OK, I'll start. Years ago, when I realized that I was a walking Orvis advertisement.

Think NASCAR, if NASCAR had an Orvis sponsor. (Birthday gift!).

Make that a sloshing, stumbling-over-big-rocks advertisement, in need of full-body felt.

Many years before I started fly fishing, I found a boxed bamboo fly rod in a house I had just bought. It was in perfect shape and it is what I learned to cast with. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. When I was ready to begin fly fishing, I took classes from a notable Colorado fly fisher and author. The last day of class was reserved for inspection of our tackle. I proudly presented said un-named instrutor with my bamboo rod. Surely he would lavish praise for the exquisitely good taste I had. Five words. He held the rod up in the air for the class to see and said, "Hang it on the wall."

Guys, I'm proud to say that anyone who carries a 40-50 year old fiberglass flyrod around on the water will never be accused of being a walking advertisement for good taste. That's ok with me, it'll keep eBay prices down.

8-31-07 What- nobody else on the FFRodders had an embarrassing beginner's moment?

OK,
When I was brand new to the sport, I took my sage DSII 6 wt down to a place called Wiskey Flats on the Trinity river here in North Texas in search of Sand Bass. My neoprene waders were getting hot as the temps in february of this year were in the mid eighties, and I was having trouble with controlling my line in the faster currents.
After a couple of hours of frustration not catching, I decided to roll my waders down a bit, just to let a little breeze in. While doing this I was wading in knee-deep water in the direction of a low hanging branch which had caught my fly; suddenly I found a six foot deep hole. I was totally submerged underwater, and with all the water in my waders it became a difficult task to pull myself over to a ledge. After a second or two I gained a foothold and crawled out to see all along the bank bait fisherman laughing and pointing.
To make matters worse, I overheard one in the crowd say in a gruff voice "Ah Hell son, you just ruin't my favorite hole goin' swimmin in there".
I stumbled out of the river and left.
Les

... Uhh, far too many to talk about here ... but I will share a little gag I pulled on bamboo rod maker Harry Boyd ... when discussing preferences via e-mail for a rod order I asked him if he could provide a reel seat that was "both Up and Down Locking" ... I told him: "cause I was getting really tired of changing rods from up locking when fishing up stream to one with a down locking reel seat when fishing down ... " He shared it with a few friends and all got a good laugh at the crazy beginner ...
Bob

Re: Most Embarrassing Beginner's Moment This isn't exactly a beginner's moment, but a moment none the less. I was fishing at dusk once near a full campground and hooked a bat. The bat was mad and I was scared ... thought it was related to my ex, the old bat. I took off running and the bat, through no choice of it's own followed. I ran through the campground with 10-15 feet of fly line flapping in the breeze with the bat still attached. I'm sure there are still people talking about the mad man that ran through their camp. On the plus side, my tippet didn't break like it usually does.

Edited by: cofisher at: 8/31/07 11:01 pm

cofisher- what's the usual size bat at that season?

Helloooooooooo- rod & reel, line, leader, tippet, & fly details please!

This is a technical forum, not just for jokes!

Middlemac, this one is for you. It didn't happen to me, but was told to me by an elderly fly fisherman I knew who said it happened to him when he first started fly fishing.

"I was wade fishing a while back and came across a water snake that had attempted to swallow a frog. The frog was lodged and the snake could not spit him out. I didn't know what to do so I took out my little flask of whiskey and poured a little bit in the snake's mouth. He spit and flopped around but finally let go of the frog. The frog went his way and the snake went his. I felt pretty good about myself. A little while later, I felt a tugging at my pant's cuff. It was that damn snake with another frog." True story my friend!

Did Tom/jgestar ever have a beginner's moment?

Ward, I'm worried about the Beaver. He's been spending an awful lot of time in the bathroom lately.

Now June, calm down. Let the boy have his privacy. Say- have you seen Wally?

pearow,

Duck on! Nicely done!

what's the usual size duck at that season?

Helloooooooooo- rod & reel, line, leader & tippet details please!

This is a technical forum, not just for jokes!

cofisher- Hey, I fish for fish- hereabouts it's trout, mostly..

I can honestly say I've never hooked a bat, a duck- or a beaver. Hence my fascination with same! However- if anybody in the mountains has ever hooked a Hellbender- PLEASE reply!

I have (yet another) nephew who found (not caught) one in a stream up here and gave it to the Western North Carolina Nature Center years ago, where he worked at the time as a volunteer. For all I know it's still lurking there somewhere. Not an attractive creature.

mdwwhw, phew how do you pronounce that? I figure that the only thing that could have made it worse was if you were dressed like an Orvis sport.

Seriously, I thought that you forgot that you weren't in your kayak! Good story.