This weekend my oldest daughter and three of her children came to visit. My 14 year old grandson really wanted to get a workout as he is rather fanatical about getting ready for sports, so I took him to my gym which he greatly enjoyed. Afterward I took him and a couple of my other grandchildren to a local pond. He normally uses a spinning outfit, so I took one of those along for him to use. I somewhat jokingly asked him if I "should bring a fly rod for him. His response was "why not". I knew he wanted to fish for bass, so I took along a Browning Silaflex, model 322980, an 8' 2 piece 6/7 weight and a Battenkill reel with SA Mastery WF6 line. After he had been fishing with the spin rig for a while, with no success, he asked to try the fly rod. After about five minutes of instruction, he was making some very nice casts with respectably tight loops, out to about 50 feet. After a while, he reported he wasn't really fishing anymore, he was just casting for the fun of it. I finally handed him my Old Beech Quiet Loop 763 with a WF4 line on the reel. After a short period of adjustment to the different action of this rod, he was again making some very credible casts. I honestly never thought this boy would be interested in flyfishing, but I was very wrong. He went back home this afternoon as the proud possessor of the Silaflex rod with a Martin 67SS reel loaded with WF7 line, a Lamiglas Spring Creek 7' 4 weight and a Shakespeare Supreme 1834 reel loaded with SA Mastery WF4 line. Also 4 boxes of warmwater flies, a Simms shoulder bag, and a Fish Pond technical vest. He was a happy fisherman. My own fishing days are becoming more rare due to encroaching age and a medical condition that is inhibiting my pleasure in fishing, so I am glad to be able to pass on my passion to another generation. Next I need to work on his big brother. Also my younger daughter's son was watching the whole time, and has announced he would like to try it also. Maybe I will be able to get rid of a few more excess rods and reels. By the way, in over 4 hours of fishing McQuinn only caught 2 small bluegills, the only fish caught all afternoon. He was not at all disappointed. He said just casting the rods was a lot of fun.

Larry

What a great experience! Thanks for sharing.

That it is the most profitable way to reduce one's gear.

Good stuff, Larry! I’ve got a lot of Ada Cougars as friends from college. You’ve got a lot of good water down there to initiate some new fly fishers.

I have sold a few rods over the last couple of years and have a few more I will probably sell, but if one of my grandkids wants one it goes straight to them. I have far more rods than I will ever use.

Southern Rivers: I hope you are getting more rain up in Tulsa than we are here in southern OK. Until this summer the majority of my fishing was done in streams in this area, but this drought has all but dried up some of our streams. I drove over the headwaters of Blue River this afternoon, and it was bone dry. Fortunately there are some big springs about 20 miles down stream that are still running.

Larry

Well done Larry, I can imagine the smile on your face. I am trying to move some of my gear as well but not with your success yet.
Carl