Hey folks, Jeff here with another video. Today I have my good friend Duane Christiansen along with me. Duane is a great guy and attends the same church that we attend. He is an avid outdoorsman. He fishes, hunts deer and upland birds but had never had a fly rod in his hand before this journey down the St Croix River.
We started by parking our boats and walking mid stream to talk about some basic casting techniques. I tried to keep it short and sweet by giving him a few points to concentrate on and then allowing his own natural athletic ability to take over. I had an 8 weight rod with floating line and one of my own hand tied poppers for him to use on the day as I felt floating line and the popper would help to reduce the snags on rocks, sticks, etc …. as the river was running pretty low.
As we began to move downstream I could see that Duane would and was getting the rhythm and timing of the cast. We had spent a minute or two actually talking about how to land a fish by stripping in line and staying in contact with the fly line at all times. I think it is imperative for a new fly fisherman to get some good hands-on instruction. I have said on this site and in my videos many times that people will pay for golf lessons but won’t do so for fly fishing or casting lessons and frankly, casting a fly rod is as difficult or more so than the golf swing.
As the day progressed Duane continued to improve and by trips end he had landed five nice smallmouth with one being in the 18 inch range … and all on a popper! I too had had a great day with several very exciting takes and explosions as you will see while watching the video.
Our smallmouth season is coming to an end up here and while a bit sad, it leads us into the fall with awesome weather and plenty of upland birds to chase around. Remember that if you have a question you can leave it below in the comment section or by emailing me at flyfishingwithjeff@gmail.com and I will get back to you with the best answer I have.
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