odd fly fishing question I did not want to post in the fly fishing section because it also applies to the rest of us
over the past year I have seen lots of people start fly fishing just to call it quits and go back to regular old fishing and then sell off all their gear.
how many people convert to fly fishing and stick with it ???
just wondering I have had lots of calls asking if I wanted to buy fly rods and gear..
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Good question, anything good?
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Perhaps I'm not typical, but you did say "odd."
I started deep sea fishing as a child. Much later, after moving to Colorado for two full seasons of skiing, I was walking from store to store and saw the strangest thing -- tiny hooks. I asked what they were for and the answer was flies to which I said: "They seem to be about the right size, but why would anyone want to catch flies?"
Oddly, a few years later, I was fly fishing. I got way into fly tying, going to the Idaho expositions, buying extraordinary hackles from the breeders. I even have
dle hackle that is size 22 for all of it and other oddities that generally can't be found.
I stopped fly fishing years ago and put it all away. Then I started over with big lures and spinning equipment and then ice fishing.
I don't intend to get out of fly fishing and I will fly fish again someday.
I'm enjoying the full fishing experience with all it's diversity, so my fishing focus is learning new styles and techniques.
It also fits with me being into preparedness. Conventional fishing equipment is barter commodity, but the learning curve for fly fishing is to great to be immediately useful to someone who isn't a fly fisherman.
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I stuck with it. It's been my favorite form so far. My folks started me out with good ol worms and power bait. I then switched to spoons and spinners and then to jerkbaits and crankbaits all for trout. My junior year in high school (2009-2010) my uncle took me fly fishing and I just fell in love with it. So far I've dropped the worms (except mealies and waxies) and power bait, but I still love using hardware. Fly Fishing is just too addicting and fun to drop it all together.
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When the ice comes off the fly rod comes in play especially when I'm after the bass. Tons of fun chasing bass and how much fun it is watching the fly line rip away as well watching a 5wt rod bend like crazy.
I'm stuck on my fly rod FOREVER!!!
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Rivers don't ice up. I have been fishing just about every day. [
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For me the rivers don't like me as much as lakes or ponds
ly. As well I'm a big noob when it comes too the provo or weber river. Maybe you should teach me how to catch fish on one or the other river [angelic].
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I was 12 when I tried to learn fly fishing using my dad's 1950's bamboo rod from Sears. I even bought a fly tying kit and tied flies consisting of thread, tinsel, and a hackle. It didn't take, and I never fished those flies.
Tried again in my 30's and 40's but it all seemed so complicated (tippet vs leader; what's a 5wt rod; front taper, double taper, etc.????).
It was still on my bucket list in my 50's so my wife bought me guide trip on the Green. As an after thought, she gave it a try and we both caught 20+ fish that day. Since then, no looking back. Also have to give FG credit for answering a lot of my questions and helping us get past the beginner mark.
Fisherman want to catch fish. If it ain't happening with a fly, I can see why one would return to a tried and true method.
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Oh man the midge hatch yesterday...forget about it! I've never seen so many fish rising to little bugs in my life. Not a hit or anything but I didn't have the proper flies. Damn Four Seasons was closed at 9:30 when they opened up (supposedly) at 9! Oh well another time [
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I am a fly and ice guy, but love all forms of fishing, from cat fishing to dunking anchovies at Powell.
My favorite form is stillwater fly fishing with different intermediate lines depending on scenarios, which can be more technical than many realize, but I absolutely love it. I have caught 10 species of fish off of a bobbing baitfish, and I can easily tack three more onto that list this year. Even fishing chironomids for panfish has landed me more bass than you would believe. I love the long rod, and I'll never give it up completely, despite enjoying all forms of angling.
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Not to hijack the thread, but would you mind sharing your technique for chironomid fishing for panfish? Sounds interesting.
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To me flyfishing is another tool in the quiver that I love to use, but its not the only tool and I guess I'm like a powder skier I love it when the time is right. For instance steelheading its the only way for me. Also Alaska salmon don't get any better than on a fly. However catfish haven't showed me the trick yet. So I'll continue trolling for them until I learn a better way. Walleye haven't told me how to catch them on a fly either. So I think everything has its season and there just isn't enough time to do everything but its sure great having options. Later J
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Fly fishing was my only form of fishing for 25 years or so, nowadays I will sit on the boat with a spinning rod and jig at the Berry' but the flyrod is still on board, same at the Gorge but when the Bass are active I use my flyrod and pound the banks.
In a few years when I make the move to Florida it will most likely be all flyfishing all the time..just heavier tackle [
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I fell in love with fly fishing back in the 50s. I read everything I could find by Joe Brooks and finally scrounged up a telescoping steel fly rod. There was no fly line to be found in southern Illinois, so I made do with a length of heavy twine (honest).
Things vastly improved when I located a real fly rod outfit. Back then, lines had letter designation to designate taper, such as HGH. Today that rod would be considered a 9-wt. I used it on pond bluegills and bass - the only fish available to me.
The military and life intervened for many years, until I moved to Utah. Actual trout streams beckoned and I resumed the fly fishing addiction. I still fish all forms of tackle, but the long rod has a special draw for me.
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No surprise but I have been fly fishing the majority of my life. I guess when I was young and grew up with the snake river as a back yard, I was learning Tenkara with the bamboo stick, and string.
