I should begin by saying that I have been a high school coach for over 25 years and
loved every moment I have had teaching young men and women how to compete, win,
lose and grow from athletics. I never liked fishing sense I was 9 years
old and my Dad took me to Fish Lake where we camped and floated in a row boat
for a week and caught virtually nothing. Then Gene Kawa grabbed me three
years ago as I was sitting in my office and started talking about some of the
trips he was taking with his fly fishing buddies. I got a little curious
and started asking some questions and discovered that Mike Navidomskis was the
instigator of this whole group of guys who traveled to fun locations to do some
fishing. I walked down the hall of the school and Mike invited me to take
his beginning class and my life has never been the same.
I still remember
my response as we went around the room and I told everyone there that I had
never liked fishing but I was talked into coming to the class because of a couple
of friends who were having the time of their lives fishing. The first
day on the river I watched Brian as he was talking several of us beginners through
tying on, getting a good drift with our indicator, reading the strike, setting
the hook, playing the fish and finally netting the critter. I walked
another 50 yards down the river, found myself a little hole, threw my line up the
river and let it drift. It couldn't have been more than three casts and
I was on my first fish with a fly rod, a beautiful rainbow about 16 inches long.
I had gone bait fishing with my Dad and taken my boys bait fishing when
they were little with little or no success, but here I was after making just
three casts with a fish on. Sense that day I have caught hundreds of fish
and had days of over 30 fish where my arm got tired enough that I just sat down
on the bank of the river and cheered on my compodreys.
Floating the river
with a group of guys and gals, laughing, telling stories and having a blast
is incomparable to anything I have ever done before. I will never forget
all the firsts, the first catch, the first catch using my own fly, the first big
Brown, the first Steelhead, the first BS story that someone actually believed,
the first time getting someone else on a fish teaching them on the river and
the first time I drove over the Bear Tooth Mountains in Montana and experienced
a near death adventure nearly sliding into a roaring river, Gene even took my
picture for proof. A few last things I can tell you, you will never regret
making fly fishing a part of your life. You will never regret the relationships
you develop fishing with friends. You will never regret getting
closer to nature and experiencing what God created for each of us. You will
never regret fly fishing for the rest of your life.
-Alan Porter
AKA "Coach"
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