[ts3593474]

Well, it started as a way to get as far away from everything as possible. I was 13 and could walk a mile or so to get to the river for some smallies. My dad had a fly rod but never used it or taught me so I took it upon myself to take it and learn. As soon as I could drive the range that I could "get away" grew exponentially and I started to fish with a friend's older brother who introduced me to tying, instantly hooked, and also to decent casting. He was also a fisheries biologist which was very useful in my education as a fly fisherman...

Speaking of which, I need to get away from work right about now...

[flyvet]

I grew up in Lake County Florida where there was a lake every 1/2 mile so we would ride our bikes and fish for bream, bass, catfish etc. mostly with bait, either bread or worms, minnows and crickets we would catch ourselves. Our fishing poles were either ribs from palm fronds or bamboo we would cut down. I would save my money for hooks, bobbers, etc. Back then the hooks were valuable, we would make them last a long time. Anyway, visited my cousin one day (about 1958) who had a flyrod and had been reading up on using it, I was hooked. My first rod I bought with funds earned on my paper route (my first job), a fiberglass rod with an automatic reel. So then it was saving money for popping bugs and sneaky petes. First trout fishing was in NC in early sixties where we vacationed.

[streamer]

Here's a link to the last time this was a topic:

http://www.southeastflyfishingforum....hlight=Gordian

Streamer

[Southern Hex]

My grandmother always tells me that my enthusiasm for the outdoors stems from her father. She would tell me stories of the kitchen table being covered with feathers due to my great-grandfathers fly-tying; when she was a young girl.

Fly-fishing skipped a couple of generations between us, but I was lucky enough that my older brother picked it up at an early age. Our father was a devote outdoorsman, but he fished with a spinning rod. This didn't stop him from encouraging my brother with fly-fishing, and helping out in any way he could.

Our family stayed near the Lovells, MI area along the banks of the North Branch of the Au Sable River. Here my brother and I cut our teeth fishing the fly-fishing only stretches of the North, South and main Stem of the Au Sable River.

This all started occuring for myself around the age of 8. At age 12 I was confident with my casting, but my father decided to get me instruction through Glenn Blackwood who owns Great Lakes Fly-Fishing Company. This tightened up those few loose screws and inconsistencies with my movement/rhythem.

The life-long obesession was then born. I started keeping hatch records, tying flies, and buying unnecessary equipment, because it was fly-fishing related.

[Rog 1]

The greatest gift I ever received came from my Dad introducing me to fishing...started fishing for bream in the small lakes around Tavares, Fl. My Dad married a girl from Sevierville, Tn. whose father fished more than any man I have ever known. I used to watch him disappear from family picnics in the Smokies with his fly rod and woven creel. One day while waiting for him to return my cousin and I were tossing hoppers off a bridge into the stream and out came the trout....first time I realized that there were fish in the creeks. Caught my first trout on a fly on Porter's Creek in Greenbrier when I was 13 and have been chasing them for the last 50 years. I fished with my grandfather until he was 82 and with my Dad until he was into his mid 80s...now my son is a 4th generation flyfisherman on the same waters I learned on and I hope he passes this tradition on to his children when the time comes.

[mlmurph]

I grew up pond fishing with my dad and grandfather - mostly bass, bream and catfish. Lived in the heart of Alabama and bought a bass boat when I was a young adult and started fishing "big water" almost every weekend.

Had a friend that moved to Colorado and when I'd visit, he'd always take me flyfishing. I struggled with casting and catching, but I thought it was the neatest thing that such big fish lived in such small streams. Even neater, the scenery was breathtaking and far removed from being one of 50 people at the boat launch every weekend.

I had a heart attack at 40 and the doctor concluded that it was mostly stress-related. His advice was to find something to do to deal with stress and be able to dismiss all other priorities for a day or two each week. Being 3-4 hours from "big water," I didn't want to buy another bass boat, but I did remember how much I enjoyed fishing when I was younger.

