2013 Day 6-Fly Fishin’ and Crabin’

By Michael and Wiley

And we’re back America!! Good Morning, this is Wiley and joining me today is our special news caster, Michael. The story today is about how you fly a fish… you got that right? Hello…. anyone? 

Any who, enough with the jokes, we went fly-fishing for today. But before we start with the actual story, we will start off with the start of our day. We woke up at 6:30 (some way later than others) and we had cereal with fruit and Pop Tarts. After breakfast, we packed up, and we began our journey to Waters West Outfitters (which is the shop where the guides worked in). It was a long and boring drive (because mostly everybody was plugged into something electronic or they were asleep). We finally arrived at Waters West and we piled into the shop. We then got a look at the shop and what material they used to make a fly (yes these are not real flies).  Did you know, that one fly-fishing pole can cost up to at least 1 grand!!! In other words, we were very careful not to break or smash anything in the shop. 

 

We then left the shop and, guided by our two guides, went to a pond a few minutes down the road. Our guides, Mr. C and Mr. S, gave us an introduction on the poles used for fly-fishing. Then they told us to get into groups of two and follow one of them. Liam and I (Wiley) were in a group and we had Mr. S explaining to us how to construct our poles and how to put the rod in place. 

Then when everyone was done constructing their poles (adults included) we went into the Casting Academy. We learned how to correctly cast our lines and then we practiced our casts. But don’t worry parents, we didn't use real hooks for that (that part comes later).  After practicing our casts for a very long time, Mr. C and Mr. S taught us about the three main insects that the fish (trout) go for. Then after that, we were turned loose after they put our flies on.  We spread around the ponds, and we cast our lines into the water. Line after line we casted into the pond and time after time, no fish. Eventually I (still Wiley here) got something very huge and very heavy that I couldn't budge. It was, wait for it, a tree!! So after that I decided to move down a little and I tried to go big and un-winded a lot of line. Needless to say I failed at casting it and I caught a shrub. Enough about me, let’s talk about the others. Nobody even got a nibble for the first half of the adventure. So we decided to eat lunch, and guess what it was. It’s every man’s favorite food, hot dogs! And for motivation for us to eat healthy, Mr. K told everybody to eat the carrots first, or nobody will have dessert (besides the adults, of course). So Will and I and everyone else decided to eat carrots and the other two healthy foods, celery and tomatoes. While we were eating lunch, Mr. C caught a fish, but he lost it. Shortly after that, Mr. S reeled in two rainbow trout, and all the boys were in awe. Then we returned to eating.  The dessert portion was really a stampede, since dessert was candy. So after everyone settled down, we went back to fishing.  After what seemed like ten minutes, Luke caught a fish, but it evaded him. Another two minutes go by, and Luke catches another fish. It also evades him, but he said that it was a Blue Gill. After that, we began to pack up and leave. We helped Mr. C and Mr. S pack their poles. We then said our goodbyes, and we left. 

The car ride home was quite relaxing (but only because I feel asleep). We then arrived back at camp and we unloaded from the car. Here is our special news caster Michael for the next segment of the story. When we unloaded some of the scouts wanted to go down on the beach.  We rounded up a group and started to head down. Mr. R brought along some crab traps and we were going to see if we could catch anything. We went out on a dock and tossed them in. We had to let them sit on the bottom for ten to fifth teen minuets. Luke pulled one up and a small crab was hanging on. We tossed him back and put the trap in a couple more times. While we were doing that a man and his wife walked up and starter setting up a large trap. We started talking and learned they crabbed all over the U.S. We watched them pull up a large load of crab and started picking through them. Meanwhile we had pulled up a large crab and when over and asked the man what kind it was. He said it was female so we could not keep it. 

We started to pack up and stated to head to the campsite. Before we left he gave us a crab measuring device so we could figure out if we could keep it or not. When we got back to the campground dinner was ready. We eat steak and some of Mr. K’s awesome cinnamon, mustered, brown sugar baked beans. We sat down by the camp fire and read the blog posting and comments (keep 'em coming folks, we love them!). Well, that wraps up our top story today. Please stay tuned for more top breaking stories, and have a great finish to the work week. And remember, Stay Classy America!!

Editors Note: You can tell we finally had some camp time, I got to insert some pics in the blog itself!

Click for Today's Pics or see below.