It was love at first sight.

When Mia Sheppard first saw her husband, Marty, Spey cast a fly line nine
years ago, she was smitten.

“It was beautiful,” she said. “It was art. It’s like dancing with the rod. It’s
sexy. I said ‘I want to do that.’”

The result is evident. Sheppard captured the first-place trophy at the
international competition in San Francisco.

The Spey-O-Rama Casting Festival was held at the casting ponds in Golden
Gate Park April 9, 10 and 11. The event featured the three ways to cast a fly
line: the roll cast, the overhead cast and the Spey cast.

The latter was developed in Scotland and is the most often used with two-
handed fly rods.

And the Spey cast was the event in which Sheppard excelled.
The competition was fierce, with three former champions pitted against the
Mountain angler.

“I kept my wits about me,” she said. “I know a little bit about self-control
from my snowboarding experience.”

Modesty prevented her from too much ballyhoo.
“Let’s just say I was on it a little bit more (that day).”

She was more like IN it than ON it, standing in water to her upper thighs, in
the rain, casting into a head wind, wielding a 15-foot rod, Spey casting line
120 feet, while being judged for distance and accuracy.

“It was nasty,” she said. “The wind and rain were blowing lines out of place.”
But Sheppard prevailed. She had come a long way since “Uncle Gary” first
took her fishing when she was eight.

Unlike some fly fishermen, Sheppard does not count herself among the elitists
who frown on other styles of fishing.

“I’m aware (of the elitism) but I have bait fishermen friends,” she said. “My
only thing is I want to keep down the mortality rate in our wild fish. There
aren’t a lot left. “

She went on to explain the difference.

“Fish swallow bait, but they don’t swallow a fly.”

Sheppard practices catch and release, but will keep a hatchery fish to “keep
them out of the gene pool.”

The fishing experience, for this Mountain angler, is a highly personal and
solitary thing.

“It gets me outside,” she said. “I’m on the water. That’s my place. You get to
just be there, connect with nature. It’s Zen-like. I love it.”

Mia and Marty own Little Creek Outfitters in Rhododendron and are fly-fishing
guides on the Sandy and other Oregon rivers. They are part of a May 14, 15,
16 event to be held at Oxbow Park where they will be making fly fishing
presentations.

“Just show up,” she said. “It’s free. If you come up to me and say ‘Hey, teach
me how to fish,’ I will.”

But beware. By showing up you might get hooked.