Members' Bio: Where'd you come from?

[flybob]

Damien, Zach, Welcome HOME!

Looking forward to you contributions!
Bob

[sturgeon]

Hello fellow addicts...

Having grown up in the beautiful state of Colorado, I absolutely love the outdoors. Ever since I can remember, fishing has always been a part of my family's lives. Almost every picture of my grandpa was taken when he was fishing. I grew up in Fruita, CO, a small town just 19 miles from the Utah border. The most popular spot for the family to go was a place called the Grand Mesa. The Grand Mesa, which is the largest mesa in the world, having over 300 mountain lakes and streams, was within an hours drive. It is situated between the Colorado River to its north, and the Gunnison River to its south. For most of my growing up years, it was all bait fishing, or fishing with lures. My grandpa had a small trolling boat that we would sometimes use to catch splake. It wasn't until my later teenage years that I picked up a fly rod. My oldest brother got all the brothers into it, and now we go fly fishing when we are all together. I have a long ways to go to get good at it though. I have not been able to go all that much in the past few years due to my wife being in school, but hopefully that will change, as she is finishing up her 4th year of medical school in March of this year.

My brothers and I would usually head to the Gunnison River for fly fishing, which is an absolutely amazing river to fish on. The Grand Mesa was good for fly fishing as well, and we would usually use our float tubes for fishing on the calm lakes. Rainbows and Browns were the usual catch. My first fly rod was a Scientific Anglers, one of those cheap package deals...rod, reel, line, etc. The thing could have been used as a weapon if the need ever arised. It was so heavy. Now I have a much nicer Wright and McGill rod. It makes all the difference.

I was lucky enough to meet Craig (wildfly) here in Bakersfield and I have learned a lot from him. It wasn't until just recently that I caught bass on a fly, and even a catfish. These were caught on the Lower Kern. I had no clue that catfish would even go for flies. So now that my wife is finishing her hospital rotations here in Bakersfield, we are heading back home to Colorado, and will be living in Grand Junction (named for the junction of the Colorado and the Gunnison Rivers). I plan on fishing the Gunnison and exploring other areas while we are back home for a few months. Then in June we will be moving to Kalamazoo, Michigan for my wife to start her Pediatric residency. I'm excited to explore all that Michigan has to offer in terms of fly fishing as well. I mentioned it in another post, but I might as well say it here too. If anyone has ever fished in Michigan and can offer any suggestions, I would love to hear them. Thanks a lot. Hopefully I will be able to post some good reports in the Colorado thread in the months to follow. Thanks for reading.
Daniel

[Justin]

Hey Gang,
I figured it was time for me to put something together for the member’s bio.
My name is Justin McGruder and I live in Southern California and I started fly fishing about 5 years ago. I started fly fishing in Las Vegas NV of all places. My good friend and I started out by chasing the stocking truck around during the colder months. It was fun but we really wanted to fish moving water and some of the streams and creeks that I remembered in California seemed to be the next step. I had gone to Bishop several times as a youngster but never fished there. I decided to give it a go. We had the pleasure to fish both Hot Creek and the Lower Owens River. We got into some nice fish and I have been addicted ever since!!

Over the last few years I have been trying to get to the Bishop area at least once a year for a week (when I can swing it, I have 3 kids) I also have really been enjoying the Southern California Surf. My family has a time share down in Oceanside California and we go there several times a year. On one of our trips I decided to bring my 5 wt along with my sinking line armed with a few black Woolly Buggers and WHAMO! I was hooking up with fish! I must have caught 10 nice Barred Surf Perch on my first outing, I couldn’t believe there were fish right there in the surf. The next day I tried fishing again and I got into a nice school of Perch and landed another 10 fish or so. If you haven’t tried out the surf you really need to give it a try it can be so much fun and you really never know what you’re gonna catch. Last Year I got my first two Corbinas and what a fight! I had a blast and now split my time between fresh and saltwater.

