3) I was shaking so bad seeing all those fins cruising under the surface I couldn't cast any more"
Is there really any question as to which person's stories you would rather listen to for the rest of the evening. Therein lies THE CURE!
It has been said that fly fishermen go through stages in their growth and maturation. First, they just want to catch fish, lots of fish. After they have gotten good enough that just catching fish on flies becomes predictable and commonplace, then they begin to concentrate on size. They want to catch BIG fish, wherever and however, just so long as it is with "flies". They travel to Alaska, or Montana, wear out cameras recording pictures "the big ones". The final stage, supposedly, is when size is no longer the challenge, the fisherman wants to catch difficult fish, the picky, spooky, finicky, leader shy, demanding professors of the trout world. They buy calipers for their leaders and magnifying glasses to locate their #32 flies (with egg sac). But there is a fourth stage.
The truly final stage is when you realize that in exposing another less advanced fisherman to the fishing you could enjoy yourself, your own enjoyment is magnified both by the satisfaction at locating and raising the fish, but even more so by the unsullied emotions raised in your student. Fishing is, in
the final analysis, supposed to be fun. And, to stretch a metaphor, the really interesting and fun sledding is on the steepest side of the learning curve. The sight of an 18 inch Deschutes redside wallowing up in four inches of water to inhale a fly like a lion gulping steak is something I enjoy seeing. It is also a sight that often causes less experienced beginners to shriek, bolt, or freeze. People have their fuses blown. And that's just up to the point of setting the hook. What happens after that is usually even funnier. If you have orchestrated the whole event, then you can appreciate it on all levels, but especially on the giggly, babbling beginner level you have long since "graduated" from. The mundane becomes "fun" again.
I think I discovered this quite subconsciously over a number of years, when it suddenly occurred to me that when planning my next float trip, I inevitably included absolute neophytes; interested beginner fly fishermen; nice, button-down, controlled types who are wondering whether fly fishing "might" be fun to
try. I realized I wanted to be there at the absolute moment when 3,000 volts of redside blows through this "controlled" guy's synapses. You learn a lot about people in such circumstances. But mostly you learn again how much fun it was to learn in the first place. And kids are the best pupils.
