I went silent this week because I was in the field working hard. Early Monday morning I headed for the Henry’s Fork to join a team of fly fishing instructors of the School of Trout. I’m their newest instructor and this week we taught an Advanced Dry Fly Class.
The school was founded by Todd Tanner and this week’s team included Todd himself and renowned fly fishers, Jon Juracek, Pat McCabe and Steve “Mac” McFarland. We had six guests all of which already fly fish but wanted to expand their skills. This week’s focus was to get much better at dry fly fishing.
Each day consisted of morning classes. We worked on casting from improving accuracy on the standard overhead cast to learning the art of presentation casts. Each student learned the Pile Cast, Reach Cast and the Parachute Cast to name a few.
In addition to casting we covered leader design, rods, lines, and of course flies. We took the fly part deep with a rundown on entomology and hatches. And how to choose a fly for the right circumstance.
In the afternoons instructors guided the guests on the Henry’s Fork. It’s the first time I’ve had a guide license in more than 20 years. Our first day we took students to the Box Canyon to learn how to prospect for trout with attractor dries and hopper patterns. The next two afternoons we fished the Ranch.
The Ranch was challenging as always. There were heaps of big rising fish and a spattering of hatches from PMD’s, Mahogany Duns, Baetis, Caddis, Trico’s and of course various terrestrials. I’ve fished here for more than 30 years as have most our instructors. It was fun to explain how to conquer the many idiosyncrasies that come with trying to get a good drift and fool the selective rainbows of the Fork.
We rapped things up Thursday and now there are six more threats to the wise rising trout of the world! This was a great group of both students and instructors and everyone learned and had an absolute blast. There will be more fly fishing schools from the School of Trout. Feel free to inquire about two spots left for the October Basic Trout Class and get your name on the list for next year’s Basic and Advanced Classes.
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