I also had the pleasure of fishing some of our local water with Shane & Gabe last year and was blown away about the quality and quantity of the fish. Shane was the one who told me about the sight and I thank him for that. I can’t wait to hit the water again with those guys! I also had the pleasure to fish with Mark, Bob, Rob and Ray earlier this year and absolutely had a blast sharing some local water with some awesome fly fishers.
I have really learned a lot and made some great friends here on FFA!!

Justin

[troutslayer]

Greetings Addicts,

I come from Western Montana, Polson to be exact. My long time friend and brother in-law Dave...aka theflyguide, taught me everything I know, and as most of you know, what a great person to learn from. I was hooked once he took me to a local reservoir to fish for largemouth with poppers. I fish a couple local streams and rivers here on the Flathead Indian Reservation, the Jocko River and Post Creek and sometimes make it over to the Clark Fork. Going to make my first trip into the Bob Marshell Wilderness this summer to fish the South Fork of the Flathead and hopefully float the Missouri as well this year. I haven't posted here much as of yet but hope to have lots to post this spring and summer. I am a frequent visitor though and must say this forum is awsome and am jealous of the great year around fishing y'all have in Cali.

[darrin terry]

Welcome guys! Always good seeing new faces.

[sturgeon]

I will make you proud with the Wright & McGill you have given me. Don't you worry.
Thanks again.
Daniel

[1mocast]

Welcome to addictville...

[tobysmom]

Hi my name is Sharon.... I grew up in Seal beach in the late 50's and early 60's My mother's boyfriend had a half day boat called the Red Rocket and we spent many many days out fishing. I remember catching a 45 lb halibut that was way bigger than I was at the time and they put the picture on the wall at the cafe that was at the end of the pier. It stayed there for almost 10 years untill the pier fell during a storm. My grandmother also worked as a waitress there so every chance I got I would go and hang out there and fish off the pier. My grandparents took my sister and I to the kern river for summer vacations andI remember I was always the first one on the river and the last one off. I married my husband in 1990 and a few years after he decided he wanted to do some gold panning . I thought to myself that does not sound like fun to me but I figured we would be on alot of rivers and steams so i decided to try fly fishing and from then on I never looked back. I never got to do alot of it and never knew what I was doing but I was on the water and in some real pretty places and that's what I liked the best... I've got to fish some awesome rivers in montana and Idaho and wyoming still never knowing what I was doing and never catching alot of fish... I hadn't done any fishing for maybe 10 years and my nephew invited us up to Bishop creek almost 2 years ago now and since then I get up to the kern atleast once a month totally addicted . I went out with Guy up there a couple of times learned alot but still have no clue what I'm doing but that's ok cause I'm on the water in some pretty places

[darrin terry]

Sharon, it sounds to me like you've walked a fine trail to me. I say don't worry about the not knowing, just keep fishing and trying to solve the puzzle. It's always changing anyway. Keep enjoying the walk.

Thanks for adding your tale to our little history.

[Eric]

Welcome to the site!!!!
Eric

[FlyinFish]

Hi all! New to the board and thought I'd throw up a little about myself and my fishing (there is a slight difference between the two, I think). I will try to keep it brief.

My dad and his family always went camping and fishing, but mostly just as a leisure activity. I caught my first fish in a port when I was 3 years old and my dad tied a line to a stick and then snuck a dead baitfish onto the end of the line. The next actually fishing was done at Piru Lake and Pyramid lake. Mostly bluegills and a few stockers. My cousins all messed around, while I remained focused on the fishing.

When I was about 10 years old we found LA Harbor Sportfishing and the rest is history. I fished the Matt Walsh 1/2 day boat every weekend for years and later transferred over to the Monte Carlo out of 22nd Street. Most nights before fishing I could not sleep at all. When I finally started falling asleep, all my dad had to do was turn on the light and I was wide awake (this sounds like no big deal, until you realized that I sleep like a freakin log!). It wasn't long before I taught myself how to use a baitcaster and I slowly developed my true passion - fishing surface irons or "jigs" on long rods (9 or 10 foot) for barracuda and yellowtail. Yellows soon became my favorite fish and there is no feeling in the world like hooking a nice big 30# yellow on the surface iron on a 10 ft rod and having watched the whole process of siting, chase, swirl, and finally the hookup, headshake, and run. A few years ago I started long range fishing. Now I try to do an annual 8 day trip out of San Diego.

