For most of my life, fly fishing has been my passion. From the time I tied my first dry fly and delivered it to small brook trout on Swift Run, I have been hooked.
I have spent countless hours pulling fly line through the air with a long leader and a small fly tagging along for the ride. I have caught trout, bass, panfish, stripers, bluefish, amberjack, speckled trout, and many other species. It has been one of the great joys in my life. But my children lacked my inherent genes as a fly-fishing fanatic, or so I thought.
My eldest daughter, Angelin, dearly loves fishing, but prefers to do it with a spinning rod, and preferably in the Chesapeake Bay. My son, Jimmie, did a little fly fishing when he was younger, but he is a bait casting kind-of-guy, and largemouth bass are his favorite targets. My youngest daughter, Laura, however, has recently developed a serious case of fly fishing fever. I loaned her one of my fly rods when she moved from California to Durham. She began to flyfish in a close-by stream where she caught a few bluegills and small bass on popping bugs.
Recently, Laura moved to Charlottesville and set her aim on trout. I cleaned out my fly-tying closet and taught her the fundamentals. I also set her up with one of the greatest fly rods ever made – a Powell 9-foot rod for 4/5 weight line.
Immediately, Laura began tying great looking flies and last week, she was off to the most western part of Virginia to try her hand with the trout on Whitetop Laurel Creek.
On her first day out, she landed this beauty: a 15 ½ inch rainbow trout. On subsequent days, she got better and better, learning to read the water, control her drifts and she ended up catching a number of very nice trout up to 18-inches.
Laura truly has my genes. She is now hooked on fly fishing, and I am delighted. She has a lifetime of enjoyment ahead of her.