Daughter Catches First Fish on the Fly Rod

My daughter and I decided to hit the river again Monday evening.  She has been begging me to try fly fishing.  She tried it a little on Sunday while we were there and really liked it.  So, we decided to go back and give it a whirl on Monday.  For the first hour and a half we were there, she did some spin fishing and I was fly fishing.  I was using my go to fly which is the Road Kill Nymph in different colors.  I have to say it was tough fishing.  In the entire time I spent there which was about two and a half hours, I only managed to land 11 fish.  Of those 11, four were smallies, one was a red eyed rock and the others were long eared sunfish.  I did manage to hook about a 20 inch catfish.  Notice I said hook and not land.  We had worked our way across the river to the far bank.  I was using a Road Kill Nymph in size 10 in yellow and black.  The area we were fishing was the area in which I landed the catfish I caught on Father's Day.  I tossed my fly up under a tree and got an immediate strike.  I actually saw the fish roll and try to swim down stream with my fly.  I went to set the hook and thought I had lost the fish.  My line had gone slack and there was no fight from the fish.  After many, many curse words said by me, I pulled in my line to cast again.  When the line was within 10 feet of me, it took off again.  I didn't realize that the fish was still on there.  For the next five or so minutes I fought the fish.  We moved back across the river to the bank we had started from.  I was hoping to get it into shallow water.  I saw it a few times.  That ghost white under belly and blue/gray top.  Catfish, I said to myself, and a big one.  I would say it was around 20 or so inches.  Anyways, back to the fight.  I had finally made it to ankle deep water when it happened.  You all who fly fish know what I mean.  That horrible moment when the fly exits the mouth of the fish.  That fish that is the "one."  You know it is big.  You have seen it.  You have been fighting it for a while.  What a terrible feeling that is.  My heart sank as I was fighting that catfish one second and then the next second I could feel the fly pop out.  I fell back a little.  As I did so I watched the catfish roll on its side and head back out to deeper water.  Remember when I said earlier that many, many curse words were said?  Trust me, many more were said this time around.  Boy was I pissed.  Afterwards I did have a good laugh about it.

After I lost the catfish we decided to move to another hole.  After a short while, I lit a cigar and allowed my daughter the chance to practice her casting with the fly rod.  She was doing OK.  As the evening progressed, another hatch of white flies occurred.  We were smack dab in the middle of it.  It was getting rather dark so I decided to switch to something small and bright.  I put on a size 10 retro lime-a popper but in balsa wood.  I make mine square shaped as they seem to be a lot more quiet and glide through the water easier.  After a few casts, my daughter had hook two long ears but lost both.  Finally, she manged to land one who had eagerly swallowed the tasty looking popper.  She was very excited about it.  I took a photo of it but there isn't a flash on my cell phone camera so it didn't come out well.  She was very happy though and promptly stated "OK we can go home now" and so we did.  A night to remember for sure.

First long ear of the evening

Nice smallie taken on a Road Kill Nymph tied in white and black by me

This is what happens when you don't hold the smallie right and he jumps a little in your hands.

First fish ever on the fly rod all by herself.