So, fly fisherman are only the nicest people ever...

Last friday I was walking around campus with my rod tube... don't ask why.  A faculty member approached me asking what type of rod it was, where I fish and if I was having luck.  I told him about the spot on the Shawsheen, that the rod was a 9' 5 weight and that I had yet to catch a fish, but that I met a guy who was getting hits on green woolly buggers.  He had somewhere to be so he wished me luck before heading off.  I already told you what happened during my sunday trip to the river, so I will finish the story to fully prove my point that fly fisherman are the model communistic society.  Today I ran into the same faculty member who asked me if I had any luck this week.  I told him about the dropper rig, but also that I hadn't had any luck.  He asked if I used any of the green woolly buggers, which I hadn't... I used and lost my last woolly bugger the trip before.  He asked what dorm I was in and after answering him he said he would drop off a few green woolly buggers to aid my case.  This is why fly fisherman form the model communist society (not saying that we are communist... I personally believe wholeheartedly in capitalism and have a whole theory on why it is more productive but that will be a long tangent), if the fish are biting on a fly that guy A has, but guy B doesn't have any of, almost unfailingly guy A offers him one of the successful flies if he has extras (at least this is the case from my experience).  No fly fisherman enjoys watching another one in frustration.

First Story

Yesterday was my favorite trip to the river.  I made it down there by 615 on the foggy easter sunday, seeing only one car on the 15 minute walk.  In the first 3 hours I casted just about every fly in my flybox with my only catch being a stick from the bottom of the river.  In what felt like 10 minutes I had caught every bush behind me, the fog had cleared and the temperature was well above 60 degrees.  A quick time check showed it was now 830... Watch must not be working right?  About then I encountered a man with a spinning rod in his hand and a fly rod in his backpack.  Very nice guy (most fisherman seem to be so that should have been a given), he took one look at my fly box then opened his and gave me a grasshopper and a beaded nymph asking if I had extra tippet.  Not really sure what he was up to I handed over the tippet.  In about thirty seconds my caddis was gone and the grasshopper in it's place with something hanging off it's hook.  That something was the beaded nymph he had put in my fly box only a few seconds earlier.  He said "the great thing about Massachusetts is that you can have two flies at the same time!" telling me that strike indicators are pointless because the fish bite them half the time, so now my strike indicator also had a hook.  We both fished the same rigs for two hours without any luck.  Before I headed off to write an essay due the next day I asked him if he had any luck earlier.  His response "The fish here are picky until summer... I got a few the other day on my spinning rod." "Well... what were ya using?" was my enthusiastic response.  "WHOLE nightcrawlers" he said "not half a nightcrawler, no they wont eat that, they want the WHOLE damn thing..."  Maybe next week will do the trick, but I will not be using nightcrawlers.  Any recommendations for websites where I can buy good flies that will come fast?