Hello all, and welcome to a short series of articles that I am going to desktop publish for my great friends at Fly Fish South. First off I'd like to thank Mr. Lee Strickland for all his hard work at Lee's Forum and Fly Fish South. He is the one who made all this possible. Secondly, I'd like to say thanks to all of you whom I have come to know and fish with over the past year through Lee's Forums. It has been a real pleasure. We have had some incredible fishing days and leisure time spent together and I look forward to the day we all step foot in one of the Nations great trout streams of the West. I really consider it a privilege to be allowed to voice my opinions and relay a few of my techniques to anyone who cares to take the time to read. Thanks to all of you who have visited and chatted with us in our Cyber home over the past year. I look forward to wetting a line with anyone who cares to join us on any of our great gatherings. Thanks especially for maintaining the very respectful environment we have formed over the past year and for all your contributions.
Until we first meet, or meet again,
Tight Lines and Smokin Reels.
Lee "Dawg" Costner

Introduction:

First off, please allow me to introduce myself and give you a little background. I'll skip all the personal info and get straight to what you want to know. "What the heck does this guy know about fly fishing?" To those who know me, I claim to know a little about "slingin flies" as my good friend Featherbender puts it, but some people think I know a tremendous amount, while others probably say I don't know anything. I more than likely, am like you, and truly fall somewhere in the middle. I don't claim to be an expert on anything. My basic philosophy is that fly fishing is truly an addiction that leads to a life long study of the art if you are serious about. It is a complete lifestyle for me and some of my good friends. It is involved in my everyday life, whether it is tying, merely reading an article, or chatting with my friends at Fly Fish South. I see it everyday.
I began my study of fly fishing in 1991, after leaving the Navy to go to college back home in Morganton NC. I wanted to try it, but the only person I knew in fly fishing was Capt. "Squeak" Smith. A man so advanced in the sport and a high-ranking leader with TU. I couldn't even consider that a man of this caliber would take me fly fishing and did not ask him to. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. I read an article inside the back cover of NC Wildlife magazine. Don't even remember who wrote it or what it was called. It said that if you really wanted to learn to fly fish, get a cheap ole beginner outfit, some flies, a video and "Go for it". My dad started asking around and found a gent who said he could get me a whole outfit for $56. I took him up on it and when I got it, I fell in love with it. A yellow Eagle Claw combo.
I then went to Castle Sports, a hunting store with a little fly fishing equipment and rented 2 videos and bought 6 dry flies. Then out in the back yard, my awful cast was born.
Next, I took the guy in the mags advice and went to my Aunt's farm pond. I missed and hooked hundreds of poor little bream. Some were so small that when I did my "Bill Dance" hook set, they flew threw the air by my head.
Then a few months later I moved up to Wilson's Creek and some small feeder creeks in that area. I was slipping and sliding in my brand new Red ball, boot foot, no felt sole waders. I missed a LOT of trout. Probably didn't even see 1 out of 20 strikes. I flogged the water to no avail.
I do remember the first trout I actually seen go after the fly a couple months later. Elk Hair Caddis, bout a 14. Probably on 4 feet of leader. He came charging what looked like 30 feet after the fly, he rose, I yanked about 10 seconds too soon, but that was it. I knew I would keep at it until I got one. I love a challenge. I had no disillusions that this mystical thing called Fly Fishing was easy.
After that episode, I decided to chase a small creek up a little dirt road heading home. Tiny little thing it was and I didn't think a trout could live in there. But as I was heading up the road, peering off the side I saw a nice pool coming in around a big rock. I thought, "I'll try that and head for home".
First cast in the pool, right up by the rock, a small speck of about 5 inches slammed my Caddis and took it, not leaving me any time to yank it out of it's mouth. I set the hook, the fight was on. The adrenaline coursed through my veins. After getting the fish in, I held in my hands a sacred little fish, My First Trout on the fly. I didn't fish a spinning rod again until the year 2000, when I started going after smallies for the first time. I didn't know it then, but I was the one that got hooked that day.
I must admit that at least 6 months went by between the time I picked up the fly rod, until I caught my first Trout. I didn't know a thing about fishing, much less trout fishing, and even less about fly fishing. I kept at this for about 2 years off and on while in community college and leading the life of a man in his early 20's, chasing the things a 20 something year old should. Most of the time it wasn't trout. Then I took a year off school and moved to Wilmington NC. Surfed fished a lot, or should I say poked a rod in the sand and drank beer. Moved back to NC and then moved to Boone. This is where the sickness began to take it's rock solid hold on my life. I moved in to a small one-bedroom apartment in the basement of a business with my girlfriend, but it had a creek right behind it. I knew trout were in there. First day I caught 5 little trout out of the hole out back. I put them in the kitchen sink for my girlfriend to see, then carried them down and released them. I fished every inch of that creek and many small creeks around the area that year. I started learning how to get results. One of my buddies taught me the Dry/Dropper technique right before I moved there. Thanks to "Squeak" who taught my buddy the trick. My buddy just happened to be Squeak's son-in-law at the time and was learning from him. I was jealous. I fished dry dropers that whole year. Hung around the fly shops constantly.
That spring I got my tax return on my $4,000 income and went to Appalachian Angler where Mark Gould sold me my first decent fly rod. An 8'6" 4 Wt., St Croix Imperial 4 piece pack rod. And it had a lifetime warranty, which I really couldn't believe. He sold me a $15 Cortland Rim Fly used from the guide service and I told him I wanted good line, so I think I paid $40-$50 for that. Then a dozen or so flies. Anyway, I think he got $196 of my $200 that I had, but I had a new stick. He then took me out back and showed me how to double haul cast. That made all the difference in the world. I went up near the green metal bridge, which is now POSTED, on the Watauga, where I knew they had just stocked. Put on an Elk Hair Caddis and a PT droper. I caught so many fish that day I was amazed. The new rod actually put the fly within inches of where I wanted it to go. The fish were killing my rig. That was the most incredible day I had fly fishing up to that point. One of the best days of my life. The hook of fly fishing was set even deeper into my soul that day. I fished the Watauga almost everyday, even if it was 15 minutes. Some days it was all day. Daylight till dark. Played with a few nymphs and couldn't get the results I wanted.
Then I moved into a new place with 3 strange guys. One of them was Ollie Smith, a guide at Foscoe Fishing Company. I was excited to learn I was moving in with a guide. Over many a drink and dip of tobacco he relayed his knowledge to me. We didn't get to fish together that much that summer, because he and I both worked all the time. I was a second year whitewater rafting guide and he was a fly fishing guide of about 9 years. We left the house at 5:00-5:30 AM everyday seeing each other in the morning and at night at the Klondike, our local bar that all the local derelicts hung out at. We drank PBR's and stayed out late and worked our ass off. I guess some sort of mutual respect came that summer from him, because in the late fall and winter, we fished together some and he taught me the art of nymph fishing. We would get together and stock the Watauga, then go down and absolutely slay the fish. He found out I liked fishing Wooly Buggers. He too appreciated the power of the Bugger. He taught me about indicators and nymphs. He told me to get the book "Nymph Fishing" by Dave Hughes. I got it, read half the first day, then went to the stream and rigged up. I got fish after fish, cast after cast on his techniques. I fell in love with nymphing that day. I didn't get to fish the summers a lot the next couple years because white water guiding and staying at the bar, but late fall, through the winter, and early spring, I fished like a fiend. At that point I had advanced to another level. My range of fishing abilities and conditions I could handle had been greatly expanded. I owe many of my techniques and tricks to my good friend Ollie. Also, he made me read, "The River Why". This changed the way I looked at the sport and took off some of the pressure I was putting on myself to perform.
After following this routine and squeezing some school in there somewhere, though I don't remember much of it, I took a job as a Job Site Foreman on a huge construction site. I worked a lot, fished a lot, and met my wife. After that gig, I went to massage therapy school in Colorado. There I fished the Rio Grande and Arkansas River for a couple months.
After massage school, I went to Kauai, Hawaii and got married to my awesome wife Rebecca. On our way back across the country I managed to fish the Kern in Northern Ca., and some small streams around Sun Valley, and a few in Wyoming.
After that I came home to my home waters and loved them and I had missed the familiarity of my local haunts. The next summer, I became an Orvis Professional Guide (for what that worth) and took people from all over the US fishing and taught them tips and tricks. Ollie taught me how to fish people out of a raft. Although I already had some awesome raft skills and fishing skills, I just had to combine the two. There I was able to teach Ollie the "spin move" and repaid a little of my debt. Finally I had taught him a valuable trick. Float fishing came with ease and it's one of my favorite ways to fish. I have to thank all the guides I worked with at Foscoe Fishing Co for teaching me so much last summer. Ollie, Jason Reep, Mike Adams, Brownie Liles, Pace Cooper, JT, Tim, Tennant and Matt. I now live in Asheville NC, frequent most of the local shops and generally know lots of people in the industry. I didn't realize I knew so many people until I attended the Charlotte FFing show and knew about half the people there. I then realized I was a very small player in the business. This summer, I did no guiding for money. I taught a few beginning casting and fly fishing clinics at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education with my good friend Joe Whistnant of Bigfoot Fly Fishing. Joe and I did a volunteer fishing day at a camp for children with cancer. I have basically guided my friends at Lee's Forum this year to some of the most awesome spots I know of. I offer my advice for free. All I expect in return is that you abide by a certain code of ethics and unwritten rules that exist in the fly fishing community. And that will lead us into my first article, which I think should be taught before anything else in Fly Fishing, "A Code of Ethics to Fish By."

If you have any specific questions feel free to post a message at FF South or email me personally at flyguide2001@hotmail.com