On the Fly

after a somewhat gloomy family visit this weekend to roanoke, va, i stopped by lexington-- the center of the universe-- for an afternoon's fly fishing lesson. my wife got me this as a birthday present, a sort of follow-up to last year's present of an introductory fly rod kit. within a month i had worn out all "this rod be FLY" jokes but was still no wiser in its use, so over the last year i cast around (another joke there) for a good place to take lessons.

i found John Roberts and his guiding service out of Llewellyn Lodge B&B in lexington. he proved to be the perfect choice.

we headed out to a private pond farther out in the county, on a tributary of buffalo creek, and spent an hour or so putting the rod and reel together, and tying the various lines to each other.

after that we walked down to the pond and started casting. fortunately, i picked that up pretty well, casting a strike indicator onto the pond in lieu of a fly. the pond is stocked with big rainbows and they were dashing up to meet the strike indicator, so he thought we had a good chance of actually catching a few. and so we did.

during the last hour of the afternoon we hooked two trout, and i was amazed at how hard they fought. i felt like i was ten years old again. sorry for the pun, but i'm hooked.

i can't say enough good things about my guide and instructor. engaging him for half a day or a full day is a great way to see parts of rockbridge county that visitors don't often see. if you've wanted to try fly fishing but didn't know how, give john a call and he will show you the way. i will definitely be going back.