No Fish, but Clydesdales!

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Livin' Part of Life

I heard it on my ipod this morning and wanted it to be on my blog.

So.  Tonight was interesting. I got off work and hammered down to get home cause the weather was absolutely fantastic.  I had a spot on the beach that I have been eyeing for approximately a year now.  So I stopped at home, changed into my wade fishing clothes and headed off to the beach.  About a half mile from where we were going to pull over and start wading, there was a crowd of people and traffic was slowing.  I hurried up and got into the turn lane and veered off to see what everybody was looking at. Who would have guessed the Budweiser Clydesdale's were visiting.  My buddy and I got our share of pictures and it was off to the beach.

They went for two.

That man was as tall as me.

Andy's having a good day too.

So, anyways on with the fishing.  I learned why Sid, the fly casting instructor that has been holding lessons for members of HOSSFLY, my new fly fishing club, says practice your casting before you go fishing.  I decided to use a weighted fly tonight that sinks.  Having a heavy weight on the end of your leader make a huge difference! I spent a good half an hour trying to get rid of "wind knots" that had gotten stuck up in my leader. It definately took a while to get used to the heavier fly.  A little practice would have alleviated this problem.

I just got all the knots out of my leader.

Something else I tried this evening  that seemed to help with the heavier fly weight, the double haul.  Sid showed me this technique the last fly casting lesson I had and by the end of the lesson I was doing it pretty well.  I still don't look graceful like he does, but tonight, I had the fly line SCREAMING out of my rod.  It was a pretty good feeling to be able to take some of the work out of one arm and distribute to the other.  If you have never tried the double haul technique, I'll attach a link to a solid instructional video taught by a fly casting legend Sid told me about named Mel Krieger so you can learn.  This video plus Sid's instruction I would say has given me pretty solid start on the technique that proved to be the end of my difficulty with the heavier fly this evening

Mel Krieger teaches the Double Haul

This really leads me to my next point.  I'm going to try to avoid giving actual instructions on fly casting techniques in this blog.  If I find a video or article that helped me learn something new, I'll post that. However, I will absolutely avoid pretending like I'm any authority on what I'm doing.  The reason for that is this.  There are classes and seminars people go to to learn common terminology and ways to teach fly casting techniques.  When a person leaves this class they get the value of being in a community of people who understand fly casting well enough to teach it.  That takes a pretty special individual, as I learned today while I was picking knots out of my leader instead of fishing. 

Sid is a pretty special individual.  He is currently working on his Master's Certification for fly casting.  He is a qualified instructor and an absolute wealth of knowledge.  He recently got back from Belize and had some fantastic stories to tell about fishing for Tarpon.  One day I hope I can go to Belize after what he told us about the trip.  He's a selfless individual.  He seems to genuinely enjoy watching Brian, my roommate, and myself  learn when we get together for our lessons.  Thanks Sid!

The next point I wanted to make while I was on here was this.  If there is a fly fishing club in your area and you have a desire to learn to fly fish, JOIN THE CLUB.  HOSSFLY (Historic Ocean Springs Fly Fishing Club) has made me feel incredibly welcome. I was actually invited on a wade fishing trip to the Barrier Islands for the next weekend after my first business meeting (which I had to decline cause my fly rod was late arriving!!!! DAMN IT!)!  The club seems to be about four things; Fly Fishing, protecting the environment, promoting the sport of fly fishing to as many people as possible, and comraderie.  Everybody seemed to enjoy everybody elses company, new or old.  I will be getting more involved with this group as it represents a great cause and opportunity to meet somebody new.

Anyways, tonight's trip yielded no fish. It yielded promise for better fishing though as the bait fish (small fingerlings) were abundant in the shallows and you could actually see pods of bait breaking to avoid the attack of a predator (maybe flounder?).  They also seemed to like the way the hair on my legs tasted.

All in all though, it was a great afternoon and I actually fished till after dark.  The moon came up. The water calmed down and I was at peace.  Too bad I have to go to work tomorrow. I'd still be fishing ;).

Beautiful Day!!!!!  It's rough being me sometimes.

I thought I had got the moon. Darn.