Thought you fly guys might have missed this on the main NWFB:
A beat-up tobacco tin on a path bordering a trout stream prevented my becoming a dry fly purist. I was twelve years old when I stumbled on it and was a much better student of tapered leaders, model perfect hooks, and insect forms than I was of my school studies. I had started to tie my own dry flies, to the dismay of stray chickens; and in addition, being sharp eyed and as agile as a squirrel, I managed to keep myself supplied with an amazing variety of tackle by retrieving it from trees, bushes, and snags along the well fished stream. Luckily, many of the local fishermen used a dry fly, so they left behind the tackle I wanted. Then I happened across the tobacco tin. I kicked it aside at first, but with the curiosity of a twelve year old turned and picked it up to see if it was full of dead worms as expected.
Instead it contained two dozen brand new Colorado spinners, size 4/0. This was on an eastern metropolitan stream where the spinner was not popular. I wasn't sure just what to make of my find.
During the next few weeks I played with my new spinners curiously to get the feel of them, and actually caught a trout or two. Then in a swirling pool below a little mill dam I sunk one deep and hooked and landed a 2 1/4 pound trout, That did it. It was the biggest trout I had hooked or even seen up to that point, and it took third prize in a local fishing contest.
Catching that trout spoiled my chances of becoming a purist, although I wasn't prepared to admit it. This led to considerable confusion. I was morally and ethically a dry fly man, but instinctively a spinner fisherman. The two didn't jibe. I was sure that the taking of trout on anything other than a floating fly was hardly fair, yet I couldn't resist the knowledge of the spinner's power.
In those days I kept a detailed fishing log, complete from the time of day each and every fish was caught to what he had eaten for breakfast, lunch, and tea. Entries for each day followed the same general pattern: during the morning and evening there might be indicated the taking of small trout on a dry fly, then toward the end of the day would be noted a nice keeper or two followed by the inevitable admission, "spinner." At the height of this battle between that which I felt was right and that which paid off, I made a notation, written obviously by my conscience, that in spite of the appearance of the log I really fished a dry fly most of the time and only after an unsuccessful day resorted to a spinner. Fortunately, about this time we went to fish in the Rockies where the spinner was socially accepted, and this discovery that spinner fishing wasn't quite in a class with robbing the church poor box was a great relief. I took up spinner fishing in earnest.
This was written by Dan Holland in his "Trout Fishermans Bible" way back in 1949. Any truth to this today, boys??....C/22