[tinman207]

There is probably a ton of threads on this in the past, but I always love hearing when people got hooked. I was posting in the dumbest fish thread about my first and got to thinking about it.
My first pasted from the other thread:
First fish I ever caught on a fly when I was about 13 was about a 10" bass. I was trying to teach myself to fly cast after reading a magazine about it. I was standing on a rock pile at Lake Thomas Wa, casting to some rising cutthroat, and I snagged a tree behind me. I turned around and started pulling, and the fly came loose and dropped at the water edge in 6" of water and the water splashed. Problem was, my line was still over a tee branch, so I basically hoisted the fish up out of the water so it was dangling about my shoulder level. I was so excited and didn't want to lose it, but I was 20ft away, so I somehow tucked my rod and pulled in tension as I walked towards it keeping it floating up in the air.

 

[ffb]

My first fish on a fly came at a family friend's backyard pond.

I was 11 years old and didn't know anything about fly fishing. I'd always tried to fish conventionally but I was on my own as my dad wasn't much of a fisherman and I spent a lot of time watching all the fishing shows on TNN that my dad would tape for me in his classroom, and trying to emulate what I watched without much success ever.

We were over at my parents friends house and they had a trout pond out back and I was asked if I wanted to try fly fishing for one of the trout. I don't remember a whole lot about it other than he helped me sloppily cast out about 30ft of line with a small dry fly and hooking up with this fish which ended up coming home for dinner and I remember it tasting like dirt.

That sparked the fire though, and I've been fly fishing ever since. Before I was able to drive my dad would always drive me around to take me fishing or meet up with people I had met online to go fishing, even sending me across state lines with strangers my parents had met once to go on week long fishing trips during the 2nd week of the school year. I taught him a bit of what I knew and he would fish with me sometimes too. He doesn't fish anymore but I still have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to his support of my addiction.

I found that Mariners hat in a box of my childhood stuff the other day, I should probably hang on to it as a lucky fishing hat.

 

[Gary Thompson]

Brook trout on a brown hackle peacock

 

[weiliwen]

It must have happened in the late 70's or early 80's, almost certainly a cutthroat on the Nehalem river, and either on a Spruce or Tied Down Caddis Buck, orange. I never used anything else back then. Oh yeah, on a 8' 6-weight Eagle Claw rod and Pfleuger Medallist.

 

[Desert Man]

It was earlier this year. A small rainbow on the Nisqually caught using an Echo Solo 5wt 4 piece travel rod.

 

[tinman207]

It must have happened in the late 70's or early 80's, almost certainly a cutthroat on the Nehalem river, and either on a Spruce or Tied Down Caddis Buck, orange. I never used anything else back then. Oh yeah, on a 8' 6-weight Eagle Claw rod and Pfleuger Medallist.

Lol....my first fly rod was actually an eagle claw spinning rod that had a handle that popped off and reversed to work as a fly rod, and a rusty loud clicking Diwah reel I found in afoot locker in my dads garage. That thing must have equated to a huge floppy 8 weight.

 

[Old Man]

I can't remember that far back. To old and my memory's fading.

 

[Dr. Magill]

Small trout in the High Sierra on a mosquito larva in 1977. Didn't really get fully into the fly gig until I moved to Arlington and only so I could fish the NF in the summer. That fishery has surely declined since. I use to fish the crap out of that river but not so much in the past couple of years - closed a lot.

 

[Olive bugger]

Like Jim, I can't recall when or where. I do recall thinking to myself that after so many dry runs with a fly rod, THAT WAS A VERY STUPID FISH. HE ACTUALLY TOOK MY FLY!

Probably in the Skykomish River near the Lewis Street Bridge, sometime in the early 1970s.

 

[Kyle Smith]

Brook trout on a brown hackle peacock

Brook trout on a Grey Hackle Peacock for me! Weird.

 

[Shamoo]

..it was the summer of I don't remember, I was looking for "other" things to do, as I was cold turkey'ing some bad habits. I stumbled into the Chubby n Tubby on Rainier ave without a clue..wandered around and grabbed a Remington Flyfishing Kit, all in one, flies included. The clerk told me to go to the Tolt River. I did, I caught 6 smolt on the Tolt with an elk hair caddis.
Bhudda- the "Sold on Tolt smolt" kinda guy

 

[Shamoo]

It must have happened in the late 70's or early 80's, almost certainly a cutthroat on the Nehalem river, and either on a Spruce or Tied Down Caddis Buck, orange. I never used anything else back then. Oh yeah, on a 8' 6-weight Eagle Claw rod and Pfleuger Medallist.

did you ever migrate to fishing coho on the N. river?

