styan
09-22-2005, 04:47 PM
I certain thread yesterday whose contents included whether or not you tell a fellow angler what fly is working for you or not, reminded me of a time that I was the beneficiary of streamside assistance.
In the summer of '79 around my 18th birthday, my father decided that he would like to "sponsor" a two week FF adventure so I could teach him how to FF. I was building rods at the time so I made him a 6wt on a JKFisher blank especially for the trip.
We were in So Cal at the time and I researched what I thought would be some memorable places to go and camp in my Chevy Luv (remember those?).
First stop was Yellowstone. The plan was to fish the Firehole, Madison, Yellowstone, etc for about a week. The first day we were on the Yellowstone, I don't remember exactly where, but there were about 10-15 guys conducting casting practice about waist deep in the river. Nobody was catching a thing.
My dad and I waded out to a similar depth a bit below the crowd and started our own version of casting practice with these big ol' Royal Whullfs and stuff.
After a while, I noticed a guy was walking the bank casting in ankle deep water and he was slaying them. I watched in awe as he was catching fish on every third or so cast.
After a bit, I walked out of the water and watched him for a few minutes. I remember him turning to me and saying hello and asking me how the fishing was for me. I told him it was our first day and I was discouraged because I could see the fish, but they were not accepting my offerings.
He told me to follow him over to his truck. Curiously, I follwed him over to a truck whose tailgate was open and revealed a mini fly tying set up. He proceeded to tie up a bunch of flies in about 20 minutes. He handed them all to me and then told me which river in Yellowstone to fish each one. He then tied up a few elk hair caddis that were about #18. It took him about 30 seconds to tie each one. Hook in vise, wrap olive thread to eye, tie elk hair, whip finish. Done.
By that time my dad had joined me. The guy handed the elk hairs to us and said to fish the banks as he was. We thanked him for his graciousness and watched him fish again. When my dad and I got to it, we started catching fish immediately. We were having a blast. I remember catching nice cuts in the 15-18" range.
This guy was really reserved and really didn't make too much small talk. He was kind of gruff and wore a fedora type hat. Kind of looked like Clark Kent's hat from the old Superman days.
Later on, a guy who I noticed hanging out with this guy earlier stopped by me and asked how I was doing. I told him how cool I thought his friend was to interrupt his fishing to take time out and help me and my dad.
Then he asked me, "Did he happen to mention his name?" I said he didn't talk much other than offering all the valuable info. He said, "Yeah, Royce is kind of a quiet guy .... He's Royce Dam ... one of the best known fly tiers there is .... he won't tell you that .... he just wants to see people enjoy flyfishing". I didn't know of Royce at the time, but I was blown away that this guy helped us out like that.
I think that may have set the precidence for how I conduct myself streamside. I am not the trout slayer I'd like to be, but if I get to talking with someone and I have been more successful than they have, I am absolutely going to volunteer information that may help them.
It's KARMA baby, all KARMA!
Author reserves right to embellish with regard to quoting exact dialog in converations .... this was 25 years ago. ;)
In the summer of '79 around my 18th birthday, my father decided that he would like to "sponsor" a two week FF adventure so I could teach him how to FF. I was building rods at the time so I made him a 6wt on a JKFisher blank especially for the trip.
We were in So Cal at the time and I researched what I thought would be some memorable places to go and camp in my Chevy Luv (remember those?).
First stop was Yellowstone. The plan was to fish the Firehole, Madison, Yellowstone, etc for about a week. The first day we were on the Yellowstone, I don't remember exactly where, but there were about 10-15 guys conducting casting practice about waist deep in the river. Nobody was catching a thing.
My dad and I waded out to a similar depth a bit below the crowd and started our own version of casting practice with these big ol' Royal Whullfs and stuff.
After a while, I noticed a guy was walking the bank casting in ankle deep water and he was slaying them. I watched in awe as he was catching fish on every third or so cast.
After a bit, I walked out of the water and watched him for a few minutes. I remember him turning to me and saying hello and asking me how the fishing was for me. I told him it was our first day and I was discouraged because I could see the fish, but they were not accepting my offerings.
He told me to follow him over to his truck. Curiously, I follwed him over to a truck whose tailgate was open and revealed a mini fly tying set up. He proceeded to tie up a bunch of flies in about 20 minutes. He handed them all to me and then told me which river in Yellowstone to fish each one. He then tied up a few elk hair caddis that were about #18. It took him about 30 seconds to tie each one. Hook in vise, wrap olive thread to eye, tie elk hair, whip finish. Done.
By that time my dad had joined me. The guy handed the elk hairs to us and said to fish the banks as he was. We thanked him for his graciousness and watched him fish again. When my dad and I got to it, we started catching fish immediately. We were having a blast. I remember catching nice cuts in the 15-18" range.
This guy was really reserved and really didn't make too much small talk. He was kind of gruff and wore a fedora type hat. Kind of looked like Clark Kent's hat from the old Superman days.
Later on, a guy who I noticed hanging out with this guy earlier stopped by me and asked how I was doing. I told him how cool I thought his friend was to interrupt his fishing to take time out and help me and my dad.
Then he asked me, "Did he happen to mention his name?" I said he didn't talk much other than offering all the valuable info. He said, "Yeah, Royce is kind of a quiet guy .... He's Royce Dam ... one of the best known fly tiers there is .... he won't tell you that .... he just wants to see people enjoy flyfishing". I didn't know of Royce at the time, but I was blown away that this guy helped us out like that.
I think that may have set the precidence for how I conduct myself streamside. I am not the trout slayer I'd like to be, but if I get to talking with someone and I have been more successful than they have, I am absolutely going to volunteer information that may help them.
It's KARMA baby, all KARMA!
Author reserves right to embellish with regard to quoting exact dialog in converations .... this was 25 years ago. ;)