I hit the river this morning for the first time on my own

While I didn't catch anything other than a coupe sticks and what felt like nearly ever rock on the riverbed, it was a good for me to try everything myself without a guide and figure out what I need help on and what I need to work on!

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I've been in the "golf business" for quite awhile. I won a fly rod, reel, line combo with a drawing at a golf tournament, in 2016. I've fished my whole life- but never fly fished. I thought it would be cool to take up to the mountains, every now and then. I thought I could figure it out on my own. Thus, I didn't catch a fish for over two years. My wife, secretly hired a guide from Taos Fly Shop. After one hour with him, I hooked and caught a few fish. Since then, I cannot imagine ever NOT, being to fly fish. I'm retired now, and I spend close to 60 days a year in the mountains of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. I start in late April and I'll fish until the end of October. I've caught 6" Cutthroats and 34" Browns and Rainbows - I feel great either way. Hang in there, you will turn a corner and find success. It is amazing!

My guided trip in Estes Park that I had to reschedule from early August was yesterday.....he asked where I wanted to go and I asked to go back and fish the St Vrain to learn more about fishing smaller streams to correct some of my issues from Saturday morning.

Guide was fantastic....super patient and answered all of my zillion questions that were fresh on my mind and we just focused on me learning - holistically and situational.

I had a great time, learned a bunch, feel like I got better, landed a handful of brookies....and lost a nice cutthroat at my feet as we were trying to net it - but I learned what I could have done differently to not have that happen again.

Just got back from Arkansas. We did some hiking and I and spent the day on the White River yesterday.

Didn't land a brown (hooked up on two but lost them) but did net 6 solid rainbows.

It was cold and drizzly but really enjoyed my guide, Steve Dally - we had a good time.

First time on the river this year....only my second time out by myself with no guide....took me a *little* less time getting rigged up.....changed up my fly while still in the water (which was a first for me).....experienced my first hatch.....caught every willow branch along the edges and lost four flies.....saw zero fish....still loved it

SUCCESS! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!




It is possible that I was more surprised than the trout was. Caught him on the swing at the end of my drift and I literally said outloud to myself, "What the heck am I caught on now?"

Good day!

Update....

Spent some time this week back up in Arkansas and fished the White River again yesterday.

I've had a great time on both of my trips out with Steve Dally - good dude. He asked if I wanted to go for something special or if I wanted to catch a lot of fish. I know I need repetitions so I chose the latter and that's exactly what happened.

Fantastic day for me, I caught a lot of fish and in the process got to fine tune some problems I was having.