Fly Fishing for Beginners: What I Learned the Summer I Turned 63

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:00:00 -0500

The first thing Connor told me, standing on the bank of the Davidson River in the Pisgah National Forest at six-thirty in the morning in July, was that I was going to throw the line behind me as much as in front of it. He said this like it was useful information. It wasn’t. Nobody who has never held a fly rod can imagine what throwing a line behind yourself looks and feels like until they’ve done it. I have played golf for thirty years. I know how to move my arms. What I did not know was that fly casting has nothing in common with any movement I had ever made in my life.

Nature on Sunday Evening Review

Fly Fishing for Beginners: What I Learned the Summer I Turned 63