Reel Man
04-04-2007, 11:10 PM
Howdy: I’m Ron and I am the moderator of the fishing section. I would like to take a moment and give you an idea about why I have a passion for fishing and let you know a little about me.
First, I want to make it clear that I am not an expert in the area of fishing. I just love it. I have fished all my life. My first recollection was my dad taking me to the Coyote Point Pier to fish for Perch. Also, in the late 1950’s, my dad would take me to a fishing camp on the South Fork of the Trinity River. The camp was run by a Frenchman who had previously been the head chef at a big time hotel in San Francisco (I think it was the Mark Hopkins). At this camp, I learned to fly fish with a bunch of old guys (although they probably were not that old). They would gather every evening before dinner and discuss the day’s fishing along with their “cocktails” and I would look forward to the conversation and the peanuts and potato chips with my Coca Cola. They would talk about what flies they used that day and what the best equipment was and how fishing was really done. During our days of fishing on the South Fork, we caught a lot of rainbows but now that I look back, I realize that we were catching steelhead that were attempting to grow big and strong to make the long trek to the sea. It would be another 40 years until I picked up a fly rod again.
Between those early years and now, I have fished for trout, bass, salmon, steelhead (not very successfully), Dorado, sailfish and shad. I fished in Mexico, Montana and Canada, but mainly I have fished the rivers of California. Over the years, I completed backpacking the entire John Muir Trail and many of the lateral trails that lead to and from the Muir. Along the way, I fished the creeks, rivers and lakes of the Sierras. I love the little creeks and the solitude of the mountains. As crazy as it may be, I love to hunt small trout in small streams in the heart of the mountains. The fish are nothing to write home about, but then again, there is nothing as beautiful as a golden trout.
Just recently, I took up fly fishing again. My in laws gave me fly fishing equipment for my fiftieth birthday. Yes that is the big 50. After looking at the stuff for three years, I got it together and started to use it. Let me tell you, that was it for me. I can’t get enough of it. Other than my wife wanting to wring my neck (“honey the sewer is backed up again”…”yea, yea, yea, I’ll get to it next week”.), it has been great. I am tying my own flies (god are they ugly) and trying to learn as much a possible. I belong to a local fly fishing club and the guys in the club have been terrific to learn from.
So, as I started out saying, I am no expert. I expect to learn a lot more than I probably can offer but I look forward to hearing from all of you about fishing. I hope that we get a lot of questions and then hope we can get a lot of answers or at least opinions, because…well...it is fishing and the most enjoyable thing about fishing is the fact that we never really stop learning.
First, I want to make it clear that I am not an expert in the area of fishing. I just love it. I have fished all my life. My first recollection was my dad taking me to the Coyote Point Pier to fish for Perch. Also, in the late 1950’s, my dad would take me to a fishing camp on the South Fork of the Trinity River. The camp was run by a Frenchman who had previously been the head chef at a big time hotel in San Francisco (I think it was the Mark Hopkins). At this camp, I learned to fly fish with a bunch of old guys (although they probably were not that old). They would gather every evening before dinner and discuss the day’s fishing along with their “cocktails” and I would look forward to the conversation and the peanuts and potato chips with my Coca Cola. They would talk about what flies they used that day and what the best equipment was and how fishing was really done. During our days of fishing on the South Fork, we caught a lot of rainbows but now that I look back, I realize that we were catching steelhead that were attempting to grow big and strong to make the long trek to the sea. It would be another 40 years until I picked up a fly rod again.
Between those early years and now, I have fished for trout, bass, salmon, steelhead (not very successfully), Dorado, sailfish and shad. I fished in Mexico, Montana and Canada, but mainly I have fished the rivers of California. Over the years, I completed backpacking the entire John Muir Trail and many of the lateral trails that lead to and from the Muir. Along the way, I fished the creeks, rivers and lakes of the Sierras. I love the little creeks and the solitude of the mountains. As crazy as it may be, I love to hunt small trout in small streams in the heart of the mountains. The fish are nothing to write home about, but then again, there is nothing as beautiful as a golden trout.
Just recently, I took up fly fishing again. My in laws gave me fly fishing equipment for my fiftieth birthday. Yes that is the big 50. After looking at the stuff for three years, I got it together and started to use it. Let me tell you, that was it for me. I can’t get enough of it. Other than my wife wanting to wring my neck (“honey the sewer is backed up again”…”yea, yea, yea, I’ll get to it next week”.), it has been great. I am tying my own flies (god are they ugly) and trying to learn as much a possible. I belong to a local fly fishing club and the guys in the club have been terrific to learn from.
So, as I started out saying, I am no expert. I expect to learn a lot more than I probably can offer but I look forward to hearing from all of you about fishing. I hope that we get a lot of questions and then hope we can get a lot of answers or at least opinions, because…well...it is fishing and the most enjoyable thing about fishing is the fact that we never really stop learning.