Errant casts

Wind is the bugaboo of fly casters. It makes casting the fly line difficult and makes accurate placing of the fly nearly impossible. Strong, gusty winds can also place the fly caster in peril. When my oldest son, Robert, was 12 years old, he experienced a close call one windy evening.

We were fishing the Salmon River, below, the town of Malone, NY. Bob had elected to head upstream while Barb and I went downstream. At dark we all returned to the car for the ride back to the motel, I was astonished to find that Bob was wearing an Adams dry fly in his right ht eyebrow.

Bob explained that as he was in the process of making a back-cast, a gust of wind caused him to lose control of the fly line. The leader was whipped across his head, and the Adams dry fly nailed him in the eyebrow. He then reached up and snipped the leader from the fly, tied on a new fly, and continued fishing; pretty gutsy for a twelve year old. Since the hook was in over the barb, I was not about to try to remove it. Off he went to the hospital emergency room in Malone. A doctor came to examine Bob’s predicament and I immediately felt we were in good hands when he exclaimed, “Aha, a number 16 Adams.” Within five minutes, the fly was removed and Bob was as good as new.

Quite a few years later, Barb and I were fishing the Beaver Kill accompanied by our youngest son, Peter. Barb was in charge of the little rascal. She firmly instructed him to stay close behind her, on the bank, as she fished along, heading upstream. That position would keep him safely out of the way of the fly line and fly during her back-casts. However, something attracted Peter’s attention and he lingered in one spot, failing to stay close to his mother.

As Barb was casting her fly upstream, one of her back-casts snagged something. The wind had blown the line closer to the bank on that particular cast and Pete was the catch of the day. The fly had hooked him on the cheek, about an inch below his right eye. Since this occurred on a Saturday, we spent an anxious hour trying to find an open doctors office. We wound up in the old hospital in Liberty where the fly was removed with no permanent damage. Both boys were quite lucky. Had they been wearing their Polaroid sunglasses, it’s possible that neither one would have been hooked.

If you do not wear eyeglasses normally, you should always wear sunglasses when fly-fishing.

Back in the late 1970’s it was traditional for the Croton Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited to have an annual outing in June, at the Peaceful Valley Campground at Shinhopple, on the East Branch of the Delaware. On two successive outings, the wind caused Bob Greenberger, the president of the chapter, to wear a fly as a chic kind of decoration. The first time in an ear, the second time, just above his right lip.

Now, this might lead you to believe that Bob was an even poorer fly-caster than the Tangler. Not so. It was simply that evil Catskill Mountains wind. As you might guess, poor Bob took quite a ribbing about his misfortune, even years after the events took place. He is even more famous for his stupendous struggle to put up a brand new tent at one of these outings. It seems he had bought this tent the day before the outing, had not practiced putting it up and had left the instructions home. Well now… ah, but that’s a tale for another day.