Traditional Fly Fishing

[AndyK]

What is traditional fly fishing?

The first fly rods were wood with bamboo being a later improvement. Reels were single action with no drag . Leaders were cat gut that required soaking before use.

“Traditional” fly lines were braided silk that required treatment before and after each trip (and sometimes mid day!). If the line wasn’t regularly treated, it wouldn’t float. This was sometimes preferred by (Atlantic) salmon fishermen who liked the “deeper” presentation of an untreated line.

When I started fly fishing (here I go again, aging myself), untreated silk lines were still available. Cortland created the first coated lines that didn't require treatment. I think this was sometime after WWII.

My first single action reel did not have a drag. One of the first reels with a drag was the Pflueger Medalist!

If a traditional fly line was both a floating and sinking line (depending on whether it was treated), then a pure floating line is not traditional.

If someone wants to claim they are a traditional fly fisherman, then they better be using a bamboo rod, single action reel without a drag and an uncoated braided silk line (that will both float and sink)!

Good luck finding cat gut leaders!

[blazerman]

[SilverFly]

Good luck finding cat gut leaders!

Actually, there is an extra cat or two around my house we could spare!

JK, - well mostly kidding anyway.

--------------------

[SSPey]

I make a distinction between traditional techniques and traditional tools.

then they better be using a bamboo rod, single action reel without a drag

Well I got a couple of them anyway
I don't use lead and split shot because it's a b*tch to cast and I may as well be using drift gear if I have to have that much lead on.It also hurts like hell when it hits you upside the head. I do use a sink tip line only when I have to. If I cannot reach the depth I need with a long leader and heavy wire hook on a floating line or as a last resort a sink tip line then I'll find water where I can.
I also don't use strike indicators because it seems like a big hassle to me and I've already put my time in bobber/jig fishing.
That aside I guess I'm not very traditional.

[Plem]

there're plenty of cats in my neighborhood if someone wants a go at these leaders. Wow

[SilverFly]

Now you kids play nice or I'll have to tattle to Uncle Giz that you're making fun of each other's toys!

----------------

[happybrew]

I've never used a reel with a drag. I've never used a catgut leader, but I've normally tied my own from monofilament, as well as my own flies. I've always used a floating line. I don't use dropper flies or strike indicators. I guess that would make me a conservative fly fisher, if not a traditional.

Fly fishing reminds me of being a Catholic. There is always an element of guilt involved, and there is always a "I'm more traditional than you." aspect involved. I say this as a conservative, if not traditional, Catholic and flyfisher.

happybrew

[Klem]

SSpey hit the nail on the head. What would happen if we added the word "line" to fly casting and made it "fly-line casting". Traditional fly casting was about casting the weight of the line to present an offering to the fish. Gear tech does change the fact that we still have to cast the line weight. Adding heavy weighted flies and spit shot changes the casting theory to chuck and duck and how we have fly rod slinging a hybrid line weight and external weight to load the rod. Question then is: If you put a slinky on as your loading weight on a fly rod with a fly reel, are we then using the line to load the rod? I think we are then bait casting (Concentrated weight casting the line) not fly casting (casting the weighted fly line). I have been know to slinky fish with my fly rod but I call it "drift fishing". I have yet to make a single false cast with a slinky.

[nookslayer]

I think the term "traditional" can also be a bad thing. If we were to be "traditional" by the definition that Andy uses it would mean that we would have had to ignore all of the great advancements and new technologies that allow us to be better at our sport. I'm not one to throw stones in a glass house so please don't take this the wrong way. I just feel that to gloss someone traditional or non traditional is meaningless. I love the fact I can choose between float and sink tip and IM7 blanks. If it makes me a better flyfisherman than I am all for it! That doesn't mean I don't respect my predecessors.

[AndyK]

I make a distinction between traditional techniques and traditional tools.

What are traditional techniques? As far as I have been able to determine, the traditional technique (at least in the Americas) is swinging a fly. A dead drifted dry fly or nymph was not a technique used (or even known)!

[jfsfish2]

"Actually, there is an extra cat or two around my house we could spare"

My cat said "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Best I change the thought about cat gut!!

Thanks for sharing the history about traditional fly fishing. My dad had a rod that he used. Do not know old it is. Used it a few times many years ago. Do have a newer reel so the traditional reel did not work with this.

[mandinga]

to that nooky.


Some of us were never around to see those traditional
methods.


Technology is a wonderful thing.

I play competitive golf, and I NEVER hear people talk about technology ruining the sport...noone uses wooden shafts and stone balls for a reason. Fly fishing is weird, because I hear alot of people complaining that technology has ruined the heritage of the sport.

[O Tshawytcha]

I just thank the lord for polar fleece!!!

It would be COLD with out it!!!

GRIFF

[SSPey]

Andy, traditional fly fishing is quite rich, though I suppose it depends on how you define traditional.
I generally consider the end of "traditional" for many olde tyme things to be associated with that broad swath of years from the industrial revolution (late 1800's) to WWII. More recent that that is not traditional.

For steelheading as derived from Atlantic Salmon fishing, we are indebted to the greased line method of AHE Wood in the early 1900's. But wet flies were fished long before that for trout and salmon. Dry flies for trout entered the scene in the mid-1800's, and nymphing with GEM Skues soon after.

In my mind, if people were wearing knickers at the time, then it qualifies as traditional. I consider all of the above methods traditional. In that sense, you could consider that all methods are traditional in one sense or another. It is the techno-fixes (like external split shot or T-14) that modify these traditions into modern forms.

[Gizmo Man]

For me, I don't care what a person uses. I care how they treat the resources (fish, water, and land around it) and how they treat their fellow fisher on the water and off.

If a person is out fishing and enjoying themselves, that's what its all about.

As for what is tradition, guess maybe we can all start back at the time of Adam and Eve and work our way foward. :smile: :smile:

Giz...

[NCL]

Giz,

You are absolutely right

Mitch

[frankenfish]

Andy,

I actually do have catgut that can be used as tippet. Sutures. It actually would make good tippet. It's still called catgut, but it's made of sheeps gut these days. The cost is only $15.00 for two feet of tippet and the attached curved needle is free.

Frank

[TillamookChinook]

I've still got my first fly rod, a fiberglass rod purchased from the sporting goods corner of the appliance store in Junction City over 40 years ago. I bought an "automatic" fly reel than because that seemed a lot more cool than a simple single action reel to a 15-year old. And I had no flyfishing mentor so didn't know any better. That coated double-taper line didn't float very well unless it was doped with Mucelin.

I prefer flyfishing, but am no purist. I have not caught large fish with all kinds of gear, including with splitshot on my fly leader.

TC

[nookslayer]

Giz, I couldn't agree with your more. The "spirit" of the fisherman is what make him a traditionalist, not his gear. As for the Adam and Eve thing, I think I'll keep my waders on thank you!

Hey Mandinga, anytime you want to get out and swing the sticks I'm in! Golf is my other expensive hobby!

[Gettin' Birdy]

-GB