Fly fishing always fascinated me. I could imagine standing in a cold, clear stream, watching a mayfly imitation float into an eddy and being sucked down by a rainbow trout, just like in the magazines I read. Or standing in a river, casting streamers to salmon fresh from the ocean.
I tried to fly fish in Dearing Branch, tying chicken feather flies on tiny hooks with mama’s sewing thread. And I caught a few tiny fish on them, with line tied to a stick from the branch bank. It was not quite what I imagined.
In my early teen years mama and daddy bought me a real fly rod. It was cheap, but it worked. I spent hours casting popping bugs and rubber crickets in local ponds, catching bream and the occasional bass. Later I would fish with that same fly rod at Clarks Hill from my bass boat, catching more bream but few bass.
When Linda and I got married and started fishing together I convinced her fly fishing was not easy. After all, we had only one fly rod. But one day when I was catching bream after bream and she was not getting anything on her spinning rod, she tried it.
She did a great job and instantly started making accurate casts with it and catching bream. That night we went to town and bought her a fly-fishing rod and reel!
I tried fishing a few North Georgia trout streams with my old fly rod, but it was nothing like I imagined. Casting was tough with bushes and trees along the bank, and I could not get the trout to bite. It was frustrating.
Ten years ago on my 60th birthday I stood in a stream about 100 yards from the ocean in Alaska, casting streamers and catching salmon. Although they stop feeding when they go into freshwater, they will still hit a bait. And I caught about 10 nice salmon. It was everything I dreamed of!
I think I will dig out our old fly rods and give them a try again.
I spend way too much time on Facebook, laughing at bad jokes, keeping up with fraternity brothers I have not seen in years and making new friends and sharing information with old ones. But I also spend too much time getting frustrated over fake information and angry about true information about folks that believe in things that go against everything I was raised to believe.
One of the most maddening things are the so-called “fact checkers” that contradict my opinions with their own opinions, not facts.
A good example is a meme I shared this week. It showed Democrat vice president candidate Kamala Harris, in an interview, saying she was in favor of banning so-called “assault weapons” and having a “mandatory” buy-back program.
She wants to make law-abiding gun owners, about 15 million of us according to The New York Times, that own anything she calls an assault weapon to turn it in to the government for a small payment or be arrested.
The meme said Democrat vice president candidate Kamala Harris is anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment.
I was “fact checked” with the comments that Kamala Harris is not anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment, she is in favor of “sensible gun laws.” The Second Amendment says a citizen’s right to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed.” But according to the “fact checkers,” taking guns away from citizens, by force, is “sensible.”
Facebook has every right to censor information and make false claims since they it is a private company. But I still call them “Facistbook,” for their censorship
Last Sunday 14 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our August tournament at Sinclair. After eight hours of casting, we brought 36 keeper bass weighing about 58 pounds to the scales. There were three five-bass limits and two fishermen didn’t catch a keeper.
Tom Tanner shocked us all with five bass weighing 13.83 pounds and won big fish with a 5.25-pound largemouth. Raymond English had a limit weighing 9.65 pounds for second and Mitchell Cardell’s limit weighing 8.70 pounds was third. Niles Murray had a limit weighing 6.06 pounds for fourth.
I had a frustrating day. My boat is in the shop with a locked-up lower unit, so I fished with Niles. That is the first time I remember fishing a tournament from the back of the boat since 1980, when my motor broke in a Top Six Tournament at Eufaula. I caught a nice 2.67-pound largemouth on a buzzbait first thing that morning, a good start.
But it must have fired up Niles. He caught one of his keeps on a topwater plug soon after I caught mine, then put on a show with a trick worm, catching his other four from grass beds. I managed one more small keeper the rest of the day!
I hope my boat gets well soon!
Ronnie Garrison writes about outdoors topics for The Griffin Daily News.
Credit: Source link
