Hello All,
Grew up in Riverside, CA, live in Rancho Cucamonga CA now. Spent 3 years in Vegas in the mid '90's.
Always enjoyed fishing, particularly with my father-in-law in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Unfortunately, he passed last October, but he left many a well-stocked pond on his properties. The house he lived in had a 3-4 acre pond which he stocked, fed, aerated, and maintained lovingly for most of the last decade or so. It was here that I had a five species day on my 5 wt. a couple of years ago. Thanks to Justin for showing me the light of the fly. I was always a C&R guy, mostly because I didn't like all the stuff ya had to do to the fish from pond to table. After reading Mike's article on Trout Handling Basics, I had more of a reason to continue C&R with a few trout-friendly adjustments...Thanks Mike!
Oh, the five species? Crappie, LM Bass, perch, catfish, and...(drum roll please...) a turtle. All out of that pond.
I was in a punk band from 1982-1992. Made some records, toured a bit. I have had the benefit of living two lives now that I have become a suburbanized, overweight father of 2 girls (8 and 11). You can check out our band's facebook page (The Conditionz) or our website that is under development:
http://www.theconditionz.com/ Not trying to sell anything yet, apologies if this is not appropriate in this forum.
I've been in the foodservice industry for some time now, and I had the privilege of working with Justin at a University here in SO Cal. When he found out I liked to fish, he brought a couple of fly rods to work one day and taught me some basic fly-casting techniques. We were casing in the middle of campus! I remember the photography professor running to his class and dragging his students outside to take pictures of us flailing away at the lawn...
Justin took me to a well-traveled local creek for my first live experience. He tied on tippet for me, encourage me, and was more excited to have turned someone on the sport than fishing himself. After a few hours, I stuck a single dink and was hooked. A blessing and a curse, heavy weighting on the former for me, the latter for my wife
I love our local creeks and am committed to keep them teeming with our quarry.
Thanks for reading my story.
Aaron