Fishing Buddy

On of my many fishing buddies I met creekside while fishing a caddis hatch on the Jemez in  New Mexico

Winter's Quite Moment

There is nothing more peaceful than winter fishing. Here is dad during one of those quite moments at Montauk State Park.

The Geicko Theory of Fly Fishing

The Geicko Theory of Fly Fishing

I was driving down the road the other day with my radio playing when this talking lizard (actually a gecko) came on the air and started telling about the Geicko Insurance Company.  He stated, “a 15 minute call can save you 15 percent on your car insurance”. I had heard this commercial before, but had never really thought about it. As my simple mind mulled over this concept I instantly related it to fishing. My simple mind often does that… “shift from reality to fishing without any provocation”.

As I thought back to past fishing trips it hit me. There is a relationship between the Geicko Insurance Company and local fly shops. I will call it the “Geicko Theory” for lack of a better term. The “Geicko theory” of fly fishing states that “ a 15 minute stop at the local fly shop can increase your catch by 15 percent”.

Now let me explain. Last father’s day I took my dad to Bennett Spring for the weekend. On Saturday we did lousy. We fished all day and yet only landed a few small fish. That evening we headed up the hill to Kay and Ed’s Springview Fly Shop to browse around and shoot the bull.  In the flow of conversation we told them how lousy we had been doing.  That is when Kay mentioned that nobody was catching fish unless they were fishing a nymph along the bottom. Sunday morning I got up and tied on the heaviest bead head hares ear I could find and started dragging it in the gravel. An hour later I had landed a dozen fish and my dad had caught ten.

It wasn’t about a week later when I had the brief but very productive conversation with Tom at T. Hargroves about fishing the Meramec River. He showed me the “KEY” to fishing that stream… an Olive Mohair Leech. My fishing trips to the Meramec River have been considerably more productive ever since.

Where does the “Geicko Theory” come into play? If we had stopped into Springview on Friday night before we drove in to camp we might not have had to suffer through such a slow day on Saturday. And if I had talked to Tom earlier, I would not have spent so much time whipping the Meramec River to a creamy white froth, but instead used the leech to catch fish.

So there are three morals, which can be talked from this story. First Moral: that time spent in a fly shop is never wasted and can sometimes equal a whole bunch of fish. Second Moral: anything, even a talking lizard, can in some way be related to flyfishing. And the final moral of this story: I really do have a simple mind.