The lure of fly fishing
“The biggest fish I ever caught never came in,” said Justin Harding. “He was a lunker, dude. Ripped my line off and everything.”
Harding, senior studying business entrepreneurship, is crazy about fly fishing. He works in his free time as a guide, taking amateurs out to his secret fishing holes to show them the ropes.
“I can teach someone in about an hour,” he said, “but it might take a couple hours before they’ll start catching fish.”
So goes the old fly fishing adage; “An hour to learn, a lifetime to master.” Harding is one of the lucky ones. He said he was taught to fish when he was 12 years old by an old-time family friend during their traditional summer camping trips. Now he spends much of his summers fishing throughout Utah and taking amateurs on tours.
“No, actually the biggest fish I ever pulled out of the water was about 20 inches,” he said. “I caught it on the Provo river just below the Jordanelle Dam.”
However, Harding said he released the fish.
“It’s easy to let them go,” he said, “because with fly fishing, they never swallow the hook. Part of the challenge is to react quick enough to hook the fish.”
Harding said the prime fly fishing season will begin as soon as the snow melts, but before the spring runoff turns the rivers into muddy swells.
Harding said in the winter and early spring, he fishes using non-floating line and a lure called a nymph, rather than dry fly fishing, which uses floating line in order to mimic the movement of flying insects.
Nymph fishing mimics insects when they’re in their underwater stage, Harding said. Insects such as mayflies and Salmon flies begin their life cycle attached to rocks under water, but float to the surface each spring. This is called a hatch, where insects will mate, lay eggs in the water and die, all within 24 to 48 hours. During a hatch, Harding said, is the best time to be dry fly fishing.
“Fish are always eating – you just have to figure out what they’re eating,” he said.
Colby Brungard, graduate student in soil science, said dry fly fishing produces the type of long casts seen in the movie “A River Runs Through it,” in which the weight of the line makes a French curve in the air above the fisher.
“People like seeing beautiful long casts like in the movie, but that the most important thing is to get the fly in the right place where the fish can see it,” Brungard said.
Brungard taught himself to fly fish when he was 21 after his father gave him a fly pole. He said he approaches fly fishing from the fish’s point of view.
Brungard said fish need food, oxygen and cover. He said he looks for deep eddies where faster water bubbles over rocks, providing oxygen, and where the current carries food downstream, allowing the fish to dart in and grab a bite.
“You have to think about what a fish wants,” he said.
Brungard ties his own flies using a special vise. Dry flies are meant to resemble flying insects – nymphs resemble insects in underwater stages, and terrestrials resemble ants, grasshoppers and beetles. Brungard also ties streamers, which are meant to resemble small minnows, he said.
Brungard said he likes the challenge of fly fishing.
“I really like to learn new things and there’s always something new to learn,” he said.
Brungard said an amateur can buy a quality setup consisting of waterproof waders and boots, a fishing rod and reel, and various tools for about $400. He recommended going to Round Rocks Fly Fishing here in Logan for expert advice.
Fishing licenses can be purchased online at www.utah.wildlife.gov, or at various sports stores. Licenses cost $26 per year for Utah residents. Fees vary for non-residents.
To schedule an expert guided tour, contact Utah Pro Fly Fishing at www.utahproflyfishing.com.
–brendon.butler@aggiemail.usu.edu
senior justin harding fishes in the Logan River above First Dam. He said he was taught to fish when he was 12 years old. ( CAMERON PETERSON photo)