• Responsive. You got back to me quickly after my first inquiry, then followed-up on details.
• Sensitive to my goals for the trip, and you seemed to pay attention to what I wanted out of my fishing experiences generally.
• Communicated well about what to expect. Laid out the float plan at the start so I wasn’t anxious that you might be passing up water when we didn’t fish (which wasn’t often!), and made me aware of water and fishing conditions.
• I felt that you were giving me top choices of spots; not holding back.
• Diplomacy when speaking about others in the field (you aren’t critical of your colleagues; at the same time you are teaching your methods confidently – I believe you probably handle contentious clients well).
• Sense of humor and ability to enjoy the experience in spite of having done it forever.

• Work out verbal signals a little more at the start, especially for clients without previous guided experiences (what a "40 foot" cast looks like, what Bingo means)
• Give the Muskie family a formal counseling about missing scheduled appointments

• Beautiful country
• Relative solitude of a weekday
• Seeing a different river from Potomac; the clear water and very different bottom; how that matters in reading and fishing water
• Watching bass take the fly – learning about the soft bite on the baitfish and sucking Cicadas
• Watching my "first" reject (the Cicada and following the moving baitfish)
• Observing spooked vs non-spooked fish
• Conditioning my eyes to see fish in the water and begin to distinguish bass from others
• Seeing trophy size bass
• Finally boating some nice bass and bluegills as well
• Gaining confidence in my abilities and flies; helped me establish a personal fishing development plan
• Seeing you hook-up/break off on a fast strip of baitfish (point 1: you really can’t strip too fast, point 2: see what happens when I don’t re-tie now and then)

• How to view "best" time of day for fishing
• Setting hook
• Feeling and watching line (part of setting hook)
• Managing line and fly drift with awareness of the flow of current
• Role of Carp as sentinels
• Minimum casting distances in clear water to avoid spooking fish
• False casting to the side to avoid spooking fish
• Boat management to avoid spooking fish
• "quiet-body" casting to avoid spooking fish
• methods for fishing the Cicada and CK baitfish (including rod twitch)
• retying tippets after snags or period of use to avoid break-offs
• prospecting the river for biting pattern
• selecting water likely to hold bass

PS –

I didn’t make it out Sat, but did go out on the Potomac Sunday. Hooked up a monster (the bass that ate Chicago) on a white baitfish; but he threw the hook halfway in because I didn’t set it (deer-in-headlights syndrome and the old habit of thinking I must be snagged). Got several good hits after that; landed a small bass. Am improving my hook-setting technique – definitely favor the fast strip with the CK. I also targeted water I have normally passed up – a large area of flat water following riffles, still with decent current running through it, very rocky bottom 1-4 foot deep. The fish were in eddies in the seams of the main current or well below the end of the riffles, always much downstream from the ledges creating the riffles. I got a hit every time I threw at least 50 feet (rough estimate) from the last hit. Great piece of water. It was also devoid of the usual boaters because it rained all day (perfect for me – I had my thermos of coffee and I usually get wet anyway). I found that I can paddle the FishCat downstream faster than a fly box floats downstream (traumatic moment).

Thanks again for the trip – it was great fun but invaluable to me in building my angling skill.