Comments (1)

By Sean Fenner, June 27, 2010 11:47 pm

The other day my phone rang at 4:00p.m. and on the other line was a fellow “UrbanFlyVenturer” letting me know that his brother is in town from the south, and he wanted to fish with me at a local park lake for an hour or two. Work was slowing down and I figured I would make it out of the office by 5:30p.m., so I asked where they wanted to meet. Ralph Clark Regional Park Lake was close, so that’s where we headed.

I arrived not really knowing what to expect. I had not fished with either of them before, and was not really sure what they were hoping to gain from the trip. Did they just want to talk to me? Did they want some fishing advise? Or was there some other motive?

Always excited to meet someone new and gain some fishing insight. I pulled up and they were waiting for me anxiously. I said “hi”, and they quickly asked “you bring any Poppers”. “I advised as a matter of fact, I brought just about every fly I own,  I wasn’t sure what species or tactic you guys were after”. The brother advised that he wanted to show me some cool tactics he had learned for all flies in the popper category: poppers, chuggers, sliders, etc. All in exchange for a little info on a few tactics for Carp in streams.

A fair deal I thought and we got right down to it. We fished a total of about two and a half hours, and I was amazed at how many fish we caught in that time span. Usually when I’m getting a lesson catching fish isn’t really involved. But wow! Did I ever walk away with a new sense of confidence on how to fish these flies.

I was asked to keep the names anonymous for reasons I am really not sure, but a big “THANK YOU” to John Doe non the less!

So talk to people, get involved in a forum, and you never know what valuable information you might gain!

Comments (4)

By Dan Zambrano, December 16, 2009 5:42 pm

In the world of veterinary medicine there is an adage that goes “see one, do one, teach one”. It is an adage that is most frequently cited and recited in the surgical theater where mental acuity, fine motor skills and, sometimes, physical endurance are valuable traits but where the realities of time and resource limitations mean one best be a quick study. For some, it is a reassurance and confidence builder. For others, it is a grim reminder of abilities lacking.

Without going into potentially endless philosophical debate and all, I would suggest that that adage is applicable to how the art and practice of flyfishing is most often passed along from one fellow to the next or from generation to generation.

Now just to be clear, let me state up front that I am an avid proponent of taking classes from a fly fishing school, joining a local fly fishing club, hiring professional guides or some combination of all three in that never-ending quest to improve one’s casting abilities.

However, I am also a realist and understand that sometimes fellow anglers see you out there and just want you to let them try their hand at that “crazy stick waving” before fully committing to the fine art of fly fishing and a lifetime of perpetual debt and insatiable envy for the next greatest 5-wt.

Such was the case last Monday, when my friend Ray convinced me to take him out for a morning of “instruction”.

(Disclaimer time: Those three things I mentioned earlier as being an avid proponent of…I’m none of them.)

Now, Ray probably has more years of fishing under his belt and more pictures of himself holding more Trout over fifteen pounds than anybody I know. This guy knows fishing and knows how to catch fish like there is no tomorrow. When he rattles off the names of all the lakes he’s fished, it is like an atlas of California waters. His rod and gear collection rivals the Christmas inventory at a Bass Pro Shop.

Yet, despite all these reasons for me to like Ray, he has never flyfished. Nevertheless, I felt a twinge of anxiety as we scheduled to meet up for some informal lessons and “crazy stick waving”.

So, Monday morning, after a restless night spent listening carefully to see if the 50% percent promise of rain and wind would materialize, I headed over to El Dorado Park to spend a couple of hours flinging fly line.

I brought several rods with different actions and a variety of line types and made sure to tie on a hook-less piece of yarn to the ends of the leaders. I wanted Ray to like flyfishing and, in my experience, nothing spoils the lesson like a hook in the back of the head, especially when said head is as bald as a cue ball.

The park was mostly deserted and we had virtually the entire Horseshoe Lake to ourselves. There was no wind but due to the storm from the day before, the lake had an abundance of broken tree limbs and floating debris. As we went over the basics, the surface would occasionally boil from Carp taking advantage of the floating salad bar so aside from me actually figuring out how to explain things in a comprehensible fashion I had to suppress my desire to let Ray figure things out on his own while I tied on one of the new carp flies from Mad River Outfitters.

But, like I said earlier, Ray knows his way around fishing and gear and such so soon enough, we were swapping stories and sharing the locations of favored fishin’ holes between casts and coaching tips and we fell into an easy rhythm of back and forth which pretty much sums up my attitude of how to approach urban fly fishing.

Interestingly, the old and mostly forgotten adage mentioned above popped into my head as I found myself assessing my own acquired bad habits while trying to verbalize what I had learned and knew to be correct.

I found myself once again becoming the student as well as the instructor – which is probably a good thing.

I ’m not sure if I converted Ray to the “Way of the Fly”, but I think he was excited to have gained some insight into this method of going after fish.

He asked multiple times if he could accompany Sean and me next time we hit the L.A. River so I’m guessing that he wasn’t completely turned off or maybe he just needs a picture of a massive Carp to complete his picture album

Whatever the case, it was an enlightening morning for both of us and it was one of those mornings that makes Urban Fly Fishing such a blast.

I love this addiction called urban flyfishin’!