To Honest to be a Guide?

Before I began guiding years ago, I thought about how I am going to handle myself as a fly fishing guide. Luckily, the guides that I, or my Dad hired, were for the most part, good guides. We had the occasional guide that seemed to be on the water just too many days, but it was still a good day of fishing. We also had the misfortune of just having one of those off days in regards to poor fishing conditions and that was on the Green River in Wyoming. We weren’t skunked, but we caught one brown trout.

Coaching sports for as many years as I have, I knew when I started guiding that I had to be honest. Honesty can come into play a lot when you are a guide. There are water conditions to take into condition. There is the recent fishing report of how the river has really been fishing. And then there is the size of fish that are caught. In the five years of guiding I have always tried to be completely honest with my clients. But sometimes the truth just sucks.

I have called clients from the river the day before their trip letting them know that the fishing isn’t productive or the water conditions are bad. There have been times where the client wants to fish anyway, which is ok with me. I just see it as more of a challenge to put clients onto fish in bad conditions. There have been many times where the clients have been shocked that I am telling them that the fishing is slow. It just doesn’t make sense to lie. If I had a float trip scheduled and was forking out $400.00 you are darn right I would want to know if the fishing was going to be bad. I would want to fish when you are going to catch some fish.

I think the one time that being honest really felt bad was when a younger client at 14 years old really wanted to get on the trophy page. So it was his second guided trip that he was taking with me and he really wanted to catch a trophy trout. So he hooks into a trout while nymphing with a Red San Juan worm. This trout takes jumps, makes the kids reel scream and does everything to slip the hook. During the fight, he kept asking, “Do you think it’s a trophy?” over and over. So after a 5 minute fight we were able to land the rainbow trout and it was close. It was real close. I measured twice, and it was right at 17.5”. Being a half an inch short stinks. But, Chris was able to get on the trophy page the following year with a beautiful 21” brown trout, on his birthday no less.

New Kid In Town

Sarah is my 7 year old daughter. This past weekend she came with me to her first fly fishing show. I woke up early at 5:30 to load my car with a bunch of stuff for the show. I went to wake Sarah. Like any typical 7 year old she was groggy, half a sleep and a magnet to the bed. After some coaxing and some nudging, she got up. With eyes half closed, she got dressed and asked to be wrapped up in a blanket for the ride in the car to the show. After loading a few more things into the car I hopped in and we were ready to go. The eagles were playing on the CD player softly and as I placed the car in gear, Sarah reached down and turned the volume up, skipped to her new favorite song and said, “I love you Dad.” The song New Kid in Town played and she softly sang along as I drove.After arriving at the show and setting up, Sarah took in the surroundings of the Fredericksburg Fly Fishing show while eating some chocolate doughnuts. About an hour into the show, a gentleman came up to the table and began to talk to Sarah about fly fishing and she mentioned that she had tied her own flies before. The gentleman offered his material box and vise for her to tie to kill some time. Her face beamed and she accepted the offer.With a vise, hooks and materials she rushed to get started. In minutes she had a streamer type fly tied up and laying on the table next to the DVD’s for my company. Within minutes she started asking patrons, “Would you like to by a fly? It’s only two dollars!” Partially embarrassed and proud at the same time, I attempted to talk to her about how she needed to be a patient sales person and not so pushy. Within two hours there were 12 of her flies that she freshly tied laying on the table. She had a small crowd consisting of a few kids and a kindly interested Mom who she proudly told the names on her freshly tied flies. Names ironically mimicked some of the flies we use on trips yet with a kidlike charm to them, like White Feather Butt, The Walking Dog and Purple Butt Fly. Sarah was always amazed at the name of the Yellow Butt Monkey which is a real fly but tends to be more of a conversational fly than one that anglers fish seriously. What impressed me was the names she had given to each of the flies remained unchanged throughout the day. I will say the whip finish knots were done by me. I would like to personally thank Pete, Susan and the gentlemen who each purchased or traded for the flies she tied. Pete (I hope I remembered your name correctly) what you did was simple yes, but truly meaningful. I have a mad salesperson on my hands now. Future show will not be the same when she is there. Sarah still promised she wasn’t like Mr. Krab the owner of the Krusty Krab Restaurant on Sponge Bob Square Pants who seems to only be concerned about money. The $24.00 she made at the show was spent quickly. She purchased a few poppers, bracelets and such and also managed to cover herself with free fishing stickers.All in all it was a fun show and memorable to me because it was Sarah’s first. After packing up we began our drive home. Sarah was at my level and smiling her head off because she got to sit in the front with me because the back of the car was packed with show stuff. As we pulled out of the parking lot, she reached to the stereo, turned up the volume and forwarded through to her new favorite song by the Eagles, New Kid in Town.

Surprise in 2008?

We are currently investigating a possible "hatch" of a major insect for this up coming Summer fishing season in Western MD. Keep your fingers crossed. You might just be in for some fun like we had a few years ago. UFB's may return. Once we obtain more concrete information we will inform you. Brood XIV.

Spinner Fall brings a New Hatch

I will never forget the day the I went for a typical “run” to the Angler’s Lie this past Fall. After parking my car in the parking lot, I approached the fly shop only to see Anne Steele walking out of the front door with a coat rack and some other shop items. I said, “Anne, What are you doing?” Her reply was simple. “We are closing William.” My Reply, “You have got to be kidding me!?”

