Introducing people to fly fishing is one of the real joys of guiding, and doing so with the fat lines is all the better. Saturday afternoon and evening I had the privilege of teaching Kevin, our Riverquest website developer and manager, and his girlfriend and architect, Marsha, how to fly fish on top with the dry fly. Marsha had purchased Kevin a very nice 9′ five weight rod, and he wished to break it in on the Muskegon. We hung a a five weight line on it and went to work.
The Muskegon has continued to drop to excellent dry fly fishing levels, and while the bugs weren’t as heavy as they have been of late (as noted in previous posts, we’ve actually had too many bugs on the water for good dry fly fishing!), we had enough sulphers, gray drakes, and caddis to make it worth our while to pursue them. The trout seemed to prefer the sulphers early on and then, as one might expect, switched over to the drakes. Both Kevin and Marsha improved their casting as the evening progressed with Kevin taking fish on suphers and drakes. Marsha, festooned with her genuine Smoky Bear hat, gave it her best but couldn’t quite get the distance she needed to reach out the the risers. Nonetheless, she repeatedly exclaimed that, “This is really fun!” And fun it was, even with a shower from above as we made our way back to the landing.
Thanks for a most pleasant evening, Kevin and Marsha, and best wishes to you both as you jump into the sport we love so much.
Captain Tom Kuieck
