These past few months working for Don have been full of opportunities to learn all sorts of things, from the details of running a small business to how the 
legislative process works. The most fun lesson by far, though, has been learning how to fly fish.
It came up in conversation one day that, although I’ve lived in Maine my whole life, I’d never so much as held a fly-rod in my hand. Before I knew it, we were out on the front lawn and I was learning the basics of casting – how far back to bring your arm, how to watch for the line to straighten out behind you before flicking it forward, how to bring the line in with the rod tip down so that you’re always ready to set the hook.
Over the next few weeks we made a couple of quick trips down to Seven Tree Pond. Both times it was a beautiful morning on the water, but the fish were feeling shy.
Success finally came one morning on Washington Pond. It was an overcast day and mist was hanging over the water. We saw some splashes right away – proof the fish that we were looking for were there. Things started out slow- a couple of follows and not much else for the first twenty minutes. We moved up into a cove and Don pointed out where to cast: near the shore, where we’d just seen a cluster of ripples. Suddenly, I felt something on the end of my line. It turned out to be a brook trout, about 10 inches long; my first fish on a fly-rod! Over the next twenty minutes, before we had to head back to work, I brought in three more trout and Don caught a small mouth bass.
Overall, pretty good for a day at the office!
By Brynna Skov who has been working part time as the office assistant and all around pinch hitter at Maine Outdoors since January.
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