Any Fly Fishers Here?

[telescopes]

I fly fish. It is NOT expensive. My rod and reel cost $35. An antique cane set. I can and do catch most anything with it and I do. It's great for bluegill and bass. I fish with the best of them and go home happier than any of them. By the way. I live in Palm Springs. 110 golf courses. I play golf. I NEVER keep score and I go home happier than everyone I play with. It's how you live it that counts. Keeping score is for....

 

[bullet08]

Used to go deep sea fishing with my grandpa and uncle. Fly fishing in Idaho is on the bucket list as my mom has his fly rod and reel sadly no flys and it definitely needs to see the water some time. Same with the grunion run those were always fun to attend.

Not fly fishing, but either shore, or pier fishing with reel, weight, hook and bait. You know.. Where I can sit down and drink beer without spilling

 

[telescopes]

They go on runs here in the Spring. I will use a tiny hook with a cricket, and nothing else on the line, and just pull them hand over fist from the top all afternoon. The trick is hitting them when their on the move. As soon as the run is over, I stop targeting them.

Crappie all the time with my fly rod.

 

[telescopes]

See, the problem is also that if I bought the expensive set up, the guy at the flyfishing store teaches me how to use it. Sure, that one is more affordable, but then I’m just the schmuck standing on the bank beating the top of the water with a cheap fly. I’m sure I could find a Japanese sword for $60, but that doesn’t make me a Samurai.

Nor does an expensive sword.

 

[trudger]

I am all in also. Fly fishing and tying flies are my goals in life. (Wow I finally said it)
My name is Eric and I'm a fly fisherman. If you can campout and fly fish smoking a pipe we could be acquaintances. I'm not going to tell you where I fish tho ?

 

[shanez]

Two major items on my bucket list are fly fishing for tarpon and peacock bass.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Nor does an expensive sword.

At a certain price point, you have to first kill a room full of ninjas, right? I've seen Kill Bill.

Ultimately, I appreciate the hell out of the art of fly fishing. I really do. There's a guy who wades out into our city park pond and works that thing like a dance. It's really cool. But, really, I am not a sportsman with my hunting. For me it is more of a connection to my land. I go out to the farm and harvest a deer, maybe two a year. I can walk down the road from the house and fish for what we need. I don't use anything high tech. I don't look for more exotic places. I can sort of feel when the crappie run, or when the deer will be passing through. The same rifle I got when... my first rifle, ha ha. I do have more rod and reels, but I've never needed it to do anything other than one simple thing, so I may have $35 tied up in my current rig.

But, I really like the idea of doing it for sport. I just prefer to eat them. When I think of fishing, I think about the smells of hush puppies. But, I totally appreciate the art and accessories.

 

[telescopes]

Nor

At a certain price point, you have to first kill a room full of ninjas, right? I've seen Kill Bill.

Ultimately, I appreciate the hell out of the art of fly fishing. I really do. There's a guy who wades out into our city park pond and works that thing like a dance. It's really cool. But, really, I am not a sportsman with my hunting. For me it is more of a connection to my land. I go out to the farm and harvest a deer, maybe two a year. I can walk down the road from the house and fish for what we need. I don't use anything high tech. I don't look for more exotic places. I can sort of feel when the crappie run, or when the deer will be passing through. The same rifle I got when... my first rifle, ha ha. I do have more rod and reels, but I've never needed it to do anything other than one simple thing, so I may have $35 tied up in my current rig.

But, I really like the idea of doing it for sport. I just prefer to eat them. When I think of fishing, I think about the smells of hush puppies. But, I totally appreciate the art and accessories.

Nor am I a sportsman. I am simply one with earth and if that sounds hokey to some, then they will never truly find Zen, because it isn't something that can be found. It just is.

 

[telescopes]

Really, I suppose it is the same with a pipe. An expensive, well crafted pipe can never bring you to a state of Zen. It isn't the pipe, the tobacco, or even the smoke. It is simply being, it, all at once. The flame, the light, the drawl, and everything that follows. It is a moment and it is a string of moments. It is love, for everyone and for no one, for everything and for nothing until you are totally aware of not knowing, receiving, giving, or taking. You just are. It is in this moment you take your first step in line with the infinite steps you have already taken and will continue to take. This is zen.

 

[jaytex1969]

I grew up fishing and crabbing the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

When trolling for rock fish, we'd tie weight on the end of the lines heavier than a whole fly rod and reel just to get the baits to the proper depth.