As I walked the 20 feet to get inside the front door I immediately had the feeling like I was punched, better yet dumped by a high school crush. When I walked into the shop, it looked picked at, barren and devoid of the plethora of materials that had always covered the shelves and racks of the shop. Grizzly, didn’t look himself when we talked with me for the first few minutes that day. Through the conversation, he would voice out percent discounts to shoppers for the few rods they still had there, “all rods are 40% off.” My selfishness sank through briefly as a thought to myself, “I should get another Winston.”

As I roamed around the shop like a dog who’s family was packing up to leave him behind, I thought of all the memories I had of the shop. Most of all the help that Anne, Newell and Grizzly gave me through the years. 10 years ago, Grizzly used to laugh at me when I would talk about starting a guide business. “You don’t’ want to be a guide. ........You won't have fun. You won't be able to fish much.” I was stubborn, but I also knew what I really wanted to do. That was about 10 years ago.

Through the years, I probably spent more money at that fly shop than anywhere else. Trips to the fly shop rarely resulted in a receipt of less than a $100.00 being spent. Often it was $200.00-$400.00. But it felt like home. It felt like a place where you could shoot the breeze, talk about fly fishing and have a good laugh.

After talking to Grizzly, I roamed around the shop for another 15 minutes or so, Grizzly, behind the counter, said, “Did you hear about John?” My heart was already hurting. But when he spoke those words, my heart sank to as low as it could go. I walked out of the shop to keep my composure and to try and maintain a sense of everything that just happened in the past 30 minutes, but most of all about John. The news of the Angler’s Lie closing was miniscule to the news that John Had passed. After about 5 minutes of standing outside the shop and gazing at the afternoon traffic on Glebe Road, I walked back inside and was told what happened.

John Fergusen, was a client, a close friend, but most importantly and incredible person. I won’t go into details about how much he accomplished in his life, or how he was a United States Marine or how he was the smallest football player to ever play for the University of Notre Dame. I will say this though. John died when he was fly fishing in British Columbia. He often spoke of his close friend, Tom Skerrit,the actor who played a Presbyterian minister and Father to two sons in the movie A River Runs Through It. John and Tom were fishing the day he died. Apparently, as I have been told, that morning as they walked outside to see the magnificent sunrise, John said to Tom, “Today would be a beautiful day to die.” John died, that die while hold a 30”+ Steelhead that he had just caught. When I die, I hope I go quick and I wouldn’t mind holding a fish that I had just caught. After I was told of John’s passing, I did buy a Winston. It was a “tribute” kind of purchase. I will always think of John, not only when I fish with the rod, but at times throughout my years that I will spend on water fly fishing.

With the Angler’s Lie closing, we can all relax. There is a new shop in its place. It won't be the Angler's Lie. I don't think anything will be like that. Its kind of like the great Diners that always seem to be near the good trout rivers. They have character and a feel to them. The new shop is scheduled to open mid March. Jeremy is the head guy and after speaking to him on the phone a few times I look forward to the new shop and have confidence it will be a great place to go to for all us anglers and to get all the stuff we might need. Grizzly will still be there, just like an old bear who kept his den through a stormy winter. I would like to thank Anne, Newell and Grizzly personally for all of their help, guidance and advice over the years. Eastern Trophies would not be what it is today without them.

To Fish of not to Fish?

Each angler has his or her own morals when it comes down to fishing. Some aglers fish when the spawn is on. Some anglers don't. Some anglers fish when water levels are low. Some anglers don't. When it coms down to the health of fish or even the a fishery itself, one needs to seriously ask oneself if they should be fishing. Two cases come to mind. One is the brook trout spawn in the Fall. I hear every year from anglers about how they had a terrific day fishing for Brook Trout in October. It makes me wonder if the persons are uneducated or if they just don't care. Being undeducated isn't a bad thing. Each time I float a river I learn something new. I am still being educated not only by the river, but by my clients. Anyway, the second case is when a river or creek is very low. Mossy creek often gets low in late Summer and right now the Gunpowder River is very low. Fishing at times like these just puts more undue stress on trout. So why fish? As a guide, I try to be as honest about conditions, answers to questions, sizes of fish, etc. Shoot, if the North Branch isn't fishing well, I tell my clients. There have been atleast a half dozen times where I have called clients while I was on the river the day before a trip to let them know the fishing is bad. I think as anglers we all need to be honest and open about when its not a good idea to fish if its hurting the fish or the fishery. Just a thought.

Rapidan Show

I just returned home from a long day at the Rapidan Trout Unlimited show. It was really good to see all the fellow guides and vendors and also see our clients again. We booked 8 trips at the show which is a pretty good showing. As always, our musky anticts tended to hold everyone's attention. Unfortunately, my DVD player decided to break this morning so we weren't able to show our DVD's on our tv, but the laptops did the trick for the day. Another mishap, was our S-video cable was also on the fritz. Just shows that you can never be too prepared. Regardless, its always good to go do a show to help that cabin fever. Our next two shows are going to be the Frederciskburg Fly Fishing Show and the National Chapter of Trout Unlimited in March. On that note, I am going to get some sleep because I am up at 5:30am tomorrow to teach.

First Blog

I figured it was about time to begin a blog to give people an idea of what its like to own a fly fishing company, to be a fly fishing guide and all the other stuff the relates to Eastern Trophies Fly Fishing. I welcome any comments or suggestions regarding either the blog here or the main website www.easterntrophies.com.