmas Eve was also a great gift. Bruce had been telling me about the big trout he caught the previous day.
Every fish was bigger than 22 inches, he said. He also lost one larger than 30 inches when it broke a small treble hook that came as standard hardware on the lure.
After my recommendation, he is now changing the hooks to four times the strength — a much stronger hook. The conversation got me excited because I love fishing for trout. Anyway, not knowing too much about the area we would be fishing, I asked if I would be able to fly fish. Hedetniemi said he didn’t think so, but I brought a couple of fly rods anyway. We agreed to head out the next day.
It was 6:15 a.m. when we met at the boat ramp, launched the boat and waited for a little daylight so we could safely work our way into the backwaters of Flagler County. While waiting for safe light, another boat launched and also sat and waited. While they were waiting, one of the guys started throwing a cast net for mullet. He was successful and was kind enough to ask me if I wanted some. I thanked him, but refused his offering. He had a puzzled look and asked me what we were going to use for bait. Then I told him I would be fly fishing and Hedetniemi would be using a lure.
“You catch fish with a fly rod?” he said. I told him I do OK, and we shoved off.
To make a long story short, Hedetniemi boated two trout over 22 inches using a topwater plug. I boated 12 trout — with the two largest measuring 23 inches and 24 inches. The 24-incher weighed 6.5 pounds.
Upon our return to the boat ramp, the two guys from the morning were also there. I told them to come look at what we caught and that all but one trout was caught on a fly. He was astounded at the size of the trout. They looked at me and said, “We need to take up fly fishing.”
Perhaps I can give them a fly fishing lesson for beginners before I take my advanced class.
