CT Whitlock’s Fruit Cocktail

My name is B. George Hammond, I am a United States Army Veteran, a licensed Fly Fishing Instructor, Guide, and owner of Custom-Tied Flies and Guide Service and Virtual Fly Shop. When I was 11 I went to winter camp with Boy Scout Troop 55 from Hollidaysburg, PA. One of our Assistant Scout Masters was a Fly Fisherman. That winter at camp, he brought his travel fly tying kit and showed me how to tie a blue quill. I was hooked. I came home from camp and told my parents all about this and in January, for my 12th birthday, they bought me a starter fly tying kit. I tied and tied until I ran out of hooks, then went to K-Mart and bought more hooks. When I ran out of stuff to tie with, I got fur off of the cat and the dog. I had a blast. That year for Easter, my parents gave my younger Brother and me Fly Rods. That spring, we started pitching bugs. We were amazed watching the life cycle of the insects in the creek. We caught insects and brought them home. I tied flies that looked like those insects, and we caught loads of fish. Once we grew up, my brother and I both went off to branches of the service. He to the US Air Force and I to the US Army. Wherever we went, we took our gear. After our tours were up, we settled back in PA. He in the central part of the state where we grew up fishing Canoe Creek, Yellow Creek, Spring Creek, and Penn's Creek and I in the south-central part, where my wife, Sharon, and I lived for the next 15 years, in Chambersburg. I guided folks in Franklin, Fulton, Cumberland, and Adams counties. I was also a Naturalist at Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve and very involved with Scouting. While working there I had the opportunity to work with all age groups, sharing fly tying and fly fishing most weekends. Each year when summer camp time came around, I spent time counselling "Fly-Fishing Merit Badge." Sharon and I have moved to Leland, North Carolina to start a new chapter in our lives. We have begun fishing the salt and the local ponds. Salt water has brought some interesting new challenges and some extremely large fish. As have the local ponds where 2 Lb spotted bass, 5 Lb Large Mouth Bass, and 2 Lb bream (blue gills and other panfish) are not uncommon.