by Baughb » August 29th, 2011, 8:13 am
This is a great thread and I’ve been on here for a while and hadn’t come across it yet. Thanks for starting it.
I grew in the suburbs of So Cal (South Gate and Lynwood) and my first memory of fishing is on a little bluegill pond in Illinois near to my Great Aunts’ house where we would spend some summers. Cane poles with worms was all it took to keep me out of their hair for hours upon hours.
After joining Boy Scouts around 12, we went to the Eastern Sierra and the Big Bear/Arrowhead area to a variety of scout camps and since fishing was a merit badge, I took advantage of every opportunity to fish. Spin fishing became the order of the day and I enjoyed it immensely so much so that my very first run in with the law was after pocketing a lure at the local Thrifty’s near my house when I was 10 (Cub Scouts). The serious whoopin that I got didn’t deter me from practicing casting to Folger’s cans in the yard to get my aim down and yes, all my gear has been properly paid for, thank you very much.
Fast forward to adult life (1992 and 31) and just before “A River Runs Through It”, my former wife and I were doing a lot of car camping and fishing for fun. I had already started catch and release but was still “spinning” when we watched a fly fisher casting along a river. Poetry in motion I thought so I bought a book, two actually, “How To Fool Fish With Feathers” and some “Trout Bum” book by a guy in Colorado. Doomed to learning this, I bought a starter kit, took some casting lessons from a great guy at the then Fisherman’s Spot and hit the local streams. Right now I can still remember the planter on Frenchman’s Flat rise and sip my royal coachman.
Now I still get to fish pretty often in our state, tie most of my own flies, have more than enough gear, have shared the sport with many people and hosted a lot of newbies on some of my favorite waters, traveled to the popular and unpopular waters of the Western states, caught huge fish and tiny ones and really appreciate the fish and the areas in which they live. I think more clearly now when I’m out on the water and it is one of the places where I can be still and know my God. All of this good stuff in my life just from fish wiggling on the end of my line. Pretty good medicine.
Bob
"He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman."