Court Durkalski

It was a crisp fall morning when Patrick Robinson (aka Flybum) led the three of us out on the river for our first crack at fly fishing for steelhead.  The river was low and Patrick led us to a deeper pool of water where fish had holed up waiting for some rains to let them continue their journey.

A dear friend, Randall Clay, who has been an avid fisherman for over 50 years, was getting his first taste of fly fishing.  Also along was my younger son Aaron (13) who was experiencing fly fishing for his first time.  I had done some "trout club" fly fishing previously, but had never been on a river.

Patrick was patient, insightful and very willing to and adept at teaching us the foundational aspects of fly fishing.While his knowledge of the sport was vast, he was able to communicate very effectively the basics of the sport so that we all were able to both hook and land steelhead.  We were very fortunate to have access to his equipment (we only had to bring our own waders) and he did an excellent job of teaching us the function and use of his rods and reels as well as explain to us the different types of flies we were using and why they were effective.

We were able to land seven fish that day and had five or six more on the line. It was truly an awesome experience that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in starting to fly fish. This is an outfit that has taken their love of a sport and put it to it's greatest use; that of developing and inspiring that love and passion in others.

Court Durkalski