So, so far I've spent one day on a lake...countless hours on a driving range and park, bought or rather traded for a 6 wt. sage fyi with a Ross evolution 3.0 reel, bought again after dumping more golf crap, a 9 wt sage vps with a Ross canyon big game #5 reel, just put Rio versa tip androm. advantage line on it...got my fly vice a couple weeks ago..have been spending hours a day in my shop tying some of the damn strangest looking things in the world..don't know if they'll ever catch a fish..but god it's a blast tying them...(so far got the doc sprats, tom thumbs, woolly buggers and Popsicle patterns down pretty good, and a few i made up after looking at ones in a shop)....and I'm chomping at the bit to get out and fish all this stuff...but running a warehouse business this time of year has been crazy so haven't had a chance the last couple weeks...
Only thing that is keeping me relatively sane is going to the driving range and tossing line..( and a huge part tying flys )....i'm finally starting to get it in small leaps and bounds...put the 9wt. togeather tonight for the first time and while the Ross canyon#5 is a pretty big reel it fits the rod really nicely...very nice balance...it was raining pretty good and dark but i went out behind my warehouse and pulled out line and moved it some to see how it would feel...i don't know if it's because it's a 9wt. or if the Rio v.t. androm. advantage is a better line..but i could really feel it working togeather... just loading and unloading up and down my alley...(yeah i know, stupid place to toss line but i only landed it once and that was off to the side where it was not gravel)...
....i was getting some major line out for me and really had to settle myself down to not release it and see how far it would go.....
I've spent the last 9 years so deep in golf i forgot about any other sports...( i also coach at the H.S. level down here and last year we won the 2a state championship)...I'm very very competitive and love big tournament golf more then anything...but by the end of this past summer i was getting really burnt out on the whole scene...my buddies took me fishing up here on the Vedder and i literally was hooked after the first time...i love my baitcaster and lamiglas too but always watched the fly guys and thought it looked like such a blast i had to do it....Now I'm like a 16 year old in a whorehouse...i can't whip it out fast enough!!!!....Stupid thing is, i got a call today to remind me I'm in an invite tournament on Jan. 1st...had to call a couple golf guys to see if we still had a foursome or what....dawned on me i haven't picked up a club since Oct.....Do i regret it??? hell no..i come home now happy, whether or not i catch any fish...i stand out in the river sometimes and just laugh to myself at how beautiful it is out there....
Here's the funny thing, i remember a Ben Hogan story where he dreamed he had 17 holes in one in a row and on 18 he lipped out....i used to think it was really strange that i never dreamed of golf....for as much as it was on my mind i never dreamed i was playing...i started fishing and i had to tell my buddy i dream I'm fishing all the time...i don't know what to make of it...knock on wood all the dreams have been really good ones too...driving over bridges and seeing coho stacked up like wood in the river below me...pull over and start fishing, crazy stuff like that....Anyways, it funny how fast and how hard i fell for this sport, or rather came back to it after such a long time...we are really lucky to live in a great spot to do all the different kinds of fishing we can do here...man i can't wait till next week when i got some time off so i can hit the river again and see if any of the monstrosities I've tied can catch a fish...i should be practicing for that golf tournament but to be honest, I'd rather be fishing!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS..I'm out!!!