Howdy Leland, You ever been to Monache Meadows? Take care, MJC ----- Original Message ----- From: "Leland Miyawaki" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 1:56 PM Subject: Re: Flies and/or gear? (was Re: Yakima Brown Trout)
> Okay Kent, I'll bite. > > The last time I had a spinning rod in my hand was a few years ago: > > Earl and I were lounging about in a Panga eating lunch during the > doldrums of a day off Corda Cay in the Bahamas where we had been > flyfishing for bonefish. That day, there were four of us in the boat. > My buddy, John the flyshop owner, was whiling away the time by > throwing a plug as far as he could to a school of cruising barracudas > way out in the distance while Ricardo, the guide, was telling him not > to drag any of "dem beeg teet near da boat." After bringing in a > couple big nasties and (of course) making Ricardo help him twist out > the gang of trebles, John handed his spinning rod to me. > > "Do you know how to cast one of these?" he asked. "Oh yeah, I used to > fish spinners before I learned to flyfish in 1970," I replied. I took > the rod from him, wound the plug up to near the rod tip, hooked the > line in my forefinger, released the bail, raised the rod over my > head, aimed at the school of barracuda, and cast. The fish were way, > way, way out there, at 12 o'clock to me. The plug landed a long ways > out but far, far, far off to the right, at 3 o'clock. "Shit," I > muttered. "Start winding! Real fast!" John yelled. > > Sure enough, a lone barracuda peeled off from the school and, in the > crystal clear water, we could all see it rooster tail on an intercept > course straight at my plug. Everything - barracuda, plug and > fisherman - met at the boat in a huge explosion of water and > laughter while John and Ricardo, who were in the water, tried to leap > back into the boat to escape the school who had followed their > wounded comrade. > > "It's like riding a bike, I said, you never forget." > > Way back in 1970, I bought my first flyrod. It was a complete outfit > from LL Bean - a 7 1/2 foot Fenwick fiberglass rod, Medalist 1494 > reel and weight forward floating line. I still have the rod and reel. > The day the flyrod arrived in the mail, I laid down my spinning rod > forever. For the next year, I went to every free fly casting seminar > and bought every flyfishing book I could. I taught myself to cast and > went an entire year without catching any fish until I caught an 8" > brookie on a #12 Black Gnat (which I had tied), in a beaver pond just > off US 395 between Lee Vining and Bridgeport, California. > > Do I fish anything but flies? > > Hell, if I can cast for a year before catching my first fish on a > fly, I'll do whatever I can to catch all my fish with a fly. > > Leland. > > > > > >I'm pretty surprised that there haven't been any responses to this > >question from the hard-core, flyfishing-or-nothing element among us. > >Maybe Leland's away helping to break in Earl's new bass boat ;-) > > > >Kent Lufkin >