Mom would cry when we fastened a half of a soft shell crab to a number 2 hook for bait. SHE wanted to eat it!

Some of the best times were catching dozens of blue crab with chicken necks tied to the end of cotton string and working the hand lines. Drop a slow drift anchor in 10 feet of brackish water and toss out 15 foot lines.

When the crab grabbed the chicken neck, they'd run like hell and the line would go taut. Then carefully pull it in by hand inches at a time, slow enough so that the crab couldn't detect it. Get him to where you could just barely see it through the murky water. Pull him up too high and the light would send him packing.

Then, you needed a good net person to scoop him up. The refraction of your vision through the water meant that the target (and the end of the net) were not quite actually where they seemed to be. It took a good season of misses to learn the netting parameters.

The six of us (parents and 4 kids) could fill a bushel basket full of "keepers" in an afternoon, go home sun-burnt and hungry, steam 'em up and then feast.

Sorry.... Nostalgic tangent. Carry on, fly fishers!

 

[alaskanpiper]

At a certain price point, you have to first kill a room full of ninjas, right? I've seen Kill Bill.

Ultimately, I appreciate the hell out of the art of fly fishing. I really do. There's a guy who wades out into our city park pond and works that thing like a dance. It's really cool. But, really, I am not a sportsman with my hunting. For me it is more of a connection to my land. I go out to the farm and harvest a deer, maybe two a year. I can walk down the road from the house and fish for what we need. I don't use anything high tech. I don't look for more exotic places. I can sort of feel when the crappie run, or when the deer will be passing through. The same rifle I got when... my first rifle, ha ha. I do have more rod and reels, but I've never needed it to do anything other than one simple thing, so I may have $35 tied up in my current rig.

But, I really like the idea of doing it for sport. I just prefer to eat them. When I think of fishing, I think about the smells of hush puppies. But, I totally appreciate the art and accessories.

They both have their merits, but if I didn’t already have an abundance of moose, deer, salmon, halibut, rockfish etc. in the freezer, I probably wouldn’t do much fly fishing. Thankfully I live in a place where I always have the luxury of both.

Sustenance and a connection to my food/the land are goal #1 always. Fly fishing for fun is simply extra sport, a different kind of fun, providing a connection to the land in its own way, and making for a more challenging and more comprehensive experience.

There’s also just something about trout. They are smart, strong, and beautiful fish. Getting the better of one with nothing but a weightless bug and a perfectly placed drift just hits you in a different way.

That being said, there are times and certain species (lining reds, dry fly grayling, etc.) where a fly rod is in fact the most effective means to a harvest.

 

[shanez]

Sorry.... Nostalgic tangent. Carry on, fly fishers!


View attachment 72939

By all means, be nostalgic.

After all, I'm not sure how posts I've made in this thread and for all the years I've been fly fishing I've yet to catch a single fly...

 

[alaskanpiper]

By all means, be nostalgic.

After all, I'm not sure how posts I've made in this thread and for all the years I've been fly fishing I've yet to catch a single fly...

Haha go fish the russian river in AK. You can catch dozens of them in a day on certain snags

On opening night theres so many hacks slapping the water a few flies will even catch you if you aren’t careful!

 

[BarrelProof]

Two major items on my bucket list are fly fishing for tarpon and peacock bass.

I caught tarpon on fly tackle off the Yucatán peninsula during a trip to Mexico one time. Hands down one of the best trips I’ve taken.

 

[ssjones]

Fly-Fishing can be considerably less expensive then other styles of fishing.
Here in Maryland, near the Potomac (and Chesapeake Bay), everyone bass fishes - so they have bass boats.

Fly fishing for bass or trout - you wade, no boat, no tow vehicle, no cost, no problem.

Small stream fishing (I used to primarily fish for trout) is more about your skill level than the gear. Sure, you can be a Dunhill fly fisherman pretty easily. But you can also go Walmart and catch the same fish.

As others above have mentioned, catching a 8" brown trout, in a small mountain steam using a fly you tied in the long winter - it's hard to describe (perhaps like smoking a pipe you made?). There's a certain level of satisfaction achieved.

I've done plenty of bait fishing and I'm too OCD to throw in my line and wait. When fly-fishing, you are always stalking moving. I cannot sit by a stream, I have to be in it.