I hired Travis Honeycutt at Altamont Anglers to guide me through some streams in Asheville to see what I thought of fly fishing. He was just a kid himself, but he knew his stuff, put me on both numerous and large fish, and helped me to redeem what I had learned in Colorado 10 years earlier.

The next weekend, I was $1,500 poorer but there was nothing I'd need in a river that I didn't have. I've beat that gear to death 2-3 days a week for the last five years.

In the meantime, I've gotten my youngest hooked on tying and fishing which is a greater joy in itself than fishing myself.

[duckhunteresq]

....And what a great thread for my first post. I always enjoy reading about other people's introduction to fly fishing.

My Brother and I grew up fishing in the Cypress Swamps along the Texas/Louisiana border (beautiful scenery) with our Dad and Grandfather for Bass, White Perch, Catfish and the like....Then work brought me to Chattanooga, TN where I was first introduced to fly fishing by a friend, Kevin and what would later become my Brother-in-Law, John (he posts out here so I won't mention his screen name ).

I started out with a borrowed 9 foot Cortland 6 weight and learned the knots, the casts and the flies and had some really great experiences on the Tailwaters with the two of them. Then came the moment of truth for me. I decided that if I was going to invest in this art (invest = my own gear), I had to know I could do it on my own. So, I took off work one Friday and left the house in the predawn and steered toward the river. Needless to say, I had a fantastic day and have been, pardon the pun, hooked ever since.

Some of my favorite days have been on small mountain streams in the upper elevations chasing Native Brookies with a few close friends on streams that shall remain nameless. Sitting on a moss covered rock looking up at the fall of the bed of the stream, with the sunlight dancing and filtering it's way through the green leaves of the towering canopy overhead before reaching the surface of the rocks and water.....Well, it reminds me of looking down the aisle of a Church filled with stained glass windows.

Here is to all of us....But especially my good fly fishing companions....You know who you are....

[anglingireland]

As a kid with an old cane rod. Hooks for bait fishing were hard to get, but trout flies grew on trees.

Even today I collect flies carelessly left hanging over the rivers, not so much to fish with them, but I've seen a few bats and birds left hanging in my time.

[ScoutHikerDad]

I always love these threads. I've bored you guys with this story before, but I got started with my boys and three cheapo ($24.95!) complete Martin "fly-fishing kits" on our great summer-long Western trip in the summer of '06. We camped, backpacked, and "fished"-I'm using the term loosely-all over Southwestern Montana and Yellowstone. We couldn't afford many motel rooms or activities that actually cost money, but I've never had a finer meal than Dinty Moore stew miles away from the nearest road in any case.

At any rate, we made fools out of ourselves on some of the most storied streams in America! And the first little dink cutthroat I caught on Cache Creek in Yellowstone nearly made me wet myself! And I'll admit it, "The Movie" is what first piqued my interest, as I had never gotten into fishing much as a kid.

And Paul, I hear ya on the ADD thing. My 12-year old son and fishing partner, who is almost literally a human pinball and actually DOES bounce off the walls, is like a zen master when he zones in on a trout stream.

Now, every time I go, which is not nearly as often as I would like, it's like being reborn in the sparkling waters of some high-country blue-line. For me, maybe it's because of where I am in life (middle-age, taking stock of my youth, etc.), but every trip is a search for peace, grace (and some nice trout!) on the water. Aaron

[DrLogik]

I can remember holding a fishing rod to my earliest years. My dad took me worm fishing. When I was around 11 or so I told my dad I wanted to fly fish because I to saw Curt Gowdy fly fishing on TV. I wanted to do that!!

We went to Newman-Stern in Cleveland, Ohio and I got a Pflueger reel, Berkley fiberglass rod and Cortland line and a few flies. I headed off to summer camp with my new stuff and came back hooked.

A few years later I started tying flies and got my materials from Anglersmail in Parma, Ohio.

I still love to bait-fish (nothing beats a freshly molted crawfish to sucker BIG browns) but fly fishing is my passion.