Funny Fly Fishing Stories...

[Tight Lines]

I thought I'd post a few of funny stories from fly fishing, and hopefully some others will too. I've been telling my kids about some of my escapades over the years...and thought you guys might find them amusing...so here goes...

 

[Tight Lines]

Probably about 30 years ago, I was fishing the San Juan River in northern NM. It was just after the spring releases and we were gearing up in the parking lot. I was making fun of one of my buddies for almost drowning the day before when he stepped in a huge hole in the flat just below the dam.

During the spring releases, the river gets wide and fills a whole bunch of side channels. As it recedes, the side channels are still wet and have loads of moss in them which grows once the levels get to a certain level. They are loaded with mosquitos, but that's another story.

We geared up and walked in...through the meadow, the willows, the side channels...as we got to the river, I was walking up toward my favorite riffle that no one ever fished, but often held some pigs in the flat water at it's head. I was walking in the river in about 12-16" of water. In a hurry to get to "my spot" I was being a little careless and didn't clean off my boots.

Well, once you walk in a 1/4-1/2 mile from the parking lot, your felt bottom boots pick up all kinds of debris and get dry, and the moss sticks to them like a bug to a windshield. I was humping it upriver with those caked boots, stepping on the bowling balls in the riffle when...

Feet shot out from under me, fly rod flew out of my hand and crashed on the bank, and I was flat on my back, stunned and momentarily paralyzed. In a split second the 40 degree water filled my back, and as I sat up, it all ran down into my waders.

My boys were on their knees doubled over laughing at me. I was not happy. Besides being momentarily crippled, I was also soaking wet with 40 degree water.

So I stood up, walked to the bank, checked out my fly rod and was pleased to see it was OK. I then proceeded to sit down on a boulder, kick off my boots, peel my waders and chest pack off, and started hanging all of my stuff on the willows to dry out. I got all the way down to bare feet, boxers, and a synthetic t-shirt...everything else including my hat was hanging on the willows waiting on the sun to get high enough to dry them out and warm me up. I had to stay close to the river and in the breeze to keep the mosquitos from devouring me.

While I'm standing there, my Irish heritage milk white body beat red, freezing, some dude walks up and stops, looks at my yard sale on the willows and hesitates before asking, "...you fall in?"

Apoplectic, without missing a beat, I say...

"No, no. I always take all my gear off when I get to the river just to make sure I got it all on right. I'm still learning about this gear."

He looked very perplexed, took one look at me and my gear, and then wandered on up to "my spot" in the riffle...

I never fell again in the Juan...

 

[Tight Lines]

Here's another on from the Juan...

We used to rent out the Rainbow Lodge in it's entirety for a 3-day weekend and 12 guys fly fishing the river...folks came from all over once per year to hang out, fish, eat green chili cheeseburgers, and drink a bourbon or two.

We'd normally fly into ABQ and rent a car, and drive the almost 4 hours to Navajo Dam on a Friday night, fish Saturday, Sunday and Monday and take the red-eye home Monday night, back to work Tuesday.

On one particular trip I rented a Ford Explorer SUV. Decent little rental car. On Saturday we got up, gathered our gear, and hit the river, fishing until lunch when we broke and were sitting at the picnic tables eating, telling stories, and drinking a cold beer.

My buddy Lee who is like traveling with a black cat (yet another story) had just purchased a new Winston 5 wt. and an Abel reel. It was a gorgeous rig, and we were all admiring it...even back then all in it was probably something like $1500 with the line...it was the classic Winston deep green rod with a matching matte black Able reel...

Anyway we broke up lunch, fished the rest of the afternoon and dog tired since we had hit the lodge about midnight the night before decided to head back for dinner and a good nights sleep. It was getting windy and cloudy anyway...

One thing we did there that I've not done most places, is transport the rods under the windshield wipers. Since the drive back to the lodge is just a few miles, and not that windy, many guides will put the rods on the windshield under the wipers for the drive and leave them rigged for the next day. So we followed the guides lead and did the same. Lee set up a stink about his new rig...not doing that he said...come on man, it's a fly rod. We want a drink, just put it on the windshield and let's go. After a little whining he did, we hopped in and headed out...

As I left the parking lot and hit the blacktop the wind started to pick up. After I rounded the first bend with the river and meadow to the right, and a bluff to the left, we drove right into a wall of rain.

Unbeknownst to me, the rental car had rain sensing wipers. And they came on. And the fly rods all shot off the driver's side of the Explorer into the oncoming lane.

I slammed on the brakes, hopped out, gathered them up and threw them in the back with the rear window open and headed to the lodge as the squall was picking up steam. Once there, Lee was the first to start inspecting his rod, and sure enough his new rod and Abel reel had a nice case of New Mexico Road Rash from the pavement when it hit...

Lee was so mad that he didn't even eat dinner that night, and he has never since put a rod on a windshield, as least not when I was driving...