By Eddie Hudon
As a Fly Fishing Guide, I get to spend a lot a time on the water with many different types of clients. They are all super! Sometimes, I feel guilty taking my fee because I’m having just as much fun as they are (only kidding about the fee) but we do share a lot of memories together. In this article, I want to share my experience with a young boy from Georgia, Cameron Mallin.
It was in July of 2015 that my friend’s wife asked me to take her girlfriend’s son fly fishing. I was told that he did fish for bass with a spinning outfit but wanted to get into fly fishing. So we met up in the morning, and proceeded to register him for the Trophy waters at Cherokee. (How about that for your first day out with a fly rod!) Most of the morning was spent teaching, instructing, and showing Cameron what to do and how to do it. He picked it up pretty quickly. As the morning went on, he had his first encounter with a trout. I estimate it to have been approximately 22” and about 4 lbs. The fish took him down the river, back up and all around. He did a real good job of handling the fish until it eventually came off. I don’t know if I could have done any better. Well, we sat down together to fix and repair his leader and discuss what had just had happened. At that point, he put his arm around me and said, “Today is the Greatest Day in my Life!” I bowed my head down and almost began to cry. That’s how much that meant to me.
This is exactly why I love fly fishing and working with young people, and new people. Little did Cameron know, that day was one of my greatest too. BLUE CHIP FLY FISHING. Eddie
Eddie Hudon is the Owner of Blue Chip Fly Fishing headquartered in Whittier, NC
