What a day. We stood on the banks of the Crystal Pool (in a manner of speaking), and learned to love our loops.
If this sounds slightly left of centre, you should have seen the looks the Iron Matron gang got casting about in the middle of a bunch of soccer players. One fellow actually approached and wanted to know how he, too, could learn to load the lines and dangle a nymph.
Confused yet? So were we, in the beginning of the Iron Matron and Company's second adventure in a five-part series.
Who would have thought fly-fishing is often nothing about catching fish? It was enough to make your head reel.
The group of us -- Fran Harper, Sandy Campbell, Jo-Anne Kern, Deb Carnes, Sue Emslie and me -- had been wondering how we could spend an entire Sunday learning fly-fishing when the only water options were the pool and hot tub. We soon discovered water is the last thing we needed.
In the words of Deb:
A River Runs Through it? Whoa, not so fast.
The football field was where we cast.
Load the rod. Lightly grip it.
It's supposed to be silent. Better not whip it.
Who knew a "leader" could be so light?
Or that a loop had to be tight?
A woolly bugger, nymph, dry fly
And no, we didn't learn how to tie.
Double surgeons? Piece of cake.
So grab your hip waders and head for a lake.
Or better yet the Cowichan River
We'll cast our flies and really give 'er.
Our instructor for the day, organized by the Victoria Parks and Recreation Centre, was professional fly-fishing guide and instructor Ian Muirhead, who runs Island Fly Fishing Adventures. A Scottish guy who has led previous lives as an acupuncturist and nightclub operator in Amsterdam, Ian was more than up for a good-humoured round with the Iron Matron bunch. We also had an add-on for the day in the form of Ross Archibald, a poor man who had signed up for fly-fishing, before we all landed in his lap, so to speak (see pole-dancing from two weeks ago).
The day started with a preliminary talk about the sport, which is also considered an art (especially by those who can't catch fish). Women learn it much faster than men, but then we already knew that. A few land-locked lessons are smart, before getting near one of Vancouver Island's wealth of rivers. Later, you can experiment with catch and release, along with falling in the river, which everybody does eventually, Ian said.
We talked about cosying up with bugs to understand what those fat trout like to eat. Their tastes, apparently, can change by the hour. We looked at the artificial flies, such as the furry numbers steelhead prefer, and found out a good rod, reel and line costs about $250.
Options include hot pink Gore-Tex waders. Ian figured they'd scare the heck out of the fish.
Armed with the idea of loading energy into our lines, like an airplane taking off, we fastened our seatbelts and headed out to the banks of the "pool," as Sandy put it. With a few metres of line extended, we cast (ed?) away, trying to get our J-shaped loops sexy and candy-cane tight (see pole-dancing), rather than loose and saggy (see pole-dancing). Studies in concentration, we strove to achieve the Straight Line Path, and Sue got into trouble with her whipping technique, which could have tamed lions. Fly-fishing is supposed to relieve tension, she protested.
Our arms got a bit tired, and Ian mentioned one guy who strengthened his muscles by "casting" a wine bottle full of sand. Naturally, he drank the wine first. I liked that idea, especially looking down at my corkscrewed mess of line on the ground. We took a break over double surgeon's knots, then attempted double-action casting -- back and forth, back and forth, then let 'er fly. It seemed impossible, but every now and then our lines stretched out across the grass in ribbons of plumb perfection. Trying to do it twice in a row was another story, but it really didn't matter.
Sandy loved it, Jo-Anne is ready to go on a fly-fishing vacation, and Fran appreciated the art, science and elegance of the sport. By the end of the day, when the time had flown by, we knew who was hooked.
Get a line on fly-fishing by e-mailing [email protected].
Catch the next instalment of the Iron Matron on Dec. 3.
