A Man and His First Flies

He sent me a text message last week with a video of a streamer he had found. The next evening he arrived at my house with the materials required and made me sit with him as we constructed his first fly on the vice. A quick learner, he took the handful of flies he tied and went home to continue practicing. He tied until he ran out of dumbbell eyes and informed me we would fish these flies until he caught himself a fish. IMG_8815 (1)

I drove him and another friend far away to where the valley is lined with the maroon formation that personifies the area. The fossils that are buried within this sandstone are in the order of 250 million years old.

 

Maroon Formation
Maroon Formation

 

I suppose our friend was fortunate as all of his flies were tied in some form of white, and white was certainly the color this day. There were some outliers that chased something else, but the guy in the front of the boat wasn’t noticing. He was holding the first fish caught on his own hand tied creation, not 15 minutes off the boat ramp.

 

The First One
The First One

Even as the Crystal poured in her usual supply of dark colored mess, fish remained hot on our offerings, and both of my deckhands had the opportunity to catch several fish on those first flies.

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