Two Rookies

I caught up with some of my old army buddies, Troy and Jason, from desert storm a few months back and one of them suggested we have a little get together in the Smokies.  I knew they had never fly fished but felt like I was up for the challenge.  I wanted to keep it simple so I taught them to roll cast and figured they could learn the normal cast soon after by watching me and with a little instruction.  They struggled a bit at first but within a day were getting line out and mending.  We hit some big water but were a bit too noisy in our approach and approached from up stream and worked our way down (due to access points dictating this).  There was access down stream but it was a bit steep for rookies and I didn't want them to have a bad experience, so we accessed the run up river where it was easier to get to the water and a lot less dangerous.  We didn't do that well overall but between instructing, tying on flies, helping with wind knots etc, I caught a few small fish.  Jason got a few rises and Troy managed to catch a nice bow around 10" on the last day.  I imagine we will do much better next year.  I was glad to hear they wanted to come back.  I think they really enjoyed themselves and can't wait to see what we can do with this experience under our belts.

Troy's fish...I had to explain that I only had a minute to get it back into the water so that it would live.  I revived it, took it's pic, and let it go.

Back to the cabin for beers.