Katie

 

 

 

 

5-14-05

 

A while back we were visiting with my son Michael and his girlfriend Katie. Katie mentioned that she has a trip planned this summer that will involve some fly fishing, and she asked if I could teach her how to do it. She didn't want to be embarrassed by ineptitude.

So, we decided on the 14th we would fish the Hiwassee. We drove up in the morning and fished a while before our monthly bug sampling. I had a reel die a while back, and only had 2 outfits, so Michael took one and fished upstream, and I let Katie use the other and started her training. She eventually was able to pick up the line off the water and make a back cast and a forward cast. With a little more practice her consistency improved, and she was able to get a fly out far enough to reach fish. Once when I took the rod to demonstrate, a fish splashed to the right of the run she was fishing. I cast there, it took, and I handed her back her rod. This is a picture of her first trout on a fly rod!



The rest of the morning was uneventful. Michael caught one and lost one. We saw fish rising, but got no strikes. At noon we headed down for lunch and the bug sampling. We had a group of scouts coming from Georgia, and things went well. Katie is studying to be a doctor, and had taken biology classes that involved some bug sampling, so she was quite helpful.

We headed back up after sampling. My friend Shakey and Michael went upstream again. Shakey had loaned me a rod, so we could all fish now. Katie and I waded across below the ledge, and she fished the heavy run. She ended up on the other side of the run, seemed to have some aptitude for wading. I fished the top of the run, and had a brown take my grey hackle yellow. I thought he was a much better fish than he was, but he turned out to be foul hooked in a fin. I count those, it's not my fault he missed the fly!

Michael worked his way down, and fished below us. He got a fish at the lower end of the run, and we worked down toward him. Katie fished the top of the next run, and Michael fished the bottom. I lit a pipe and just watched.

Michael missed some fish, and after a while he told me to take a shot at them, he wanted to turn over some rocks and look for bugs. In a while I finally got a rise, another brown.

Michael and I moved on down, and my wife Beverly yelled from the bank that it was getting close to 4, when a pulse was expected. Katie was on the far side of a run that would be deep and fast on the pulse, and I told Michael she needed to get back across. She was reluctant to leave, but we got out just before the pulse.

We took a break during the pulse, and when it started dropping I put on a brown hackle peacock with a little lead on the tippet, and waded across to the big run. Stripping the bhp like a diving caddis, I caught 3, 2 rainbows and a brown. Suddenly, clouds were boiling and I could hear the wind in the trees. The wind got so heavy that casting was out of the question, and even if I could have cast, there was so much debris on the water that it was unfishable. On the bright side, I had not lost my cap. Anyone who has fished the Hiwassee for a long time can tell you some strange weather stories. I thought it best to call it a day. At the bank, Shakey said the wind had been blowing spray on him. Unpredictability is part of the rivers charm, and once again, she left us smiling.

* Things That Made Me Glad I Went ::::::::::::::::
This trip I saw Mountain Laurel blooming, so the sulfur season is officially underway. Most of the major hatches pair up with certain flowers blooming, they respond to the same patterns of temperature and daylight hours. It's a lot easier to see flowers than little bugs, so when I see Mountain Laurel blooming I know it's time to fish sulfurs!
...(This Isn't All About Catching Fish, You Know!)