Special Places part 4

That first bluegill I caught on the fly started me on a life long journey to learn all I could about flyfishing. I cut neighbors lawns to earn money and subscribed to Outdoor Life, and Field and Stream magazines and read and reread all the fishing articles, especially the ones on fly fishing.

I fished the streams and ponds near my house, and when my family went fishing I always took the long rod. When my Dad saw how interested I was in fly fishing he bought me a fly tying kit. I made up all kinds of flys and fished with them all. Some were better than others. and when I found a pattern that worked, I tried many variations of it until I had the one that worked best.

Bluegills and other perches and sunfish will eat anything that looks like a bug and others that look like nothing on earth. There were some patterns that they would eat when nothing else would work, mostly ones that looked like nothing they had ever seen. I think they were just curious and bit it to see what it was. A lot of the fly fishermen tie look nothing like anything in the river or lake, but the fish hit them anyway.

Salmon flies are like that, gaudy creations but the Salmon eat them up. When fish are small they eat mostly plankton and zoo plankton and they come in all shapes, colors and sizes, maybe fish think our offerings are just plankton. I don't think fish are smart enough to realize that they are growing larger, Its just eat and don't get eaten. That's about all a fish's life is about until its time to spawn, then their species programing takes over and they follow their instincts. They don't realize they are now too big to see the plankton anymore, and eat anything that looks like what they have eaten before.

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Life lesson 1: "The things you love most will hurt you the worst, if you aren't careful!!"

It was a dark and stormy night...( sorry Snoopy, I had to steal that one )

I was born at 1: 24 AM on October 31, somewhere in the 20th century. My dad was in the army and we lived in lots of different places. I went to 12 different schools before I got out of high school, and it seemed we always moved right in the middle of the school year. It was hard always being the new kid in class.

I did not care, I spent all my free time fishing anyway. I caught my first fish around 4 years old. We lived in a small Kentucky town called Lafayette, on the outskirts of Fort Campbell. My dad took me fishing with him and his brother, at a small pond near our house. We were fishing with cane poles, a 12 ft long stick with some line tied to the end. Dad said when the bobber goes down lift the pole up. I lifted it up all right, with all my might and a 4 inch bluegill went flying over my head, it had barely hit the ground before I had pounced on it, OW!!!! Nobody had told me these things had stickers!!

Life lesson number 1: "The things you love most will hurt you the worst, if you aren't careful!!"
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