Fly Fishing School 2001
I saw an ad in March 2001 for a fly fishing school, sponsored by Trout Unlimited of Michigan, at Ranch Rudolph just outside Traverse City. This sounded like a great opportunity for summer fun, since we had been looking at Ranch Rudolph as an opportunity to mix Linda’s interest in horse riding with camping in our pop-up camper and my interest in fishing on the Boardman River, which runs right through the ranch. We had driven through the camp one summer on our way home from visiting my parents who live in Traverse City and it looked pretty interesting, but we hadn’t seriously tried to set a date yet.
Anyone who knows me will realize right away that I’m too cheap to take fly fishing lessons, but Linda thought it would be a great idea. So, after a lot of foot dragging on my part, but with somewhat a thrill of adventure, we called the guy at Trout Unlimited and had a set of application forms sent out.
The application was a real treat. It asked me all sorts of questions about my equipment and my knowledge of knots, line and casting. I had been fly fishing for about four years already, but I was pretty clueless. I had read a couple of books about fly fishing, so I knew what they were asking about, but I certainly didn’t remember any of the terminology. I had to search over my rod carefully in order to find the name of the manufacturer.
My equipment is somewhat interesting. Linda’s brother-in-law, Don, had discovered the fly rod and reel in the rafters of the basement of a house he had just bought. He had no use for it and he knew that I fished a lot, so Don donated it to me. I immediately went out and bought some new fly line (I don’t remember what type) and a bunch of cute flies. After reading a couple of books, I had the general idea and I actually had some success. But I gradually got into a lot of bad habits and I forgot most of the details of how to fly fish. The fly fishing school was just what I needed to jump-start my interest in fly fishing and to build some confidence. I sent off my application and a check.
Little did I know that getting into the Trout Unlimited Fly Fishing School was not easy. TU had been holding the school every year for the past 31 years and always has a waiting list to get in. By the time they got my application the school was full. However, when they called, I agreed to keep on the waiting list to see if an opening would occur. As luck would have it, by May an opening appeared and I was in. School would be June 9, 10 and 11. I was the last student to get in for the 2001 school.
I was pretty excited about going. I even went out and bought a rain suit to replace the old rain poncho that I had bought back when I was still a Boy Scout. But as the time approached, the days got unseasonably cold and rainy. Linda found out that she would not be able to ride the horses and Erik would have to skip a day of school. Linda and Erik finally decided not to come up with me. It seemed like a lot of trouble to set up the camper in the rain just for me, and my parents live in Traverse City, so I called to make arrangements and drove up Thursday night to my parents house. This would not be much of a visit, since I would be at school from early morning to late at night every day, but it’s always a pleasure to get a chance to spend some time with them.
Ranch Rudolph is just South of Traverse City off Garfield Road on the Boardman River. It is only about 10 miles from where my parents live on the East Bay, so getting to the camp to sign in was a short trip on Friday morning. Despite the cool weather leading up to Friday, the day was warm and sunny. The instructors took one look at my fly fishing equipment and quickly suggested that I instead use one of the brand-new Orvis fly fishing set-ups that they had there for the students. But first, we had to learn the knots.
The fly fishing school was quite a collection of people. There were about 80 students and about 25 instructors. The students were an amazing mix of young and old, men and women, couples and singles. There were fathers and sons, husbands and wives, newcomers and experienced fishermen. All of the instructors are volunteers from Trout Unlimited and get to wear these great tan shirts with lots of badges showing what awards they’ve earned. Everyone was seated at picnic tables in the shade with instructors learning knots. All in all, it reminded me a lot of my days in Boy Scouts.
Meals are provided as part of the school, so everyone filed into the lodge to eat lunch. It was certainly fun to sit at a table where everyone was talking about fishing experiences. I learned that many of the students were from nearby States (like Indiana), and some were even from my area (like Chelsea). Everyone was friendly and eager to learn.
After lunch we were each assigned to one of the instructors. I, along with Phillipe, BJ and Tony, were assigned to Rick. Rick, in his regular life, painted houses, but he had a real passion for fishing. Now we got our rods and began the art of casting.
Even with my book learning on fly rod casting, I was amazed at how much you can learn about it just by having an instructor. With Rick showing how it is done and with his comments, I soon got the hang of the rhythm needed to fly cast. We didn’t have a fly (or more importantly, a hook) on the end of the fly line, so there was no fear of getting harmed, so everyone was soon doing a good job of casting the fly line. I was amazed that I could cast the fly line so far, even in a wind. This was great!
