Hello from Missouri

[Jaeger]

Hello forum.

I come to you by way of a fairly fruitless internet search, and more goose eggs searching fly fishing forums for threads related to my question. I'll post it in the tying forum.

Fishing...it's synonymous with living as far as I'm concerned. There was never a time in my life where I didn't make the time to fish. I really don't care what it is. Catching a 1000 LB Black Marlin does not make me enjoy catching bluegill any less. Fishing with a priceless split bamboo rod makes pulling up a homemade trotline no less exciting for me.

I started very young with an authoritarian father holding my upper arm in a vice like grip while insisting I cast the fly into a Dixie cup only moving my elbow and wrist. I do not plan on using the same teaching techniques on my kids, effective though they may be.

I started tying in grade school and was fortunate enough to have my parents pay for some really good classes in addition to my father's instruction. I am still friends with the people from those classes some 30 years later, and the guy who taught it (now with hair of gray) has his own little mom & pop fly store.

I have a weekend cabin on a lake that my family loves, so still water for pan fish is what's available most of the time. I only get to go on fishing trips a few times a year, but I enjoy them immensely. I usually go on two or three trout trips, and a saltwater trip, and maybe slip in a pike/walleye trip up North.

My father was a serious salt water fisherman and bought a house on Andros Island in the '60s (which we still have), and I grew up bone, tarpon, and reef fishing there. For our family it was almost more of a fish camp, as that is what everyone looked forward to more than the beach or anything else.

Grandfather from Camden AR was a serious fisherman too, and then I spent some summers with him on White Oak Lake, many farm ponds, and tributaries to the Ouachita river. My Danish Grandfather was a serious fisherman as well. We would set nets (for flounder and cod) and traps (for crabs and eel) out every morning on Arhus Bay in his rowboat, and then go retrieve them every afternoon all summer long. We would rod fish for Cod occasionally in between. My Grandfather would smoke the eels in a metal alcohol smoker, and my Grandmother would fix the cod and place so it was to die for.

I've been fishing all my life, but I'm no professional or even expert. I plan on reading a lot more than posting, and I hope there are members who can help me with some regional knowledge. I promise never to ask about the hidden piece of stream that's a 15 minute walk from your backdoor (even privately). The internet is a wonderful and a terrible thing!

I am at that point in my life (family) where I tie and talk about fishing more than I actually get to fish, which is sort of sad, but the trade off is very worth it. My son turns five next month, and has already caught a ton of fish. He seems to really like it too, so maybe it's in the blood. I'm looking forward to a lazy summer on the lake teaching him how to cast his Spiderman rod well. It just doesn't get better than that!

Thank you for having me.

[Korrie]

Welcome
Sounds that you have a wealth of stories to tell.
It will be fun to read some of your experiences, ancecdotes and stories.

[BuzzLiteBeer]

Welcome Jaeger. Always good to hear about new places and experiences. Please post some images of your neck of the woods. Some forum members are a little slow and like to look at the pictures instead of reading all the big words.

[gkieser]

Welcome Jaeger! Sounds like you have lived the dream of many of us!

[Jaeger]

I was interesting when I was young. Now I'm old and boring. :wink:

[Jaeger]

Which words were too big Buzz; authoritarian or synonymous? Both? I'll try to write more monosyllabically in the future. :wink:

[BuzzLiteBeer]

Which words were too big Buzz; authoritarian or synonymous? Both? I'll try to write more monosyllabically in the future. :wink:

All three!!

[fish]

Great story Jaegar,

Sometimes it is good to get an indication why we all love fishing so much. How we started, the people who played a role etc. Great story.

Cheers on that!

[Herman Jooste]

First and foremost, WELCOME to Flytalk.

I for one am looking forward to your anecdotes and experiences.

If you ever feel like spoiling the family with a trip to South Africa, I and many others on this forum would only be too happy to host you at some of our "secret" waters.:wink: and drinking holes