I'm a Fishing Legend in my own mind

Flywriter's Note:  Thanks to the folks over at Wind Knots & Tangled Lines for the writing prompt.  Also, check out www.flyfishingcrazy.com to see a really cool logo and a great, original website with a decidedly unorthodox, refreshing viewpoint on fly fishing gear.  


There are no two ways about it.  I'm a fly fishing legend.  In my own mind, that is.  After all, crazy people with hobbies tend to live in their own minds, where just about anything is possible.

Wouldn't it take "legendary" skills to catch a fish on something as ugly and unrefined as this?:

I sure think it would.  Oh...but wait...turns out I never caught anything on it.  DAMNIT!

Still, my experimentation with the Colorado Humpy notwithstanding, I'm a fishing legend in my own mind. 

My exploits should be well-known by now:

1)  I sling San Juan Worms - with no apologies - whenever the conditions call for it.  Call me part of the "ham and eggs crowd" if you must, or scold me for abandoning the "purity" of the sport.  The fact remains that the good old San Juan Worm is thread and man-made material, pretty much like any other fly;

2)  I once hooked an 80 year-old man in the earlobe on a back-cast, the result of which was a string of expletives that had never before crept into my 12 year-old ears;

3)  A 10 inch rainbow single-handedly caused me to fall into a raging patch of whitewater;

4)  My nymphing ratio of snags to legitimate hookups is, by my count, somewhere in the ballpark of 10,000/1.  (Yes, that's 10,000 to ONE);

5)  I once caught a whitefish and asked Doc what kind of trout it was.  Haven't quite heard the end of that one yet, after 20 YEARS!!  (Put it to bed, Doc); and,

6)  I fish with a $20 fly rod, patched-up canvass waders, and until very recently, old boots that weren't made for walking.

All of this, of course, makes one wonder why I keep coming back to the river.

Oh yeah!  Here's why! (and please make note of the aforementioned San Juan Worm in his mouth):

The stuff of legends?  I think so!