It was during a March evening in 2002 that I received word that my grandfather was dying. I drove four and a half hours to Ironwood, Michigan in a snowstorm to say goodbye. I was able to see my grandpa and he was able to recognize me and acknowledge that I was there.

The next morning, he was gone. The doctors said that they were not sure how he had survived for so long. He had many health conditions and a lot of pain that he hadn’t really shown on outside. Yet, he had visited my grandmother every day in nursing home where she had moved just a few months before. The staff marveled at fact that my grandpa could even make it up stairs each day. But, he did it. He was always there to help someone else.

I stayed in town where my grandfather had been born, lived and now passed on. The funeral was scheduled for just a couple of days later. I thought a lot about my grandfather during this time. He had inspired me to be an athlete and coach. I remember him showing me pictures and ribbons that he had won as a hurdler in track and field. But his real love was baseball. He was a great first baseman who played for a while with Union City Greyhounds farm team and even had a try out for St. Louis Cardinals. Rumor has it that he left baseball to come back for my grandmother. He continued to play ball in his home town. When times were tough and jobs were scarce, my grandfather was offered a job at mine... if he would also play on company’s baseball team.

Two days passed and preparations for funeral were made. I spent a lot of time at my aunt’s house with rest of my family. Late in morning, there was a knock on door. An older gentleman stood outside and carried a small object under one arm. My aunt answered door and had a short conversation with man. He then handed her object, said goodbye and walked off.

Fly fishing indeed is beautiful to watch. After all these years I still enjoy watching a caster that is genuinely skilled. I also enjoy watching fly fishers with unorthodox techniques. Some people haven’t read all books or taken lessons, but instead have learned their skills on water, and some people have truly unique, yet effective habits. Anyway this article is to de-mystify fly fishing for those of you that want to learn, this is a starting point from which your new passion will take off. (OK I am hoping)

Two Basic Types of Fly Fishing

I remember a fly fishing friend said to me “Looks like good dry water, right downstream,” as we were floating down Deschutes River. A fly fishing novice looking downstream said questionning. “Dry water?”

My fly fishing friend was referring to dry fly fishing. There are two basic fly fishing techniques. Dry fly and wet fly. Dry fly refers to fishing your fly on top of water, traditionally used for trout fly fishing, now most species are being fished with a dry fly of some kind. Dry flies usually imitate adult insects that return to surface to lay their eggs back into water. It is at this time they are very vulnerable to being eaten by fish. After mating and depositing their eggs, insects then die. Commonly called ‘spinner falls’ fish tend to lay and gorge themselves during these times. Dry flies are also used during hatches. When flies are emerging from water. ‘Match Hatch’ refers to fishing an imitation of predominantly hatching insect of moment. Dry flies can also be insects that get blown into water such as grasshoppers or ants. Many bass flies or bass bugs actually imitate drowned rodents or frogs.

Dry fly fishing is what most people think of, when they think of fly fishing. Some fly fishers use many false casts to dry their offerings or to place their offerings directly over a rising fish. It is this technique that I observed all those years ago, also made famous by movie ‘A River Runs Through It.’