We headed to the White Mountains of North Eastern Arizona to escape the valley heat for the Father's Day Weekend. My oldest son Parker (age 8) has been begging me to teach him how to fly fish. I went through the rod tubes in the garage and dug out my old Sage youth series rod I purchased when I was around 12. I remember riding my bike the 2 miles to Canyon Creek Anglers and spending hours looking at all the cool stuff. I saved my allowance and did chores to purchase the Sage youth fly fishing outfit for around $130. The guys at the shop were very patient with all my questions and loitering. Years later I got a job managing that same fly shop. Funny how things work out. I still have that 7'9" 6 weight rod. I found an Orvis Battenkill 5/6 reel in my box of reels and gave the setup to Parker to practice with all week before our trip.
We had Saturday afternoon set aside to sneak out for some fishing. We purchased my Reservation fishing permit and headed to the White River. I spent the afternoon teaching Parker how to fly fish in moving water. He caught on very quickly and did better than I thought he would. We walked around three miles and had a great time together. We fished a dry & dropper setup. The fish were all browns and were few and far between. The area we fished receives lots of summer fishing pressure. We did manage to land several nice fish and had several come up after our dry flies. Right before dark there was a huge caddis hatch that made me think we were in Colorado. It was one of the best days fly fishing I have ever had. I look forward to many more in the years to come.
Ready to fish!
Best fish of the day.
Last fish of the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment