I completed both the Orvis Fly Fishing 101 and 201 class this summer.
It took just over an hour to get to the trout club in Sandusky . The 201 class started at 8:45am and ended at 1:30. The club cooked us a lunch and we relaxed inside the club house for about a half hour eating. There was plenty of enough personal attention from the two instructors.
I caught a nice rainbow trout. Maybe 8-10 inches long. It was sure fun and these are really a pretty fish. I caught it with a dry fly that looked like a little ant. An instructor released him for me and off he went! They help you pinch the barb on the hook making it easier to release the fish. They also show you how to get the fish into a net and then use your pliers to remove the hook. All this has to be done carefully and timely so the fish can recover and swim off.
In the morning the fish were surfacing to feed so we used dry flies. Then as it warmed up you could see they were not coming to the surface so I switched to a woolly something or other. It was heavier and it attracted a lot of trout but no takers.
The best part was getting to go to new sections of the stream and just waiting and first looking for the fish. Then I got to use my "pick up and lay down" cast, my roll cast and even a side cast. I lost a fly and some tippet when I tried to drop my ant under a section of overhanging bushes and trees.
Aunt Barb learned a lot and I feel confident to go to our local river and cast away!
It took just over an hour to get to the trout club in Sandusky . The 201 class started at 8:45am and ended at 1:30. The club cooked us a lunch and we relaxed inside the club house for about a half hour eating. There was plenty of enough personal attention from the two instructors.
I caught a nice rainbow trout. Maybe 8-10 inches long. It was sure fun and these are really a pretty fish. I caught it with a dry fly that looked like a little ant. An instructor released him for me and off he went! They help you pinch the barb on the hook making it easier to release the fish. They also show you how to get the fish into a net and then use your pliers to remove the hook. All this has to be done carefully and timely so the fish can recover and swim off.
In the morning the fish were surfacing to feed so we used dry flies. Then as it warmed up you could see they were not coming to the surface so I switched to a woolly something or other. It was heavier and it attracted a lot of trout but no takers.
The best part was getting to go to new sections of the stream and just waiting and first looking for the fish. Then I got to use my "pick up and lay down" cast, my roll cast and even a side cast. I lost a fly and some tippet when I tried to drop my ant under a section of overhanging bushes and trees.
Aunt Barb learned a lot and I feel confident to go to our local river and cast away!
