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First fly you caught a fish on???

7K views 118 replies 103 participants last post by  Alex MacDonald 
#1 ·
I know some of you are old but I'm sure no one for gets the first fly they landed something on. Mine was a renegade And it was in idaho, I was 12 and had know idea what I was doing, though I thought I did, wait I still have that problem. Anyways it was just a little 10 rb but I was so happy. I will never forget that fly and I always keep some with me, though I haven't used one in I don't know how long. Maybe I will give that a try next time my luck isn't going good.
 
#29 ·
A 1/2 lb brownie on a Peter Ross in the Highlands of Scotalnd. Never caught another decent fish on that fly...Beginners luck or something like that, though some folks there would swear by it. Amen to MM above, it's always when I look away or lose focus that something happens.

Dave
 
#31 ·
On a fly that came with a $30 combo kit (that's rod, reel, line, leader and flies included). That was late 80s, but that was still pretty cheap even then.

The fly was so cheap and ugly that I'd be surprised if it even had a name, but it looked a little like a bee, with ugly plastic wings. I caught maybe 3 small fish with it and it was completely destroyed. I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I still remember that ugly little piece of shit fly I fed to those 8 inch Dollies 25 years ago.

Funny the things that stick with you.
 
#46 ·
On a fly that came with a $30 combo kit (that's rod, reel, line, leader and flies included). That was late 80s, but that was still pretty cheap even then.

The fly was so cheap and ugly that I'd be surprised if it even had a name, but it looked a little like a bee, with ugly plastic wings. I caught maybe 3 small fish with it and it was completely destroyed. I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I still remember that ugly little piece of shit fly I fed to those 8 inch Dollies 25 years ago.

Funny the things that stick with you.
It seems most of us still remember are first fly.lol
 
#32 ·
Size 12 Royal Wulff, and caught a 10" rainbow at Bear Lake in the Snoqualmie Lakes chain.
First steelhead was on a size 1/0 red/orange Marabou Spey, on the Sauk, March 1989.

Actually, now that I search my brain even further back, my grandfather used to tie the old-fashioned wooly worms with scrap yarn from my grandma's knitting basket, palmered with odd hackles and sometimes had red butts or tails from his dog's hair...when we were kids, he'd set us up with a spinning rod, a floating clear bubble, about a 4' leader and one of those wooly worms, and we'd fish a pond near his place for rainbows and sunfish....those were some ugly flies, but they caught alot of fish.:)
 
#33 ·
My first fish on a fly, a mcgintey on the S.F. of the Stilly near red bridge with my dad and my brother. What a trip, so excited I think all I did was run up the beach with it as it shipped along the surface. Darn that was like just over 40 years ago.

It was a perfect day!

and that's all I have to say about that!

William
 
#36 ·
Royal Coachman when I was about 12, on a two-week canoe trip with the Boy Scouts in Bowron Lake Provincial Park in BC. Millions of Kokanee were rising where a small stream dumped into the lake. Well, maybe not a million, but a lot. I remember it vividly. Well, maybe not vividly but it left an indelible impression on me.
 
#38 ·
A 12" purple/green mackerel pattern tied on a 10/0 hook. I was very young, but strong for my age. Getting the invite to fish with John Wayne on the Pilar on the East Cape of Baja was a real boost to the ego of a 4 year old. Lee Wulff coached me through it....he had tied the monstrous fly. Wayne only wanted to troll, but Lee Marvin punched him in the mouth. "Let the lad have a shot with the fly rod, Duke. Don't be a jerk!" he barked. I loved Lee like the father I never knew. With 20 seconds of instruction under my belt, I perfected a tight double haul with the 14 wt rod he threw at me. Wulff had taken all the hooks off Rooster Cogburn's trolling lures. Unbeknownst to the Duke, he was teasing in a striped marlin on hookless lures. Everything fell into place. Marvin was slugging down gin like ice water as the behemoth crashed the teasers. "Cast! Mingo! Cast NOW!" screamed Wulff. With all the might my 4-year-old deltoids could muster, I somehow double-H'd the giant fly into the drink. As if on cue, the blue-eyed marlin sucked the entire fly into its gaping maw and took off for the Galapagos Islands.

As John Wayne and Lee Marvin pummeled each other mercilessly, I took the battle to the fish. First, I told Wulff to calm down and take a chill pill. Next, I
 
#51 ·
A 12" purple/green mackerel pattern tied on a 10/0 hook. I was very young, but strong for my age. Getting the invite to fish with John Wayne on the Pilar on the East Cape of Baja was a real boost to the ego of a 4 year old. Lee Wulff coached me through it....he had tied the monstrous fly. Wayne only wanted to troll, but Lee Marvin punched him in the mouth. "Let the lad have a shot with the fly rod, Duke. Don't be a jerk!" he barked. I loved Lee like the father I never knew. With 20 seconds of instruction under my belt, I perfected a tight double haul with the 14 wt rod he threw at me. Wulff had taken all the hooks off Rooster Cogburn's trolling lures. Unbeknownst to the Duke, he was teasing in a striped marlin on hookless lures. Everything fell into place. Marvin was slugging down gin like ice water as the behemoth crashed the teasers. "Cast! Mingo! Cast NOW!" screamed Wulff. With all the might my 4-year-old deltoids could muster, I somehow double-H'd the giant fly into the drink. As if on cue, the blue-eyed marlin sucked the entire fly into its gaping maw and took off for the Galapagos Islands.

As John Wayne and Lee Marvin pummeled each other mercilessly, I took the battle to the fish. First, I told Wulff to calm down and take a chill pill. Next, I
For those of us who have read Mingo's posts on tropical saltwater fly fishing, this is huge insight ... I think it might take a coupla shrinks to fully understand all of it ... nevertheless, huge insight ...
 
#40 ·
Carey's special on lake Minnie in B.C. damn near 50 yrs ago. I can't believe I can remember that, since most of the time I can't remember where I put my glasses, phone, keys......
 
#43 ·
Thompson Creek, an upper Big Hole river trib loaded with Beaver dams & Brookies. Sometime 'long about the mid-fifties & it had to have been on either a Sandy Mite or Lady Mite (old Potts fly patterns), since those were Dad's favorite patterns up there.
 
#48 ·
I just want to thank everyone who could remember.lol Seems you can forget or some of us can. I just remember my hole trip of it. I was 11-12 and went to stay in idaho, my uncle helped supply steel for the dams they where building on the snake and we went camping buy one of them. I was fishing with a worm and didn't catch nothing I seen this other guy pulling them in every few min so my grand pa did what any fisher man did back then sent me down to find out what he was using,lol I came back and told my grand pa and he looked at me kind of funny.lol But the guy had offered to show me how so I went he wasn't fly fishing but using a fly behind a clear bubble. Well I went home thinking I had learned to fly fish. So I told the guy across my from my grandpa and he looked at me and kind of chuckled and said let me teach you the right way to fly fish, and it started. He showed me the 10-2 stuff and then I went and got a rod combo kit the cheap kind, he tied his own flies and gave more then enough. which now that I am older I know what it means to give up your flies, I tried a couple times with no luck then one day on some little river in idaho, I landed that one. I was so happy. I keep with fly fishing for the next3-4 years then chasing girls and playing sports took over for a while but I'm back and I will never leaver her again for more than a couple months and I don't know if I can stay away that long to tell you the truth!!!!
 
#52 ·
A size 12 wooly worm , which also happened to be the very first fly I ever tied . It was a rainbow of about 12 inches that was caught from a forgotten a creek in Ontario a lifetime ago . The fish was carefully released , which was also a first for me .
 
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