Would Like To Learn How To Fly Fish But.......

[joeD]

As I've stated before: Fly-fishing is about "fly fishing." It's about the process and the equipment. If one is honest, when you catch a fish, it's not the fact that you caught a fish, it's the fact that you caught a fish "fly fishing!" I'm no different. Just a way to do things. Like the carpenter who eschews power tools for old, human powered "period" tools for his work. Some people like to suffer. Martyr complex.

Side note: Remember when Bjorn Borg tried to make a comeback using his old, wooden tennis rackets? Exactly. Got his butt kicked. The past wasn't better, nor was it simpler. Get over your nostalgia fetish.

Addendum: Fly fishing is fun. Period. Why else do it?

[ness]

A friend of mine once said, 'I like fly fishing because of all the cool stuff you can buy.'

[Tearin Up Topwater]

Fly fishing can be seen as way more effecient. Can you pick up a plastic worm or crankbait and put it in the exact same strike zone as fast as you can for a fly?

Doubt it.

[Greasy B]

Rest assured Mitch, you don't have to take up trout fishing to enjoy flyfishing. Fly rods are plenty effective for smallmouth especially in that surface to 3' depth where we most like to fish. Whether I'm using a fly rod when Smallmouth fishing has more to do with boat handling than fish catching efficiency. On those rare occasions when someone else is running the boat or if I'm in a canoe and the wind and current are not spinning me out of control the fly rod is always my preferred method.
The argument about what is method is ultimately more efficient really doesn't matter. As others have stated quantifying success by counting and measuring every catch kind of misses the point of sport fishing. Linda and I had the unique experience last week fishing similar hardware and fly imitations side by side. Her throwing a PopR and me a Block Head Popper and her throwing a LC Pointer and me a Clouser/Deceiver hybrid. With a little effort it was easy enough to get the flies action very close to that of the hard baits. Sure the treble hooks may have hooked up a little easier than the single hooks but over the course of two days that didn't make much difference. True success had far more to do with adapting to changes in habitat, weather and the cycles of the fish turning on and off several times each day.

[Flysmallie]

Can you pick up a plastic worm or crankbait and put it in the exact same strike zone as fast as you can for a fly?

Depends on the situation but yes I can. With a crank bait especially.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, if you're fishing a type of lure that you're plopping into a spot, fishing it in that spot for a bit, and then zipping it in for the next cast, fly fishing could be more effective. But with many lures, you'll miss out on a lot of strikes if you can't retrieve it for at least 10 or 15 feet, and when you try to do that with a fly rod, you end up having to make at least a couple of false casts before you can get it out there again. It works nice when you have somebody else handling the boat and you are fishing something like a popper as you drift or move down a bank, though.

I designed a "new" fly rod wobbling lure the other day, and tried it out on my float trip this week. Unfortunately, the thing is so light and so wind resistant that even with a 7 weight rod I couldn't cast it far enough in the extremely clear water to do any good with it. Back to the drawing board...eeerrr, fly tying table.

[John W Kelly]

For me, I enjoy the science and art of fly fishing. It requires intelligence, skill, and patience. The more knowledge and experience that is gained, the more efficient it becomes...if you choose to be efficient. It also allows for a wide range of experimentation and exploration, which is a big part of the enjoyment I personally get from it. I've only been fly fishing for a short time, but most of the flies I use I've designed myself and catch fish on them, which makes it even more FUN!

[moguy1973]

I agree with that. If you fly fish AND you tie your own flies that catch fish, it's very gratifying to say, "I just made something that tricked that fish into eating it"

[Fishslayer88]

I started fly fishing because i wanted to look cool.

Plus i can throw smaller jigs and flys when the whitebass are feeding on tiny springtime minnows.