What's The Fascination With Fly Fishing?

[Center Punch]

I like CC's response. Made sense.

Call me crazy, but I still like being the guy with more fish on the stringer than the guy next to me at the end of the day.

it seems that you are implying that you want to catch alot of fish(which there is nothing wrong with that at all) so you choose a spinning rod over a fly rod(which there is nothing wrong with that either)- while i would agree in many places a spinning rod will outfish a fly rod, but through my experience fishing the waters i fish and the methods i use, to me it seems that bigger fish usually come off of flies and i actually catch more on a fly rod.

when you are talking about a trout park,just after the siren blows, of course the spinning rod is going to be the best way to go to catch alot of fish fast. one thing is you can get more casts and cover more water with them. but....all it takes is one clean presentation anyway. to me it is more rewarding to make that perfect presentation rather than to flip 100 casts in on a fish and dangle a lure in front of its face. Natural food does not sit there and taunt fish. i have fished both spinning and fly fishing in various conditions and when the fish are biting well, hands down you will catch more with spinning rod, but if the bite is anything from excellent, then i vote fly rod. just my 2 cents worth

and the way i see it is that we are all fishing so why does it matter

[Crippled Caddis]

Trout God wrote on Nov 16th on the 'Urban Trout Fishing St. Louis' thread in post # 20:

<I've never fly fished, so I couldn't tell you if these areas would be good to do so.>

Trout God wrote in the opening post of 'What's the Fascination With Flyfishing' Thread on Nov. 18th:

<I've never understood the fascination with fly fishing. I've tried it.>

So-----TG, which is the truth? You made two distinctly seperate, contradictory statements 2 days apart. Did you try flyfishing in the interim or are you yanking the string of the flyfishers? If the latter is the case then I wish to thank you. The question produced many interesting, soul-searching answers that revealed a lot of highly principled, quite earnestly introspective mental processes indicative of some very good outdoorsmen. And in that respect it was a worthy enquiry that allowed many of us to share a bit of our most deeply held standards regarding the outdoor world and our percieved relationship with it our and stewardship of it. That is a very good thing indeed to share within this small community. But it now appears that you owe us an equally introspective and honest explanation of the original question as regards your declaration of two days prior.

If you were just 'pulling our string' then it's OK by me. I like a joke myself and have no problem getting a chuckle out of my own foibles. And I suspect from the introspectively honest replies to the original question that virtually to a man those who responded will agree. And if you learned anything of value to yourself from our answers then it was a win/win deal all the way around. But by the same token that we answered with soul-baring honesty for three pages then you owe us one post of equally honest answers. CC

[back2roots]

Well, here's my .02.

Just started flyfishing last year and I'm 52. Here's what it boils do to for me:

For the most part it's relaxing, challenging and great for the heart...it just makes me feel good!

For the most part the folks you meet are pretty nice and willing to teach and be taught.

The scenery is excllent, the fish are beautiful but most of all......It's just fun!!!!!!

[jscheetz]

Fine topic. Like many here have said I like any kind of fishing, but prefer the fly rod - and that is mostly for everything else that comes along with the fly fishing experience completely apart from the actual catching of fish. But I don't know that you will necessarily "eventually" want to fly fish. I have a good friend who is a fine person, a great fisherman, been fishing his whole life, never fly fished and I would venture to say he never will. He and I are just different people. He likes firing up the bass boat - I like taking my kayak -He would rather "camp" in a camper - I would rather backpack solo - He really likes targeting big fish - I can be happy catching 10 inch brookies in a mountain stream - We get along great, but just have different internal wiring. We can talk about fishing for hours just like we were doing the same thing. But he is telling stories about chucking 1 ounce spinner baits and I am talking about drifting a fly you can barely see with the naked eye!

I like the non-mechanical feel of fly fishing - the natural vibe of it. I'm not really into the Zen thing, but I will say there have been some days of fly fishing in the mountains that have been the closest to God I have ever felt.

But I think as long as you are fishing and as you put it "respecting the fish" then it's all good. And who knows - maybe someday you'll pick up a fly rod and I will buy a big bass boat - cause as T.S. Eliot said:

We shall never cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

JS