Soon after I had settled in as a Virginian, I discovered a magical place called The Sport Shop. It was a small, sporting goods shop in Barracks Road Shopping Center run by one of the greatest fishermen ever to complete a roll cast. It was Chuck Kraft’s Sport Shop, specializing in fly fishing. I had done some fly fishing in my younger days. In fact, I got my first fly rod and caught a half dozen fine bluegills on popping bugs when I was 8. But I wasn’t a fly fisherman in the truest sense. I had never caught a trout with a legitimate fly.
The first time I entered the Sport Shop, Kraft eyeballed me suspiciously. He probably could sense that I had often used live worms on my fly rod to catch trout. A sin among fly fsihermen equal to treason.
But gruffly, he asked how he could be of help. I told him I was going to the Tye River to fly fish with another expert – Barry Mawyer – and were there any flies that might help in my adventure. Kraft pulled out a tray with an assortment of buggy looking flies. They were C.K. Nymphs. C.K. for Chiuck Kraft.
Use these yellow nymphs,” he said. “They match the color of the bellies of the stoneflies in the Tye River.
I bought 6, and Barry and I were on the Tye River near sunrise the next day. Barry dropped me off in a questionable spot with over-hanging limbs and I lost two of my precious C.K. nymphs within 30 minutes. We tried a few other spots and Barry was catching trout, lots of trout, but not me.
Later in the day, we drove up to the North Fork of the Tye and – not very confidently, I might add – I tried my luck once again. There was a long stretch of water fed by a small waterfall. With no overhanging limbs, I managed to shoot one of my last flies to the head of the pool and waited for the return drift – which never came. A fish had taken my fly!
I set the hook and soon brought a feisty 10-onch native brook trout to net, and what a beauty. I admired the rich colorations and the tiny crimson dots on my brookie, then released it.
“So, this is what fly fishing is all about,” I said to myself. “I think I might just like it”.
And I did.
