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FeedThe upsides and downsides of guiding
By the first week of guiding anglers down the North Platte in a drift boat, I started to understand certain things about the river: The mornings were more productive than the afternoon/evenings, the wind would blow so hard in the afternoons that my boat would travel upstream, and I was going to get hooked practically every trip. (Thank God for barbless hooks.)I eventually accepted that getting hooked was part of my job, and pulling size 14 flies out of my arms, neck and one of my cheeks was normal. To protect myself I considered getting a construction helmet with a visor and cocoon-style sunglasses but that would have been a little extreme, so I just laughed through the pain every time I was hooked.
I met some really great people during those driftboat trips, and one of them actually sent me 16th row tickets to the Black Crowes at Red Rocks! (Thanks Phil). One guy thought it was a good idea to wear his cowboy hat on the boat even after I warned him that the afternoon would get windy. The hat is now on the river bottom about 20 yards downstream from the put in.
We caught fish on practically every trip. Even if I had a beginner, if I could just get them to cast 20 feet or so I’d have a fish take their fly. When a client hooks their first trout on a fly, I have a tradition of sticking the fly in their hat. I was fortunate enough to share this experience with countless people this summer.
Around the first week of July, I switched from driftboats over to wading trips, which are fun in their own right. But those days on the drift boat were some of the best days of the summer. I got to meet a marine biologist from Massachusetts, Ali G’s lawyer from Alabama, construction guys from North Carolina, real estate brokers from Denver, and other great people. Regardless of where they came from or their background, I got to listen to so many different stories and create a lot of great memories with people who had one thing in common: fly-fishing.
Posted at 04:10 PM | Permalink
When wading boots are never dry, when passion — some would say obsession — for fly-fishing is so great, wet boots are a way of life. Wet Boots (the blog) is for anglers who know fly-fishing is far more than a way of catching fish. Wet Boots. No bait fishermen.
