My daughter, Laura, has a big-time case of fly-fishing fever. My oldest daughter, Angelin, loves to dunk squid in saltwater and my son, Jimmie, enjoys tormenting largemouth bass with a buzz bait, but Laura is drawn to the gurgling creeks and the trout lurking within. Creeks like Mossy Creek in Augusta County.
Mossy Creek is hallowed ground for Virginia fly fishermen. It was here that I landed my first gator-sized brown trout. The memory burns bright even to this day.
It was about 1975 or so. I had learned to tie CK nymphs and lost many in the low-lying limbs along the Tye River. Then my friends with Trout Unlimited told me about a newly developed stream, a spring creek in the valley. Mossy Creek.
My TU Buddy, Dave Whitaker, and I signed up for a Harry Murray seminar on how to fish Mossy Creek. Harry preached his sermon, told us that we must use leader finer than spider thread and flies so small you could put a dozen in a thimble with room for that many more.
After the talk, Harry turned us loose on the stream. Within a half hour I had lost half of the tiny flies to thistle bushes and was ready to light a stick of dynamite and toss it in the first pool. Instead, I decided that I would no longer back cast and offer sacrifices to the thistle gods but would find something in my fly box I could just dunk along the edge of the stream.
I had once tied a super long and super ugly CK nymph that looked like it might have come in 3rd at a Special Olympics fly tying contest. I tied that on a strong leader and began dunking. Not 15 minutes later, I dropped the fly at the base of an old tree leaning out over the creek and caught myself a 22-inch brown trout.
Last week, I took Laura to Mossy, and she was enthralled. She has returned twice and has landed wily brown trout on each visit.
I only hope she has a memorable moment or two as I once did in the return to Mossy Creek.