Why flyfishing?......revisited

[Stew]

Thought this was worth another look and comments from the newer people.

What is it about this angling method that attracts you?
For me there is a mystery about fly fishing that I just can't explain. The solitude I find where I am able to "escape" for the moment and my only worries are whether I'll have any wind knots to deal with.
The satisfaction of laying your line out perfectly and the anticipation of a fish rising to a dry fly. The screaming of your fly reel when a steelhead takes line off of it and the graceful beauty of a well executed roll cast.
The famous fly fishermen from the past couldn't explain it either.
Why is one drawn to this method when there are so many other more productive methods out there for taking fish?
We fly fishers often maligned by others as being "elitests" that's too funny because any of you that know me know that couldn't be further from the truth. Maybe it's the satisfied look on our faces after a day on the river that some cannot understand.
In a world of conspicuous consumption I am happy to be able to just hike up the Deschutes canyon for a few hours and maybe see three or four others along the way.
The rewards are many for me in fly fishing but most do not revolve around taking a bunch of fish.
Maybe that's the mystery
Those of you that know what I am talking about can relate....you've been there.

[marko]

Although I cannot tie exotic patterns, I get a huge boot out of catching fish on a fly I tied myself. I also think that fly fishing is a simpler method. Granted the gear can get expensive, but once you have "invested" in that it really is a simple method of fishing. No bait, no worry about the lateset lures (the old tried and true patterns still work). The thrill of the rise and the joy you feel as the hook is set. Fly fishing small water from a tube or a raft is pure mental enema. To me, there is no greater joy in fishing than to have laid out a good cast (maybe perfect) and watch the drift or retrieve as a fish takes the fly. Second to this is the electricity of a solid strike at the end of a drift with a wet fly as it swings up in the current. It is also much easier to catch and release with flies. I can scarsely think of a time when a fish swallowed any fly I offered.
:cheers:

[Mojo]

It is all about the art. The art of a perfectly proportioned fly, that you just tied. The art of a new rod that you just built for the "annual salmonfly extraveganza". The art of matching a small clump of hair and feather, wrapped on a hook...to an insect most people never would have seen float by anyway. The art of a practiced cast laid gently on the water 3 feet upstream of a 22 inch brown trout that you have watched feed on callibaetis' for 45 minutes. Seeing Mr. Browns nose poke up right where your fly used to be, and remembering to say "God save the Queen" before you set the hook. The beauty of the red slash unger the gills of a West Slope Cutthroat, and the way the spots get thicker towards her tail. It's the friends catching 3 more and 2 bigger than you, and still calling it "The best day ever"! It's about drinking a frosty cold one, on the tailgate of your truck, watching the trout rise...after you have had enough fun. It's about taking entomology in college, even though you are a communication major. It's about the sunsets...Yep, it's about the sunsets... :smile:

[ 08-07-2003, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: Mojo ]

[Fisherfield]

For me it's the Serenity one could only find fly fishing...no reel to wind up (unless you've got a biggin')...the ease of the cast...and of course the catch. I love to hike into remote areas and find a whole in which there "might" be a fish hiding...behind that rock, or tree. The calm of the lake...as I bob around on my float tube...with my gear readily available...sun is shining bright...with my feet dangling in the cool water. Trolling in the tube...with my fly slowly drifting/diving behind me...as I wait..listening to the various animals living their lives in unison. Serenity..Found...for a moment or seemingly endless hours........

[Riverkeeper]

Coot, I'm right there with you, man!

I am a nut for just about any kind of fishing. But flyfishing will always be first in my heart, for these reasons among others:

1)Flyfishing almost always requires you to be standing in a really beautiful spot. Lets face it- the hospital hole or sellwood are not the same as the metolius or crane praire to wickiup stretch.

2)When you fool a wary fish into taking a fly, it means you have come to some greater understanding of the world the fish lives in. It means you have observed and understood the interplay between the water, the bugs, the fish, the rocks, the weather, and all the other parts of the system- and the evidence of this understanding is the fact that you caught the fish. That trips me out every time. I guess this is true of all fishing techniques, but somehow irritating a fish until it bites a plug or something is just not the same.

[ 08-07-2003, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Riverkeeper ]

[greenbuttskunk]

I just like to pretend I'm Brad Pitt from "the river runs through it" . Makes me look cool!
Actually, I love the elegance of a good, well placed cast. When it connects with a trouts delicate slurp and I feel him on, is there anything better. Decent casting and success takes a good measure of skill, it's like golf. There is always some room to improve. I like the challenges and I love it when I master some of them, although never totally. Their are great rewards and satisfaction landing a fish on a fly I've tied. Being out on a quite trout stream almost always leaves me feeling recharged and re-centered. It's like my own version of therapy. My wife always seems to see a difference when I return at the end of the day. Simply put, flyfishing transcends peace, in my book.
GBS

[Slow and Low]

All that's great.. but it's about fishing! It's not about looking cool or art. The level of activity when flyfishing makes it just that.

It's about the fight. For everyone who puts their flyrod down in high water or for the winter and gets to catch fish on a driftrod or spinning rod, you guys know there is something missing when the fish is on deck. (yeah..kind of a run on)

Your first steelhead or salmon on a flyrod is truly sporting. Chasing a big fish downriver...that's the deal pure and simple.

[Old Coot]

Mojo nailed it. It is because skill and knowledge transform into art, pure and simple; and for each individual who picks up the same fly outfit, the execution and interpretation is different.

There is that wonderful grace and elegance. The fluid flow as caster, rod and line become one incredible machine. The simple elegance of backcasting once and effortlessly laying out a long perfectly-placed line. That arresting moment when a rainbow arcs open-mouthed from under a fern to descend with murderous intent on your artifice. The sheer beauty of missing the first strike of the day and having 30 feet of flyline float skyward, then descend slowly and gracefully onto your head and hang artfully from your ears and glasses in gently arcing loops and coils while the fly floats to rest precisely at that point in the middle of your back where you can't reach.

[Mojo]

Coot,
You have to quit spying on me when I'm fishing! :laugh: