Al and Jake on the River

It is always a good sign when I am supposed to meet someone at the ramp at 6:00 a.m. and they call at 5:45 a.m. to confirm they are sitting at the right ramp.  That was the conversation with Al and me at 5:45 in the morning. I was 5 minutes away and when I arrived they were almost ready to load their stuff in the boat. 

 

Al and his son Jake were floating with me and we shoved the drifter from the bank at 6:00 a.m. on falling water. Al had fly fished before and was a good caster as well as a good angler. Jake had fished before and was a good angler, but Jake was more into fishing gear than the long rod. My job was to give Jake some pointers on fly fishing and get his fly fishing skills up to speed so he could fish on his own when needed. 

It was obvious Jake had been in the outdoors and had a fly rod in his hand before we moved the drifter in a position to tune up his cast. So after a few small pointers on the cast we moved on to the mend. Jake was getting good casts and mends and Al was putting casts in likely positions too. We moved the drifter downstream and Jake laid a cast into a good feeding lane.

It wasn't long before Jake hooked up and landed his first trout on the fly. Al was understandably proud and soon they were both bringing fish to the net fish. It was early in the morning but there were still several folks fishing on the river. Most of the anglers were wading and we saw some mutual friends along this casual float.

After fishing a terrestrial for a while we went to dries. We slid the drifter alongside a seam of feeding fish.   Jake learned the art of dialing in a dry fly presentation while searching for just the right fly. We found the biggest fish in the pod and began calculate how the seams would dictate the mends. Jake dialed in the mends and casts and I worked on the flies. Finally we hit the right combo and Jake picked up his first fish on the dry fly too.

There were a lot of folks floating the river by the time the afternoon came along so we moved on to some deeper pools. After fishing the dry to feeding fish Jake seemed to really get dialed in on nymphing. He went on a catching-spree that would make a seasoned angler proud. I could tell his Dad was the proudest guy in the boat. After several more fish we decided we wanted to get off the water before the sun got the best of us. So with the traffic picking up we slid into the gravel bar with a high fish count and some nice ones along the way.

It wasn't all about Jake on the float and Al caught his share of fish too.  OK, this trip was mostly about Jake getting comfortable and catching the amount of fish he caught was an added bonus. As I've said many time times Father-Son trips are a real pleasure and when someone learns to fly fish it makes the day that much better.  Al thanks for coming out to fish and Jake the next time we are on the river, well let's see if we can turn it up a notch.

To see the latest fishing report  and for more booking information click here.  If you are a seasoned angler or have never picked up a fly rod and want to set up a day on the river just email or call/text 615-796-5143 to book a day on the water.