 

[Shamoo]

..it was the summer of I don't remember, I was looking for "other" things to do, as I was cold turkey'ing some bad habits. I stumbled into the Chubby n Tubby on Rainier ave without a clue..wandered around and grabbed a Remington Flyfishing Kit, all in one, flies included. The clerk told me to go to the Tolt River. I did, I caught 6 smolt on the Tolt with an elk hair caddis.
Bhudda- the "Sold on Tolt smolt" kinda guy

actually they where parr

 

[blackbird]

Growing up in Ohio, first trout was backpacking in the Sierra Nevada during grad school, a brook trout taken on a spoon in the second small lake above DevilsPunchbowl.

First on a fly was at Gold Lake in Oregon on a simple peacock herl and red wire fly of my own crude tying. Another brook trout.

Jay

 

[Penobscot]

February,1996, Fall River Oregon at the hatchery, 10 inch rainbow from the outflow wash at Ed's Hole......Flashback Pheasant Tail under an indicator.

I loved that fish.

 

[Chris Johnson]

Rainbow lake Louise Alberta, mid sixties. Probably a Carey special.

 

[biker_dd]

As a kid, we used to take an annual summer vacation to a place called Bear Spring's Camp in Maine. I'm sure we did other things there, but all I cared about and all I remember is fishing with my Dad. We'd catch perch trolling out to 'our spot' before throwing bait (helgremites, crawfish, minnows, frogs) for bass. There was a main dining lodge where all the guests ate dinner, and you could bring your catch up to them and they'd cook it up for your dinner if you so chose. I remember a very proud walk with a 5 lb bass one lovely summer day!

Most of the rest of my summer memories were fishing from the jetty at our local beach for snapper blues (baby bluefish) and catching green crabs to sell to the bait shop or blue crabs to bring home for dinner.

As a young man, I heard my Dad mention how he used to fly fish when he was a teenager growing up in Ohio. I never saw him do it, there was no fly gear in our house. Life went on. I grew up (sort of) and moved out. My Dad and I had our ups and downs. I settled out West in Seattle. My Dad and I would talk and going fishing in Alaska would occasionally come up. He knew somebody who knew somebody who managed a fish camp. It came up more and more frequently. We had our excuses - too far for him, too expensive for me. Still, it kept coming up. For a couple of years.

I still remember the phone conversation, I was calling him from Hawaii, had just finished up some work there. He had recently hurt his knee on what he now declared was his last hunting trip. He wasn't getting any younger, I wasn't ever going to have the extra $ lying around to go fish Alaska, but it just had to happen. I told him to call his friend and get it booked. That was in February, we went the following summer.

It was on the Kenai Peninsula. Most people were there to fish for salmon and they ran some trips out for halibut. First day we went out, just the 2 of us with a guide, my first time with a fly rod. My Dad probably hadn't had one in his hand in over 40 years. I had no idea how to cast. The guide set me up on a gravel bar and had me just flipping line up stream and letting the current load the rod. Within about 15 minutes I'd had enough of that and was trying to figure out how to cast. A few tips from our guide and I was doing well enough to get a little line out. A few more minutes and something is taking line out of my hand and then off my reel. Picture is of my first trout on a fly rod. I wish I had a picture of the smile on my Dad's face as he was taking the photo. It was a pretty stellar beginning, and it's been a great learning experience and pursuit ever since.

It would be a stretch to say fishing saved the relationship between my Dad and I. It would be an understatement to say our relationship wouldn't be the same without that trip and the experience of fishing together. My Dad will turn 80 next year, and with any luck, he and I will be in his backyard in Florida for at least a little while, both of us fishing. One of us will have a fly rod, possibly both us. And there might be a bass or 2 involved and some big smiles. Just like when I was a little kid.

Thanks for bringing it up. I've seen the 'first fish on the fly' thread posted before, but never got around to posting my experience. Good memories.
View attachment 124572

 

[generic]

Several 8-10" bows on Rattlesnake Creek, under Broadway St, with a Grey Wulff.

Anyone know where that is?

 

[ffb]

Several 8-10" bows on Rattlesnake Creek, under Broadway St, with a Grey Wulff.

Anyone know where that is?

Missoula

 

[Buck]

About a 6" trout, but probably a steelhead smolt. I caught about 15 of them and thought "that was the most fun fishing i've ever had!"
I fished the Yakima my first time in the summer and caught a butt load of trout, not my first time fly fishing, but my first time with a guide and the whole shebang. Epic. They cooked me a steak on the river, oh crap... You would have thought I died and gone to heaven. Ha.
So fast forward a long time and those are still today some of my fondest memories and the things I work hard to get to do.
I just basically stopped right there and said, yup, that'll do. and I'm cool with that!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Buck,