I've amounted a small collection of vintage jigs and long rods. All of which were designed and built in SoCal over the past 60 or 70 years. I think its similar to the addiction to cane fly rods.

To fill in the void between summers I took up trout fishing at the infamous Santa Ana River lakes. I had to start from scratch again and learned everything on my own. I quickly developed my powerbait skills and moved on to spinners and then took a liking to fishing plastics. I had a short stint of fishing largemouth as well, but without a bass boat and with conflicts with the saltwater season, that dwindled away.

But, I then found the West Fork. I started by fishing these tiny hair jigs on my 2# gear. Some so light that I couldn't even cast them and developed a pitching technique. I did really well on these small, beautiful, wild fish. I soon transferred to flies and bobbers or splitshots. I eventually bought an old fly setup from a garage sale for like $20, tied on some 4# test ("leader") and then some 2# test ("tippet") and a mosquito. I was fishing Piru creek when I hooked and landed my first gem on the fly rod. A few trips later I had a 6 fish day on the WF with fish to 9 inches. They were the biggest and fattest fish I'd ever caught out of there. And they were all on the dries! And you all know how exciting that is! It was like the freshwater parallel to fishing the surface irons. There was no turning back from there...

That day I decided to go for it... I ordered a 4 wt. setup from Cabelas and have been working at it for a couple years now. I must admit I haven't been very committed to it. By the time fishing gets good, its time to fish saltwater. And I'm also lacking in an adventurous sidekick. My dad is not the aggressive or explorer type and just likes to drive up to the WF and have a nice relaxing day. I also had a leave of absence when I moved to Seattle for a year and a half. But, I'm back now and ready to improve my skills!

Aside from fishing... I grew up in the SF Valley and went to school in SoCal. I now work in LA as an engineer and live on the westside. My passion for airplanes is second only to my passion for fishing. I got my private pilot's certificate two summers ago, but have found it too expensive to maintain flight hours. Still an amazing experience.

While living in Seattle I took up skiing to pass the dreary cold winters. I instantly fell in love and was on the mountain twice a week. Great, just what I needed, another expensive hobby!

I also started to get into backpacking in Seattle. I haven't quite built up all my gear and was sharing with my roommate. He was teaching me the basics, but I moved away before getting too much experience. So, that is something else I plan to work on while pursuing trout.

I've also recently taken up road biking (dang it! these expensive hobbies just keep finding me!) since I busted my knee and can no longer run or jog routinely. This is a very casual sport for me though, and nothing like my thirsty desires for offshore pelagics, small water gems, clear blue skies, and first tracks in powder.

I'm a big fan of good beer and looooove IPAs. A scotch and a cigar is also hard to beat after a long day of casting. Good food, good libations, good friends, and enjoying the wonders of Mother Nature from air to land to sea. And that about sums it up!! I hope to fish with a bunch of you soon. I thank you all in advance, because I know you will be an integral part in teaching me the ways of the fly. I have experienced no other community like the fishing community in which people help each other and enjoy the sport together.

[rayfound]

Cheers Jeff, welcome aboard.

I have experienced no other community like the fishing community in which people help each other and enjoy the sport together.

I'd like to add "And Protect the fisheries and fish".

I think that is the one thing that I really recognize in the FF community is the desire to protect wild places containing wild fish.

[Sasha]

Welcome to the forum!

[flybob]

Great Bio Arvin!

Welcome to the family!

Oh, and welcome to the "OTHER" family too!
Bob

[FlyinFish]

I have experienced no other community like the fishing community in which people help each other and enjoy the sport together.

I'd like to add "And Protect the fisheries and fish".

I think that is the one thing that I really recognize in the FF community is the desire to protect wild places containing wild fish.

Amen to that Ray! Fishing allows you to experience and appreciate and respect so much of the wilderness and nature and other creatures. I can't begin to imagine how empty my life would be without the experiences I've had while fishing. What we see routinely every weekend are things people either only see in pictures and DVDs or never see at all.


Thanks for the welcomes guys!