Tie those flies

Post by Ella.

“Which of you is the fly fisher?”, the grey bearded, robust man boomed as we walked into the American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vt. “Um, neither of us fish at all, we just wanted to see what fly fishing is all about”. “Okay, let me get you started”, he said and then launched into what we’d see in the gallery. The famous Joan and Lee Wulff (known as the king and queen of fly fishing, Jean is 97 years old now and still teaches fly casting), how all the paintings were donated anonymously and they only found out recently that it was a financial guy who worked on Wall St.,  and more. “Well, that should get you started…”.

In one gallery, we watched a video on the royal couple of fly fishing. It’s no wonder this couple are revered.  The natural grace in the flick of Joan’s wrist as the line did a figure eight and landed gently on top of water was mesmerizing. In one competition, Joan cast a distance of 161 feet.

We moved on to the fly room where the docent joined us to explain the difference between dry and wet fly fishing. In a tiny nutshell, a dry fly floats on the surface, a wet fly sinks. He said, for example, take the May fly. Trout love May flies. There are thousands of species but only say 20 in any one particular area. Still, which of these 20 species will the trout be hungry for today? And in which stage of the life cycle? The larvae is a tiny shell which will sink (this is a wet fly). Sometimes, that’s what the trout want. As the larva hatches, wings begin to emerge and they are kind of half in and half out of the water. Finally both wings emerge and they can skim the water (now, you’ve guessed it, this is a dry fly) and then take off for the nearest bush to find a mate. Once the mating is over, the male falls into the water, dead. The female only escapes death long enough to release her eggs, then she too is a goner.

So what the savvy fly fisher must have on hand are tied flies of several different species at each of the different stages. There is no telling exactly what the trout will eat on any particular day.

Have you ever known a fly fisher person? 

Grubb found the fly fishing library.

As we left, the docent recommended that we go across to the Orvis flagship store for fly fishing where we could see folks practicing their casting in the ponds behind the store. Yep, everything you’d ever need for fly fishing. And for your dog. Grubb bought socks.

The dog section almost as big as the human section.

You can also admire the trout in the Orvis pond.