Post by Elisse

We (finally!) learned to fly-fish, something I've been aching to do for Years- ever since those pricey LL Bean catalogs would turn up in my NYC mailbox and tantalize me with incredibly expensive trips... I did it once back in 1981 in Ireland, and it was pretty magical to see a trout leap into the air and take a fly (not mine, I hasten to add). I always thought the hand-tied flies, made with feathers and beads and such, were, well... Pretty, and I've secretly coveted one of those cool fly-bedecked hats like Col. Blake wore in M*A*S*H for years, and even considered buying some to turn into earrings... I found it fascinating to look closely at all the different kinds of flies and see the work that goes into creating 100s of different kinds of fake bugs in all their stages of life...
Plus, for the last 8 years we've lived on one of THE best trout streams- the Elkhorn Inn is right on Elkhorn Creek, famous for its 24"-32" trout- and many of our guests are Trout Unlimited members and avid fly fishermen- but although they taught me to hand-tie a fly at our dining table, not having the gear or the knowledge, we'd never done any fly fishing! But now we have! And we'll be able to do it at home! YAY!
We booked a full day with Bobby Bower of www.profishwv.com at Glade Springs, (for a fraction of those LL Bean trips!) and had THE best day! After getting our WV fishing licenses, we spent the morning learning the rudiments of the sport on a lake at Glade Springs, practicing our casts & learning about the equipment, and the difference between "woolly buggers" and dry flies...

Bobby then drove us out- WAY out!- to Glade Creek-on-the-New, and dressed in our spiffy new waders & boots, we hiked out into the middle of the white water, and really did it! And Elisse caught her first brown trout on a dry fly!!!!

Though Dan didn't land himself a trout, he did get some good nibbles, and we truly had a GREAT day! We learned just enough to be dangerous- and got well and truly bitten by the fly fishing bug! So we now have to get all the cool stuff so we can do it at home on Elkhorn Creek! No, fly fishing isn't exactly an inexpensive sport, but we learned enough from Bobby to know that it doesn't have to be insanely expensive, either! And since we've already paid for our fishing licenses for the whole year, and we live right on a great trout stream, we now have high hopes that if we get the Stuff, maybe some of our Trout Unlimited guests will take us out behind the Inn and teach us some more!