Shape Someone’s Future and Teach Them to Fly Fish
My name is Rex and I own BattenkillOutfitters.com. I wanted to share a story that *might* inspire you.
My grandfather taught me to fly fish when I was around 9 or 10 years old. We floated beside a rock wall in his little aluminum fishing boat. It was a tiny boat next to a 50 foot tall rock wall. Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma is known for its sheer rock walls and deep water. He showed me how to develop the rhythm for casting the line and how to watch what the fly was doing.
On one occasion he saw a fish hit the fly and I couldn’t. He hollered to set the hook. I yanked on the pole and all we saw was a little black spot rapidly getting bigger until WHAM, the little bass landed in the tackle box between us. Not much rattled gramps and he said, “That’s pretty good, see if you can clean him on the way by next time!”
I am now almost 60 years old and remember that day like it was yesterday. Grampa is gone decades ago, but that is one of my most vivid memories of him.
He taught me about the differences between manual and automatic reels, bamboo and fiberglass rods, wet and dry flies. As a tribute his bamboo fly rod that HAS to be at least 50 years old hangs in our front room proudly for all to see.
Grampa used a manual reel. I didn’t understand any purist mentality so I opted for an automatic style reel. Grampa had to admit that after he used it for awhile that it was pretty sweet.
Since those days, I have fly fished in streams in Colorado, Washington State, various ponds, lakes and streams. Some of my MOST fun was catching bull frogs on a fly rod. OK that CONFIRMS I am not a purist! But fun is FUN! Man do they fight.
The ultimate thrill for me was hiking by myself up a deep valley in Colorado with my fly rod, backpack and gold panning equipment. All I needed was a cooler full of beer and I would have been good. The sacrifices we make!
The point of all this is that my grampa shaped my future with the simple act of teaching me to fly fish. Unfortunately, it is something that I don’t do nearly as often as I would like.
Ironically, I find that the PURITY of walking the banks of the stream or wading upstream is a natural experience that there are just too few of these days. Everyone needs to experience it. I find you will never feel closer to your maker than you will in nature. It has a way of making you feel very small and insignificant. At the same time you soak in the beauty and praise the day.
These thoughts inspired the creation of this fly fishing equipment website. What better way can I help you experience the beauty of this style of fishing than to make sure you have access to a wide variety of affordable equipment both new and used.
Get out there and teach someone to fly fish!
