Montana or the Ozarks

[fishinwrench]

In more situations than not, the type of casts that result in caught fish are not very pleasant to watch.

One of my ex girlfriends once asked me "Why when you are casting in the yard you do it so much better, is it harder when you are standing in the water?"  

[Al Agnew]

There is definitely beauty in a properly executed fly cast, and to watch a good caster fishing a dry fly over smooth water is poetry. But like Wrench noted, most of the time that's not the situation you're encountering.  Nymphing with weight and an indicator is ugly at best.  Fishing a big meat and potatoes streamer in the wind is downright dangerously ugly.  Fishing from a drift boat, fishing a small creek with no backcast room...you won't get too many chances to make a classic fly cast even if you wanted to.  As long as, somehow, you get the fly where it needs to be without scaring the bejeezus out of the fish that are supposed to be there, you've done THAT part of the job, and it's time for the more important part, which is presenting the fly well, getting more or less drag free drifts, stripping in such a way that you're controlling the line and in position to set the hook, mending properly.

On the other hand, there are people who are wizards with a fly rod who really do use their wizardry to fish better and catch more.  All the "specialty" casts that, in reality, are often the rule rather than the exception, like reach casts, pile casts, etc.  Double hauling to get more distance when necessary, etc.  

And yet...even just those names of things I just mentioned add unnecessarily to the so-called mystique of fly fishing.  The non-fly fisherman probably doesn't have a clue what any of them are.  And as someone who wasn't taught by classic fly anglers or exposed to that "culture" early on, I found when I learned about it that I was doing a lot of those things without knowing what they were, just from the experimentation I was doing...see a problem, something that needed to be done to present the fly well, and figure out for myself how to do it.  Which usually ended up a sometimes uglier version of the same stuff the "experts" were doing with fancy names for it.

There is a tremendous amount of minutae with fly fishing for trout.  You're supposed to know the bugs, down their Latin names and life cycles.  You're supposed to know the names of all the patterns that imitate those bugs, down to materials used.  You're supposed to have 20 different gadgets hanging off your vest.  You need a different rod weight, different line, different rigging for every situation.

But much of that stuff isn't really necessary.  I use two streamers in a few sizes, about five dry flies, about five or six nymphs.  My riggings are simple, and I'm almost always using the same floating lines.  Hanging off my fly pack is a pair of forcepts with scissor jaws and some nesting spools of tippet, and in the pockets are a thermometer, a bottle of dry fly floatant, and a container of split shot.  That's about it.  I often keep the same nymphs tied on all day.  I'm firmly in the camp that fishing well is better than having a tone of flies and gear.

[trythisonemv]

I have to agree with Al and wrench here. I wasn't classically taught though I have studied. experimentation and getting a good presentation are important to me. I will even bounce a nymph off a log or the bank to get it where I want it. I took a guy with me once who noted this and at the end of the day said "at first I thought you were terrible at casting and kept hitting the bank, but then realized you were intentionally doing it and it was effective ." I replied that it was my spinning gear nature leaking out in me. On small water with heavy flies you do.what you gotta.

[joeD]

The assumption being that more gear equates to less effective and successful fishing. That people of monetary means are necessarily bad fishermen, because they have expensive cars and have expensive equipment, and so easily fall into the working class hero ethos and mythology of the clueless blueblood fisherman." My simple tastes and way of life are superior to your soulless striving. "

Al, as someone with two homes and the wherewithal to fish as you please, be careful of our sympathy and tolerance over your existential fly fishing angst.

[Al Agnew]

Joe, no existential angst here.  I am perfectly happy with myself as an angler.  Quantity and price of tackle indicates neither expertise nor ineptitude.  Buying tackle because it's good stuff and you can afford it is different from buying it because you want to look good.  I know guys who have the very best of everything who are terrific anglers, and guys who have mostly pretty cheap stuff that are just as good.  

All other things being equal, you WILL fish better with better gear.  But all other things are never equal.  An ounce of knowledge is worth a ton of tackle.  Only if you have the knowledge first will you get the most from your ton of tackle.

[fishinwrench]

I reckon it's safer then to have more tackle than knowledge, and hope you grow into it.

[Chief Grey Bear]

On November 25, 2015 at 10:54:07 PM, fishinwrench said:

In more situations than not, the type of casts that result in caught fish are not very pleasant to watch.

One of my ex girlfriends once asked me "Why when you are casting in the yard you do it so much better, is it harder when you are standing in the water?"  

Standing in the yard, I'm ok. 

In a canoe....I become Sundance.

 

not with a fly rod though

[Mitch f]

Some expensive equipment sucks, and some is worth every penny. Most good fisherman know the difference.

[Al Agnew]

Been thinking about this some more...if I can sell a big painting or two between now and next spring, I think I'll buy another Watermaster type personal raft like I have in Montana.  I can fly fish VERY effectively out of it.  If I'm going to get serious about fly fishing for smallmouth in the Ozarks, I think that would be about perfect.

[fishinwrench]

Yeah I had a toon for awhile and they are great for FFing.   Only reason I got rid of it was because I mostly do same site floats and the toon sucked at going upstream.  

Don't think I'd like the watermaster, don't you sit real low in them ?  

If/when you decide to do some Smallie flyfishing I'd like to join ya, or have you along with me.