Fly Boy

Where do you want to go to college Addison?” how many time have I been asked that question. I finally decided on Haywood Community College in the mountains of western North Carolina.
Let me step back a few years into my childhood when my grandfather gave me a fly rod that had belonged to him and taught me how to use it. He taught me in the street, and showed me using the manhole cover in front of his house as a target. I soon, with much practice,learned how to cast and could put the tip of that fly line in the center of that cover.
Okay, back to college I went to Bass Pro Shops before I headed off to college and bought a White River fly rod. I soon learned the fun and excitement of fly fishing.
The first time I decided to go, on my own, was in the fall. I went to the local fly shop the afternoon before and asked the owner what flies I should buy. The woolly bugger was the ticket. The next morning I went to the river and put in at the wildlife access for delayed harvest on the East fork of the Pigeon River and walked to the river. I had tied on the woolly bugger. I cast and began to strip the line back to me I felt a heavy thump I stripped again, and the fight was on a nice 10 inch rainbow trout. Well I had been ordered to take by camera by my parents so I took his picture and released him with a Thank You Lord!
As I walked down stream and saw a beautiful hole of water. I made my first cast toward the upstream side of the hole and let it drift. I began to strip as before and I felt another yet stronger thump and I set the hook again the fight was on. As I fought this fish it was apparent to me that he was much larger. When I got him close I began to back up on the rocky bank that I was standing on he slid up on the bank and I couldn’t believe my eyes, a 17 inch rainbow trout.
When I went off to college I got involved in a Church home. Today it is rare that college freshmen will join a church away from home. The Bible talks about training a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. That remains true in my life. My parents took me to Church when I was young, my grandfather taught me how to throw a fly line and I'm still doing it today. The pros say this all the time, so today you’re gonna hear it from a rookie “take a kid hunting or fishing with you when you go, pass it on.