Sounds much like the trip we took a few weeks back. We took my 14 yr old nephew with us who had never fly fished before. I set him up with the same fly I was using and showed him the right spots to cast. I caught fish left and right all day and the poor kid couldn't get a fish to save his life. He finally caught one that evening and a very nice one at that (now he's hooked). Can't explain why it took so long for him to catch one, I caught close to 40 fish that day and the fish had been more then willing to take the flies. We were drifting the same exact fly. It's like my grandfather use to say " you just weren't holding your mouth right".
Jim Burbank "Troutman" ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 4:03 PM Subject: [VFB] Fishing with Scouts > I'm responsible for a small troop of 14-15 year old Scouts, and luckily they > all like to fish. Of course liking to fish and knowing how to fish are two > things entirely, and I discovered quickly it is very hard to teach 8 boys how > to fly fish all at at the same time when on an official scout outing. So I've > decided to start taking them out in two's to our local river. These aren't > official "scout" activities", since a solo scout activity with boys is > politically in-correct. This is just two boys going out fishing with their > crazy fly fishing neighbor. > > Anyway, I really wanted them to have success, so I geared them up and took > them out to the Weber river to show them how to "pick pockets" This is > drifting a nymph and split shot through fishy looking pocket water with the > rod held high, keeping fly line off the water, sometimes feeling the strikes, > but more often seeing a slight hesitation of the line and setting the hook... > an easy method that doesn't require any fancy casting. Well, of course I > had to demonstrate the technique, and as luck would have it I caught a nice > Brown during the first cast. Now the kids are motivated, and follow my > technique carefully, but no fish! So I think "maybe I spooked the fish with > the one I caught", so I take the rod and with another short cast in the same > hole and catch another fish! This scene was repeated all day, putting the > kids in the most productive holes, letting them use my rod while untangling > theirs, trying my best to get them into fish... but no luck. It reminded me > of the story of the fishermen whose buddy kept catching all of the fish; > claiming it was just his "personality". Finally they kicked him out of the > boat, and fished unsuccessfully for a couple more hours until finally, just > before sunset, a fish comes up, sticks his head out of the water and asks > "Hey! Where's your friend? Anyway, the kids did have fun, learned to tie > some knots and get better acquainted with a fly rod... and hopefully next > time the fish will come as well. >