I don't venture out to other forms but concentrate totally on Fly Fishing. Anything that needs to be caught I generally can. And I will admit, because I focus on FF, I am good at it.
Anyone can chuck bait out and catch a fish. FF is picking the right fly, the right line the right length in leader and the right presentation, the right strip and mend. It demands time spent learning.
You can mimic bait fishing with fly gear however and that is done all the time when trolling. But to see a rise and be able to drop the tiniest of flies in the the right spot to evoke a strike, that is fly fishing.
With this being said, I am sure many go in thinking it will be easy to be disappointed and give up.
I do hit ponds on occasion and I see all the time. The notice a Fly Fisher catching fish and making it look easy, so they run to their car and get there gear. The line on these budget set ups is terrible by the way and could turn anyone off the art. I watch them struggle and give up. I have helped a few and even let them try my gear.
So many things involved with this style, not to mention money, I can't afford to fish any other style[laugh]
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I am one of the ones who picked it up, used it exclusively for a few years, then put it down and have not yet picked it back up. I don't want to sell my stuff just incase I want to try it again.
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[quote flygoddess]Rivers don't ice up. I have been fishing just about every day. [
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I never understood why anyone would ever let a little bit of frozen water stop them from fishing. I guess for some people fishing is a hobby. For a few of us, it's a way of life!
It's fishing. It doesn't matter if you use a spinning rod, fly rod, or broom stick. It's still fishing. Some people get hung up on the technique or the gear, and they let that affect them. Others fish. One day they might be buggin' some trout with a 9' fly rod, a couple split-shot, a worm hook and a juicy nightcrawler, while the next day they might be trolling out the back of their boat with down-riggers. me? I like fly casting to slurpers from the bow of my bass boat. Or like flygoddess, I enjoy walking the (snow)banks of a river in January casting dries to fish that haven't been fished for in 3 months!
the thing is this: fishing (whatever technique you want to apply) is a fad for many. They never do figure it out. But for some of us, fishing it what keeps us alive. It's what drives us. It's what we talk about at church, at morning production meeting, at dinner, at the urinal. Some of us wake up after the anesthesia wears off and say "put me back to sleep. I was fishing!"
Fish. Fishing. Where it goods. Where it's not. Why not. What's being done to fix
it. How
it affects fishing. Why someone doesn't fish. Why they should. Why am I not.
anyone want to go fishing?
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I grew up fishing with the old reliable night crawler fished on a spinning rod with a split shot. My brother taught me how to fish because my dad was not a fisherman. I started fly fishing latter in life when my wife gave me a diawa fly outfit, you know the $29.00 variety with rod, reel, line, and some flies for fathers day. By the way, she said that has been the biggest mistake she has ever made. [laugh] Twenty years latter it is almost the only way I fish. Like someone has already said, you have to put in the time to learn it but once you start catching fish consistently your hooked. I think a lot of folks are scared off because most angling shows try to over complicate the method. It is like any other method, as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. The more you do it the more tricks you learn and the more confident you become. The best part, now the only time your hands get dirty is from taking the fish off.[
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[#0000FF]Hey Todd, fly fishing...with "traditional" flyrod, reel, line, leaders and flies...is ONE method of fishing. But because it DOES require a lot of dedication, skill, perseverance...and money...it is not for everybody.
We live in a mountain state with a lot of trout fishing. That creates and attracts more folks to using fly fishing gear. More places and more fish upon which to practice, with the expectation of success. But not everybody who tries it develops a passion for it. Those who do are sometimes insufferable elitists. Those who don't are not really lesser people, despite what those who do would have you believe.
Just as with float tubing or other specialized fishing methods, people develop their own personal preferences about fly fishing...waters, species, top water, subsurface, big fish, quantities over quality, etc. Nobody is ever 100% right or 100% wrong. Just different....for their own reasons.
That's why...again just as with float tubes...some folks are always selling their gear. They either tried it and don't really care for it...or someone gave them something that they will likely never use. And with a lot of us fisherfolk, we are always lusting after something better (more costly) and want to sell the older version to help finance the newer.
My only advice on buying used gear is to make sure you know enough about it to be able to make a good deal...and to make something on it if you turn around and resell it. Obviously, some stuff is not going to be worth handling. But you might also luck into a valuable old bamboo rod that can bring big bucks from someone who knows and appreciates it.
Like others, I grew up in a large family of fishermen, as a kid in Idaho. A few of my fly fishing uncles and cousins helped me put together some useable tackle and flies and coached me on the casting. I'd like to think I gained a fair proficiency. I have fished fly gear all over the country and have caught most of the catchable species on flies.
I still own several flyrods and reels...and lines. But I have largely ignored them for several years. Not because I don't like fly fishing, but because I enjoy other types of fishing more. And I take exception to the statements (by fly fishing snobs) that "anybody can catch fish on bait". Fishing with lures (other than flies) and with bait often requires a level of skill and "fishyology" too. Sometimes maybe more.
It seems like every year one of my New Year's vows is to include a flyrod on my tube arsenal more often. And...just like losing weight...I don't make it. But, I have fun doing what I do and that is what is important.
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It appeared that there was a time not long ago when it was cool to fly fish and a lot of folks took it up. (especially after a certain movie came out) As is typical with most fads, the non committed folks quickly lost interest shortly after sending a few back casts into the trees and getting skunked on a tough stream. Not all that surprising really.
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