My wife had a rough week with a friend passing from breast cancer at the age of 34 a few days ago. It hit her really hard. I figured a little time in nature was what she needed so I took a day off and convinced her to come out fly fishing with me with the hope that being in nature would help her work through some hurts and calm the soul. I know it does for me.
I debated between grayling and cutthroat. Since this was my wife’s first time fly fishing I wanted to find some fish that were agreeable, but also wanted to have an area with room for a back cast, and the scenery as well. I decided that we would go after cutts. I knew a few good pools that would take some hiking, but hoped that they would give the experience I was looking for.
We left early in the morning, I drove and she slept. Once we got to the parking area we got our gear on and started to hike. Those of you that fish freestone streams know how braided they can be, requiring multiple crossings and walking over rolling rocks. A couple hours of hiking and we were in the area I wanted to be.
I set her up with a simple dry fly, 9 foot leader, 5x tippet and gave her a few tips on casting, mending, where the prime fish holding spots were, and let her go at it. I dropped down to the tail of the pool and drifted a nymph through a few times, catching a 10” cutthroat on my second drift.
My wife worked her way down the pool towards me and all of a sudden she was hooked up! She fought it like a champ and before you know it I had it in the net. High fives and smiles all around. Popped out the fly, snapped a couple pics, and off it went.
We fished the rest of the day and she ended up catching 5 fish. About halfway through she declared that she loved this and wanted to get into it now.
Mission accomplished.
SS
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