Where the Passion Begins

As a kid I can remember running down to my dad's building in the back yard where all of the fishing rods were stored along with the tackle boxes. I was not worried about all of those rods hanging on the wall, I was worried about mine, a blue fishing rod with a push button reel with a simple bobber and hook rig ready to catch whatever was willing to bite....Yep, Dad was taking me and the big brother fishing!!!! I can remember piling in the truck with my older brother scrunching in the middle not being able to sit still the whole way to the lake being so excited that I was going fishing. This was not the first time I had ever gone fishing, just one of the first times that I can remember! To make a long story short, I blame my Dad for starting something that has continuously grown into what it is now, AN ADDICTION!!

I have fished many different places in my life and caught many different species. Little fish, medium sized fish, big fish, huge fish, I have caught them all. ANYWAYS, The year was 2011 and I was about to accomplish what I hold as some of the biggest accomplishments in my life, get accepted to college and graduate high school! I was accepted to Western Carolina University and Appalachian State University, both full of wilderness, new people, and new experiences. I made the decision to go to Western Carolina University to study Criminal Justice and Parks and Recreation Management. On my way to Western for move in day I of course made sure that I had plenty of room for my fishing rods. I was now in the land of trout, trout, and more trout. Driving by the rivers around school I noticed people fly fishing, their line dancing back and forth and stretching out across the water in almost art-like form. Fly fishing was something that I had only done once before in my life at the lake with one of my cousins to catch bream. Being the avid fisherman that I was, I immediately went back to my dorm room and began reading whatever I could find on the internet that had to deal with fly fishing. Just a few short weeks later, while fishing with my brother, I hooked into and landed my first trout on the fly. It was a rainbow trout, nothing sizable, but I was ecstatic. It was this little event that would change not only my fishing experience, but my life forever. ITS TIME TO FAST-FORWARD...

 Here I am now, just 2 short years later. My love for fly fishing has grown into an addiction, a passion, a way of life. I have read the books, read the articles, listened to the experts, but I have found that nothing is as good as experience...I taught myself how to fly fish through self experience, I just went fishing...A LOT...every day really. My cast is not expert, but it is mine and it fits. My flies that I tie are not textbook, but they are by-products and creations of my own imagination, interpretations, and imitations that come to life in my mind when I see the real thing on the river. I have never taken a casting class or a tying class, I am where I am now through trial and error...believe me there has been plenty of error. I could go on and on but what I am really trying to say is that there are some things that you just can't learn from a book or an instructor...YOU JUST HAVE TO GET OUT THERE AND FISH FISH FISH!!!!