That Noob-like Feeling…

Mr. Marc Payne ( his very interesting blog is The Perfect Drift ) puts into words that feeling of taking your first tentative steps into fly fishing. It’s something every fly fisher goes through no matter if you have 38 friends helping you, one brave buddy, or no one at all. You walk into a fly shop for the very first time, and…well, you need to go read this for yourself. I’m sure 99.999% of us can relate to Marc’s tale. I can’t wait to read the next part of his explaination as to how he ended up addicted to the long rod…

Oh, you want the link to the story so you can laugh too? Dang you guys are demanding! 🙂

How it All Started, by Marc Payne

I’m thinking ole Marc may be onto something with this, so I hope he doesn’t mind if I use his story for inspiration and tell you guys how I got started in fly fishing. Heck, maybe OBN will even make it a writing prompt for all the OBN bloggers….” How you got into ?” It’s always fun to hear about that first fishing trip, bird hunt or hike. It’s the time when we’re the most ‘green’ and everything is amazing and difficult and mysterious. I don’t have as good a story as Marc does, but I’ll get to work on putting it down because I’m sure there are at least a couple of laughs to be had at my expense in there somewhere. Probably somewhere around the part where the rod breaks in half. There’s always a rod breaking in half around me. You should see the guys in the fly shops run to cover them with blankets when I pull into the parking lot. 😉

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So, my trip to Colorado for the OBN Convention. I’m going to need some help with the fishing info out there. I can’t pay you in money, but I can bring extra flies for you and probably give you some funny stories to share with your readers. I mean, if there’s something stupid that can be done on a Colorado trout river, I’ll probably do it. I’ve already heard about the bat problem. If they have bees too, you should make sure you always have your camera ready. I’m just warning you. I will dance and squeal like a little girl if I’m inspected by bees. I hate those things.

Anyway, back to the fish….I don’t care about catching big fish. Wait – let me rephrase that….I don’t MIND catching big fish, but I enjoy catching trout on dries. That said, I also enjoy catching trout on nymphs, eggs, soft-hackles, streamers, wet flies and corn. ( I’m lying about the corn.) So, if anyone who fishes CO can give me some tips, advice or whatever that would be super-awesome-riffic.

And if there’s any chance of a caddis hatch…you know what? I’m so jumping the gun. HEY OBN – I know it probably doesn’t matter to the hikers, wing shooters, kayakers or bushcraft people, but we fisherfolk need some DATES! 🙂 Until we get dates, I guess I’ll just keep all this enthusiasm for my first trip out west (at least the fishing part of it) bottled up for now. It’s already extremely hard to NOT think about fishing out there. Maybe someone from CO or that fishes CO can do a blog post about the type of water we’ll see…or the fish…or the bugs…

Yeah. I’ve got it bad peeps. I’m ready to go RIGHT NOW. ( The wind outside howls and mock me because it knows winter isn’t anywhere close to being over yet….)

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What is this? A three part post?

Well, yes it is. Thank you for asking.

This is just a note to let you all know that because of the Convention out in CO, I’m going to be forced to cancel the Smoky Mountain Trout Camp this spring. I don’t really want to do it, but I’m sure I’ll have enough to plan with regular fishing trips this spring and the convention trip – and I most likely will be doing more day-trips this year to save money for the CO gathering. I hate to do it, because I do realize that a few of you guys were planning on coming down. And you still can – don’t let the cancellation of the formal gathering stop you. I’d be glad to meet you in the GSMNP to show you around my home water. I just think it’s best for us money-wise and time-wise that I drop the planning of a big, formal gathering right now to concentrate on other things. After all, Rebecca at OBN says they are already working on an OBN East Gathering anyway and I’m not going to try and compete with that! ( Plus, I’ll need money to be there at that one too, if they’ll let me in. 😉 )

So, anyway….maybe we can set one up for the fall or next year. Or, maybe some of you will still want to come down and take me up on the offer. Again, if you want to come down and fish, I can meet you in the Park and do a little informal guiding for you for sure. And there’s still the chance that I’ll end up spending at least one weekend camping up there in April or May or early June…who knows…

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PART FOUR: The unheard of Part

Last part, I promise. I have alot of ground to cover this morning, so I lumped everything into one post. Sorry it’s so looooong.

OK, last order of business…

I’ve got a link over there to some flies. For over a year I’ve thought about trying to sell them. Scouring the internet, I’ve seen all kinds of information about doing this. Some good, some bad, some right, some wrong. In reality, it’s hard to know what to believe. My lawyer buddy assures me of one thing, then I read a commercial tier saying something else. ( My lawyer buddy is a swell guy and knows his stuff, btw) I’m generally a “play by the rules” kinda guy. However, you really never know what you’ll do or how you’ll react in a given situation until you’re in it. Like that time the bear wanted to make out with me. ( Sorry bear, you’re not my type. ) So I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind ( like everyone else does on a daily basis I imagine? ) and try to earn a little income from selling a few flies. If there are taxes, licenses, fees, etc. to be paid, levied, coerced, ..well, I guess I’ll find out. I can’t just sit here and continue to watch the rejection letters (or more often the sound of silence) pour in. It’s time to get proactive (Do you hate those commercials as much as I do?) and try to keep from losing our house, cars, guns and life savings. I put off doing anything on my own because I stupidly thought that if I just sent out enough resumes and put in enough applications I’d land another job soon enough. Well, soon enough has come and gone. There’s nothing left to do but to make my own way. That’s party what this blog is about….I’m taking a big sharp stick and poking it around in the dark trying to hit anything that might keep us afloat out here.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         UUUUGHhhhhhh, I hate doing that. OK, so enough of the reasons and the explanations and the crying and whining. I’m tying caddis and zebra midges right now.  They are $2 ea. They are made from American materials on American hooks. They are sturdy and strong and very good fishing flies. I don’t tie art, so if you’re looking for something to put under glass and show your friends, these aren’t the flies for you. But if you’re going to buy flies this year, and some of those flies are caddis or zebra midges or any number of other fly types; please consider buying them from us. You’ll be helping us to keep our heads above water, and you’ll be buying American made flies from an unemployed American who just wants to provide for his family the way he used to before the economy went belly up. We’ll even pay the shipping to get them to you if you’re in the USA, and your first order will come with an extra fly of another type so that you can check out more than one of our patterns. We know that it’s easier to buy flies online for $.50 a fly, but we could really use the money right now if you’re going to buy flies for spring fishing anyway.

And now, ………….back to your regularly scheduled blog programming…..