This second day begins to the sound of our facilitator Marie-Michelle’s ukulele. Nothing better to warm our soul after a rather chilly first night. Once everyone is up, we refuel with breakfast burritos carefully prepared by our personal cooks. It is indeed with a full stomach that, this first day, we are introduced to fly fishing.
In-depth Training
So, we dive headfirst into the training, unaware of the avalanche of specialized notions and terms that our mentors are about to pour on us. Different types of fishing rods, different models of reels, different sections of the fishing line, etc. And we are talking here only of the rod as such.
We must add to that the overalls with boots (commonly called waders), the glasses, the bags to transport all the other rigs, etc. And we haven’t even talked about the different knots used to tie the fly and hook to the line yet.
In short, this is a ton of knowledge to assimilate in one morning. Lucky that our mentors have the wisdom to spice up their teachings with a large dose of humour and self-mockery.
—Mario, what’s the word in French again?
—Well, it’s “stripping”!
—It’s true that it’s a darn fine word in the French language, Mario!
It must be said that the vocabulary of this sport is a bit inspired by our southern neighbours.
Jumping with both feet in the river and into practice
After assimilating all (or in part…) this information, we receive the equipment which will allow us to transform into seasoned fly fishermen in an instant.
Once the metamorphosis is complete, we walk excitedly to the river.
On the banks, the training continues. Among all that is taught to us, Isabelle’s very colourful instructions stand out. We will not soon forget the “ears—chest—ears” and the “Be careful not to drop your beer behind your back.” Good advice to master the traditional casting of our lines. Even the other mentors recognize the genius behind the apparent outreach of these instructions.
When the time comes to put all this into practice, we welcome the fresh water from the river with great pleasure. How nice it is after spending a long time sweating in our “waders.”
Even if this is only the beginning, Mylène and Anik are already convinced that they could do this for days on end as long as they enjoy the experience.
Back at Café Chez Karl
Returning for lunch, we found wild strawberry plants. What better way to whet your appetite!
While waiting to find out what Chez Karl had in store for us, we chat with surprising ease for people who have only met the day before. Let’s just say that fewer and fewer things are taboo between us.
Once served, some of us continue to develop our passion for flowers and butterflies attracted by the floral prints on their clothing accessories.
The big release
Back on the river after listening to our mentors’ fabulous fishing stories, we learn other throws so that we can fly fish in all situations.
For my part, I improvise myself as a fly-fishing expert by repeating the tips of mentors to whoever wants to hear them. Many seem to want to question my credibility, while I keep practising and repeating the advice out loud.
This sunny afternoon turned out to be what each of the fly-fishing trainees needed to start mastering their fishing rod. Monica even manages to catch the first trout in the group. Some even begin to question her inexperience and rumour has it that she has practised in secret before the expedition.
The prowess of Isabelle, fly-fisher-extraordinaire
All good things having an end, we must return to the camp at the end of the day and why not take the opportunity to dry up.
Around a fire, the discussions already fluent seem increasingly easy. It is more and more difficult for Louis to interrupt us to serve supper.
This time, the kitchen team has in store for us a spiced squash soup with curry and ginger which makes Sophie happy, followed by a plate of salmon with grilled vegetables.
The day ends with a return to the setting sun to see how everyone had experienced their first day as fly fishers. The comments were unanimous. The whole group has enjoyed their experience so far despite the absence of camp songs and werewolf play (this is a joke of my own for the participants…).
Let me share with you two little things about this return:
- All the participants feel great pleasure in watching another of them have a great time.
- Isabelle is THE best fly fisher that the earth has seen.
On that note, I’ll leave you by telling you that, according to André, one of our mentors, the bulk of the journey has already been done, so we only have some fine-tuning left before we become expert fly fishers like Isabelle.
Jean-Mathieu, AKA the Polar Bear
Blogger and Photographer for the On the Tip of the Toes Foundation.
In pictures
