By: Andrew Montgomery 

Something that people don’t know about me is that I am avid fly fisherman. 

I like to skateboard, and run cross-country, but my real passion in life is flyfishing. 

My grandpa is retired and he has been fly fishing for 70 years. He designs 

and builds fishing rods. The way that he creates these rods is a work of art. They 

are made of bamboo, a flexible strong wood ideal for making fly rods from. These 

rods are the best things for fly-fishing. 

When I first met my grandfather (step) I thought that he was a wise man 

that held within an infinite amount of knowledge. I was not surprised when I 

found out that I was correct. He has many other things he loves to do in life such 

as dog training, pheasant hunt, and we also fish the St.croix River for small mouth 

bass and muskie. His true passion in life is fly-fishing. 

There are many skills that have to be known to be successful at flyfishing. 

You have to know about the insects and how the behave and swim. Since 

most aquatic insects change from a nymph to a dun to a terrestrial insect you have 

to imitate all these life cycles. This is not an easy task if you tie your entire fly’s 

yourself. First you must spend a minimum of 200$ and get the correct materials to 

tie fly’s. Then you have to get a pattern and then tie it as well as you can. Then 

you tie the same fly until your hands fall off. You then have to take that fly out on 

the stream and test it out at the right time and see if it works. I fit works you can 

call yourself an avid fly fisherman. 

When you are studying insects you learn how they rise to the surface 

and transform from a gill bearing swimming nymph to a lung bearing winged 

terrestrial. This is the best time to fish is when this transformation is occurring. 

This is called the hatch. If you stumble on a hatch while fishing you will be a 

happy camper. You will come home with the biggest and the most fish when you 

get into a hatch. 

Trout are very picky fish. They want the fly presented just a certain way. 

The key is presentation. There are many was to show the fish the bait and some 

should be used in certain situations and some shouldn’t. if you have the perfect fly 

in a hatch and you don’t throw that fly just right you still wont catch anything. 

To be an avid fly fisherman there are many things you have to do and learn 

but once you do it will give you it back in enjoyment three fold. 

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