Practicing Day 1 & 2

I have all my equipment with the exception of wading boots for my waders. I, being the intelligent person I am, figured I'd just slip my sneakers over the waders. When I tried them on, I didn't realize they had neoprene booties, not just the wader material. There was no way I could get sneakers over that. When I called LL Bean and told the guy in the fishing department what I'd done, he just laughed. I ordered wading boots. OK, I'm new at this. Cut me some slack.

First day practicing.
I drove around the corner to Roy's house and used his ball field for open space. Pulled out 25 feet or so of line and laid it behind me just like the book said. Whipped it forward and it ended in a pile. Pulled back to 12:00 and whipped it forward to 10:00 and it ended in a pile. Tried a couple of more times and then looked at the line. The little piece of yard I tied to the tippett was gone. There were two knots, one in the tippett and the other in the leader. Knots I couldn't get out, so I packed up and went home. Removed the knots with the help of a couple of dental tools and a magnifying glass. Even with the new glasses I got the other day, I still had trouble seeing the small knots.

Practicing - Day 2.
First thing I did was re-read the book. I seemed to have forgotten the part about straightening the leader and line yesterday. So, I did that first. I wasn't sure where to hold the line, but after thinking about it, I realized a good place was the tow ball on my truck, that I never use for towing anything. Nice and smooth and shouldn't hurt the line. Also convenient when I'm away from home to just slip it in the bracket. OK, straightened the leader and the line. Laid out about 25 feet,just like yesterday, and used the down and forward stroke, dropped the fly (Oh yeh, I went by a fly store and bought a bright orange fly and cut off the barb) pretty close to where I was aiming it. I was standing somehere near the pitchers mound and aiming for 3rd base. There were also a couple of Gopher mounds out there that I used for targets. After 3 or 4 casts, I was hitting 3rd base, then one mound, then another with regularity. I felt pretty good about starting at 8:00, then 12:00 on the back stroke, then 10:00 on the front stroke dropping the fly on target. Not bad for day 2.

I just might give a lake or stream a try next week. Might as well jump in with both feet, but should probably wait until my wading boots get here.

Thanks for all the encouragement.

Mark (Shoreman)