After the excellent dinner we did some more casting practice before the fly tying demonstrations. The fly tying was too hard to follow, since only a few people could be at the vises at a time, so I decided to go out on the Boardman River and see what I could do with my new casting skills. I picked a streamer and started casting right at the ranch canoe launch site. I waded upstream as it got towards nightfall and I was just enjoying the location. I was just letting the fly drag downstream and I got a strike! It was just a small fish and I didn’t get the hook set, but it gave me hope. I had worked my way up to where the road was right next to the stream and there was a major undercut. When I cast to the opposite shore, I got a fish! It was small, but very lively. It jumped several times, and before I could get it close enough to net, the little critter spit the hook and escaped. Of course this was my plan all along, so I was not upset. I kept casting my streamer into the undercut until finally I got snagged on a root deep in the undercut. When I tried to wade over to the snag, I was surprised at how deep the water was on that side of the river. Ultimately, my fly broke off and, since it was getting too dark to tie knots, I left to go back to my parents house.
On the road back to Traverse City I saw a porcupine crossing the road. A magnificent sight. It was late and I immediately slept until early in the morning, when I sped back to the ranch for more school. This time on the road I saw a couple of deer.
After an excellent breakfast, we watched a video on the anatomy of a trout stream and headed out in our waders for the river. The instructors were stationed at various points in the river and we waded from one spot to another to learn about various techniques, such as dry fly, nymph and streamers. It was here, waist deep in water, that a rainstorm quickly appeared and drenched everyone. It was decided to go back and have an early lunch and see what the weather would do.
After lunch we had a session on bugs. One of the instructors had gone out in the river and pulled together an amazing assortment of the usual stuff that live in the river that trout will feed on. It was these critters that most flies are meant to imitate. We followed with a group lecture on leader and fly line basics. This is what all the knots are needed for. By then, the sun was back out and we assembled for a casting demonstration. The instructor was amazing and could make that fly line dance. He could make a perfect cast and then show you the typical errors too. We then did more casting in our groups. This time we stressed the “special” techniques, such as roll casting. We did a trip out to an impoundment on the river to practice our casting and we saw a turkey by the road. Rick liked my roll casting technique. I liked the roll cast, since it took less effort than tossing all that line back and forth.
After an excellent (barbecue steak) dinner, Rick organized a group to go back to the impoundment to fish. Apparently, there was a mayfly hatch going on and he thought we should see one first hand. He didn’t think we would catch anything major (maybe some bluegill), but it could be interesting.
When we got there Rick showed us the back of his pickup truck. Under the cover was boxes and boxes of flies and rods. He could outfit a small store himself. He was showing us all the different sizes of flies there were and the different weights of fly rods. He also had a cooler full of beers, so we were all set. It would be a couple of hours before the hatch occurred (at sunset) so Rick pulled out his belly boat and we each took a spin in the lake floating around. Once it started to get dark, the air began to fill with mayflies and we waded into the water to fish. Mostly there were bluegill and they were small. I think most of them were too small for my hook, but I did catch one. Rick took some pictures, so I might get a copy of one. We fished until way after dark. It was weird to be tossing that fly line in the dark entirely by feel. Mars was very bright and low on the horizon in the constellation of Scorpio. As we left the lake, there was a fisherman with a boat coming in. He says fishing at night is a great experience. I guess I’ll have to try it some time. My parents were already in bed by the time I got back to Traverse City, but I was ready to sleep anyway.
Sunday was the last day. After an excellent breakfast, we reviewed everything. Rick had to mark what each of us knew, so each of us had to demonstrate our casting and other skills. I think I was his star pupil for knot tying. I had done well on knots in Boy Scouts and some of the knots used in fly fishing are the same as Scout knots, but usually with other names. I had a little story about a rabbit that is used for tying a “bowline” knot, which is called something else by fly fishermen. So, I taught everyone the story to help them tie the knot.
So, after an excellent lunch, we finally had our graduation. Rick suggested that I come back next year for the advanced class. Maybe he tells all of his students that, but it made me feel like I really was making some progress on this. It was sad to have to leave such a great spot with such a great group of people to go back to whatever reality we had come from. But, I needed to get back to Ann Arbor so that I could go to work on Monday morning. After a brief goodbye to my parents (and my sister who was visiting), I hit the road back to Ann Arbor.
The fly fishing school was a great experience. Even though I went there knowing nobody, I felt I fit right in. I had no trouble meeting people and making friends and the instructors were approachable and easy to talk to. I learned a lot and I don’t think I would have been able to make that much progress (especially on casting) without their help. There is still lots to learn, so maybe I should go back next year. It will be fun.