It does takes tons of patience. First you have to learn to cast in the grass, then you have to learn to cast on water. Then you have to learn how to choose the right fly and presentation. To compare it to other types of fishing is like checkers versus chess. Some love checkers, not me.

We have several PA spring creeks that are pretty famous. In the nearby Letort (detailed in the book "The Dry Fly Code"), I watched a guy draped in a camo poncho almost motionless for about an hour. In that time, he made three casts. He carefully exited the still water pool so I asked about his day. He told me there was a big brown in there he has been trying to catch. He said once he's made two casts, the fish is spooked and he has to leave and return on another day. Now that is patience. I left that part of the stream, too tough for me!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I've done plenty of bait fishing

Others had mentioned bait fishing, or the long wait. I use bait (crickets) for crappie, but because when they run, the thing doesn't have to stay in the water but seconds, most of the time it's instant, sometimes jumping up the catch it before it hits the water.
But, I think of lure fishing as being the equivalent to fly fishing, except with out the cool dance of the line in the air.

Now, on a lazy summer day, I don't mind hitting the river at dusk, and bait fishing for some super fat catfish with chicken livers, or maybe drifting the canoe down the river with a line of bobbling milk jugs. It's not action packed, but there is always something that you need to be doing.

Funny thing I notice about bass boats, Guys in the boats will cruise along the coast, casting as close to the bank as possible, and guys on the shore are casting their lines out as far into the middle of the water as possible. No matter which way your fishing, it seems like they think the grass is greener. But, definitely a bass boat isn't required either.

But, if anyone ever heads down this way to do some exotic deep South bass fly fishing, bring your worst pole, and hit me up. I'll trade you some wine and tobacco that I've made for a lesson or two.

 

[ssjones]

Look for the White Miller hatch on bass rivers, late summer. The bass will hit anything white, a fine presentation skill level is not needed, it's a hoot! This is usually at dusk here on the Potomac river, so just be careful to wade back in before dark. I've been dunked a few times getting caught up in catching fish and losing track of the time/ daylight.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I try to imagine teaching myself to fly fish. I'm pretty sure I would just be out there beating a fly to death on the top of the water, ha ha. I imagine it would be like watching someone learning how to tee off in golf using youtube.



Did you guys all just buy a pole and do it, or did you get lessons, or did a father or grandfather teach you?

 

[Dan-o$]

Your overall point is correct for sure.

However, I did use an 8wt for that trout, as it was caught in the lower Kenai river which is BIG FAST water. A rainbow that size (27 inches) in water that fast and deep can get you in trouble pretty fast with a 5wt. Could you land one with one? Sure, but you'll lose a lot of them, as they tend to run immediately for snags (they are not stupid). You have a little more control with an 8wt, and it also allows you to have a little more control with casting placement when there is a lot of water to cover, especially if you have to roll cast, which is not uncommon as there is often little beach, and lots of brush on the banks. Now, if I were fishing the upper Kenai, where 20 inches or less is the norm, I'd have a 5wt for sure, but lower Kenai where 25+ is not uncommon and 30+ can be had, I use the 8wt, as I'd hate to hook into a 30+ fish and be underequipped.

Anyway, even though I am correcting you about this particular instance, I am actually only adding to a very good point you've made, by adding the complexities of the water you are fishing to the required range of rods in one's stable.

I'd say most fly fisherman can get away with just two though. A 5wt and an 8wt gets you set up pretty well enough to have fun fishing just about anything. I've only ever had 5, 6, 8, and 9 weights (for King Salmon) in the stable and I've never found myself feeling underequipped. I have been tempted many times by smaller rods for lake grayling on a dry fly at our moose camp. A 0wt for those little buggers would be so much fun.

Similarly, a man could probably get away with just two pipes

ive fished the kenai and use minimum 7 /8 wt. sockeye, steelhead, etc. Streamers, black purple, must look like candy they hit em hard man! caught a nine pound trophy rainbow on a 5 wt. had it mounted used a size 14 ehc (elk hair caddis). want a 3 weight for the brookies around here Northern Nv. Fish on (Y).

 

[Dan-o$]

Look for the White Miller hatch on bass rivers, late summer. The bass will hit anything white, a fine presentation skill level is not needed, it's a hoot! This is usually at dusk here on the Potomac river, so just be careful to wade back in before dark. I've been dunked a few times getting caught up in catching fish and losing track of the time/ daylight.

nice. remember your head mounted flashlight lol