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Hey Guys!

Welcome to the 63rd Issue of Guys Fishing Weekly!

Thanks for spending even just a little of your week with us. We are grateful for you!

Stay Legendary,

- The GFW Boys

Future Book Excerpt

Below is an excerpt from the book we are currently writing at GFW.

More to come on this after the turn of the year but would love your feedback in the meantime.

Enjoy!

…

Being a beginner is always uncomfortable. Beginner’s luck is one of a few basic outcomes. This is either due to you absorbing the teaching provided, reading the rules of the game, or pure divine luck handed down from above. But beginner’s luck never strikes twice. You will always feel uncomfortable, if not on the first day, definitely the second.

Alex had to get over it. He wasn’t picking up fly fishing as fast as he wanted. Seth was patient when they were able to fish together, but no fishing buddy is around 24/7. They have lives too, and step number one of being a good fishing buddy is realizing that. So, Alex had to go out and practice the craft on his own. By himself. Alone.

There are few other sports that can be more aggravating to start on your own than fly fishing. Unless you live on water, you are driving 15 minutes at least (but more likely over an hour) to a spot “you heard about.” Once there, you have to get your gear on - call it another 15 minutes. Then once you have that accomplished, you have to start rigging up your rod, reel, fly line, select a fly, size your tippet and tie on. Call it another 30 minutes. So, let’s conservatively say you are 1 hour and 45 minutes out from home before you start casting. Note this is not expressed as ‘fishing.’

As a beginner, this sport may as well be called ‘fly casting.’ You don’t get to do a whole lot of catching. This is the time offering you must give to the fishing gods that oversee this water. Sure there may be a flash or two that keep you coming back, and over time that grows into landing a fish and figuring it out. But at the beginning, it is rough.

Alex had to learn to be comfortable with this sacrifice of time. He was able to get out into nature. He would learn down the road that this was the reason he was doing it in the first place. But at this moment in time, it didn’t feel that way. Alex had been on the water for a couple hours at this point. He had snagged in two trees and countless willow bushes, snapped off 8 flies and counting, and had not yet seen a fish.

“Fuck me. What else can I do?!” Alex critiqued in his head. He wasn’t one to speak out loud much on the water, counter to a lot of anglers who only think out loud. “I guess I’ll try another fly. Maybe this green one will work. Lots of bugs are green, and this one looks… buggy.”

Alex tied it on and trudged up to the next big boulder on the water. Unbeknownst to him it was one of those picture perfect holes that some anglers would consider “River Porn.” It stood 3 feet out of the water on the right side of the river against the bank. Behind it the river bent into its back, forcing a riffle rolling around the left side. The current created a trail of oxygenated water. The bubbles along the surface would be perfect camouflage for his wind-knotted tippet.

His first cast fell off to the right, almost along the bank. Not on purpose, but as a result of his beginner skill level. He made a correct mental note that he had enough line out, and another wrong mental note on why his line landed where it did. Alex pulled the line out of the water, false casted three times to “dry it off” and laid it down. Miraculously in the bubbles. His randomly chosen Green Drake dry fly didn’t immediately catch his eye. He scanned the water as if looking for an overboard passenger, hoping to see it bobbing, arms flailing for help. As quick as he found it, it disappeared. He began scanning again. “It was right there!” he said to himself.

The line went taught. “Hmmm, weird. Oh yeah?!” He set the hook. Way too hard. Sending a 6-inch brown trout screaming by his head. He ‘battled’ the fish in, reeling as fast as he could. Four seconds later, Alex exhumed the fish from the water, dangling it over his net. He had caught his first fish on a fly. On his own.

He thought out loud for once, “Woo! Hells yes! Look at that beauty! I wonder what kind that is?! Probably a rainbow.”

He would later learn it was a Brown Trout. All six inches of it. It would take him three more angling seasons to learn to identify his own fish. Today, he didn’t care. He had caught a fish on his own. And the fishing gods initiated him as a full-fledged, card-holding “Angler.”

…

Thanks for reading!

Quote of the Week

Trip We are Dreaming About

Labrador Brooke Trout Fishing

As avid readers of John Gierach, the seed has been planted for the real lodge experience fishing for giant brook trout in Labrador. The idea of remote fishing and feeling like you’re the first and only one to ever be there is enticing. Add in the monster fish, and you got yourself a really good dream! Hope we can make it a reality!!

What We Are Watching

Big Land

This one is a little older, but it was the one that peaked the mouse fishing interest for the boys at GFW. When we think about the important values we share, certainly adventure and new experiences are at the top of the list. This film provides both, with a documentation of a DIY trip that includes canoes, camping, and the search for big fish!

What We Are Reading

Wisdom of the Guides

Recommended from this week’s podcast guest, Kyle Bakko, this one is a must for the trout bum that lies in all us fisherman. Each chapter features an interview with an iconic Rocky Mountain Trout Guide, offering tips, tricks and insights from everything to hatches to their favorite waters to fish. This is great information from the ones who have been fishing for a long time. They are the established ones, and this is worth the read.

From the GFW Community

(Our favorites of the week! Click to view)

One Cause to Learn About

Fish For Garbage

Driven by actual fly fishing anglers and outdoor enthusiasts, they noticed the amount of trash littering the stream banks and lakeshores of the waters they fished and decided to do something about it. As they began to host local events in Northern Utah, the response and support grew to help them understand what they were doing was worthwhile. Thus, Fish For Garbage was born!

They now organize and host cleanup events across the great state of Utah, with the mission of prolonging and conserving the great fisheries of the state. They can’t do it alone, as they survive off of the generosity of the fishing community. Whether it’s money, in person volunteers, or both, they need our help. GFW is happy to help in any way we can.

Website | Donate

Nuggets for Nibblin’

Spacing Out is an Actual Sport!

Wait…Fly Fishing in Central Park? It’s Real.

Sun Flower Seeds aren’t just for Spittin’

How to Reduce Your Screen Time

#River Thoughts

• If we all took initiative and played along with scam calls just to waste their time, we could probably save our elderly population from being scammed so often. (Source: Reddit)

• The only thing that makes speed bumps work is your desire to not damage your car. (Source: Reddit)

• Teachers are creating assignments using AI that students are using AI to complete. (Source: Reddit)

• The older you get, the less money you need to retire "for the rest of your life." (Source: Reddit)

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