Face of Defense: Drill Instructor Enjoys Fly-fishing

Face of Defense ^ | Lance Cpl. Rebecca A. Lamont, USMC

[SandRat]

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, March 16, 2010 – He started learning the ins and outs of fly-fishing from his grandfather at age 7. Years later, he’d spend every day on the Gunnison River in Colorado.

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. David R. Brewer, a drill instructor at the recruit training center in San Diego, acquired a passion for fly-fishing from his grandfather while growing up in Colorado. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Rebecca A. Lamont  
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

“My grandfather taught me everything I know about fly-fishing,” said Marine Corps Staff Sgt. David R. Brewer, a drill instructor with Platoon 3263, Company M.

Fly-fishing differs from other forms of fishing because the individual stands in a river with waders and uses an artificial bug as bait, using an ancient angling method.

“It gives me an adrenaline rush,” Brewer said. “You don’t know when the fish will jump out, and then it becomes a fight.”

The Gunnison River is Brewer’s favorite place to fish because it’s in a canyon; the water is incredibly clear. It’s a very peaceful place and few people know about it.

“I’d fish with my grandfather and usually my two younger brothers as well,” Brewer said. “We are all best friends.”

Brewer’s grandfather once showed his grandsons how to catch trout using a cookie.

“One day my brothers and I were making fun of my grandfather, telling him he wasn’t going to catch anything that day,” Brewer recalled. “Well, then he put [a cookie] in his mouth and casted his fly 15 feet ahead.” Within a minute, his grandfather reeled in an 11-pound brown trout -- a large-sized fish to catch in a river -- and his grandfather had the last laugh, Brewer said.

More recently, Brewer’s grandfather celebrated his birthday with his son and Brewer on a deep-sea fishing charter boat in San Diego. Although he didn’t keep his catch, Brewer’s grandfather caught a 350-pound hammerhead shark. “He put him back. It’s all about the thrill,” Brewer said. “Besides, what is someone going to do with 350 pounds of meat?”

Brewer had a fish story worthy of telling for years when he caught a 14-pound rainbow trout on the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, Colo.

“My brother and I were fishing one day and I was standing on a rock in the center of the river,” he said. A fish grabbed his fly and unraveled all the line off his reel.

“I had to get off my rock and follow him,” Brewer said. “He dragged me into a strong current, and the water was up to my neck, so I had to hop on another rock.” But then he slipped.

“All my gear went down river, and I had to swim at this point,” he said. “But I never let go of that fishing pole.”

Two hours later, Brewer finally won the fight, but with a price. Although he lost all of his fishing gear, it was well worth catching that rainbow trout, he said.

“I don’t eat fish; I just snap a picture and let it go,” he said. “It’s just for the experience and the competition between my brothers on who can catch the biggest fish, that’s all.”

It’s also a good time on the river and nice bonding with family, he said.

Brewer will be home on leave soon, fishing with his brothers. He and his grandfather plan to go fly-fishing in Alaska someday, he said, because they look forward to the challenging fight the 50-pound salmon there would bring.

“I’m going to be catching big fish for the rest of my life. I guarantee it,” Brewer said.

(Lance Cpl. Rebecca A. Lamont serves at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.)

[Jolla]

My folks honeymooned in Gunnison and built their retirement cabin there too. Mighty pretty place the western slope of the rockies, summer and winter. Good people there too.

[Jolla]

The Gunnison River is Brewer’s favorite place to fish because it’s in a canyon;
I believe it is the best ratio of width to depth of any canyon in the country, it is deep and narrow, hiking the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River is scary.

[SandRat]

Not to a Marine. lol

[NormsRevenge]

He practices catch-and-release.. excellent. nothing like the sounds of babbling water to soothe one’s nerves.

Bless these fine young men and women who train those who go in harm’s way to protect our nation and its peoples, as messed up as some of them are..

Thanks for your service posting service threads, there is a lot going on even on quiet days on FR Creek... life is like a beach , ya build it one sand at a time. 8-}

[Jolla]

Bull, I did my time at MCRD San Diego (and Pendelton) its scary google some pictures you will see

[SandRat]

I was referring to the canyon’s not being scary to a Marine.

[Viking2002]

I'm a catch-and-release guy, too, but when it comes to snagging a rainbow out of a cool, gin-clear mountain stream, all bets are off. Trout Almondine with a side of wild rice and green beans is the fare of the evening. They are the most succulent, mild fresh-water fish that the Lord ever graced us with. Always swimming, always drawing spring-pure, gurgling water thought their gills, living on a diet consisting mostly of small water bugs. And built like little submarines to do so. Their scales are so miniaturized to allow for hydrodynamic navigation in their native environment, it's generally - and understandably - called skin. But catfish they ain't. They are the Filet Mignon of North American freshwater cuisine. And you can quote me on that.

[SandRat]

I like Trout rolled in corn meal and pan-fried up, next to hash browns, and two eggs sunny-side up first thing in the morning.

[Viking2002]

Brother, you understand. Grain-fed, farm-raised catfish taste like carp compared to a creel of wild-caught mountain rainbows.

[Viking2002]

And I'd give the eye teeth off my upper plate if I could find a retail supermarket that even offered it frozen. What they do market as 'trout' is usually oceanic steelhead.

[Candor7]

CORRECTION IN ORDER:

Fly-fishing differs from other forms of fishing because the individual stands in a river with waders and uses an artificial bug as bait, using an ancient**SCOTTISH** angling method.

There , it is fixed.

[SandRat]

and the Irish gave the Scots the Bagpipes and they haven’t gotten the Joke.

[Candor7]

1) The Romans never made it to Ireland.

2) The Romans brought the pipes with them around 100 B.C.
and gave them to the Brythonic Celts * (King Arthur and the like)

3) The pipes worked their way throughout Celtdom, way before there were any Irish or Scots. They were all “Irish.” The Irish became Scots when the Irish settled Western Scotland and created the kingdom of Dalriada and conquered the Picts. The first Scottish King was Kenneth McAlpin. He had pipes and harp at his court.The Picts who became Scots brought the angling secrets into Scots culture.

[tarheelswamprat]

They are the Filet Mignon of North American freshwater cuisine. And you can quote me on that.

Rainbows are delicious, but it would be a tough call to rate them over Walleye, or Lake Trout from the Great Lakes.

[Arrowhead1952]

I know two guys who fly fish on Lake Travis in central Texas. One of them caught a 14.5 striped bass a few summers ago. That fish took him for ride across the lake which is several hundred yards. He said he had to watch out for all the cigarette and other boats that were running up and down the lake.

[Utah Binger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQiVY6w90_8