Do you share?

Someone mentioned kids and that is my soft spot. If the adult is a newbie or is ignoring the kid, I'll ask if it's ok to help the little one. Fix their rig, explain what the fish are eating and give them a bunch of flies. Help them get a few hook ups and turn them loose.

I'm pretty confident that the young man I helped at big spring 30 years ago still remembers the interaction. Grandpa took him down to the creek with gear they borrowed. Grandpa didn't fish and couldn't do much more than stand and watch. I went over, worked on the gear, explained how to do it and got him hooked up several times. I then gave him a big handful of flies to keep and gave him my spot. Grandpa thanked me repeatedly for helping. On his own, the little guy hooked up several times and I would cheer him on. Wonder if that 'kid' is on here. Hopefully it meant as much to them as it did to me.

I bet a bunch of you think I'm an ****** but I'm really a softie that's a bit of an ****** 😁🤣
 
I always exchange info, typically im the one not catching the fish but I still do just in case they need a fly. I enjoy fly fishing a lot more because almost everyone is friendly, if I'm doing something wrong, others will tell me how to correct it, spin fishing is all for yourself.
 
pstmacteae said:
I wanted to post this here because this pertains to both fresh and salt water. Do you share patterns with strangers? If you are out on the water, and you are having a killer day...will you share? Not necessarily give them the fly but tell them what is working, maybe even how.
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I usually don’t share detail but will show angler what has worked for me in the past.
 
Mostly always willing to help someone as long as they are receptive for the help. For the most part, I didn’t have a mentor. i learned a good bit from the willingness of others to offer advice. So it’s kinda my way of paying it forward.
 
I have given out flies a few times. I have been given flies on at least two occasions when it really counted. One resulted in my largest Brown of all time. Guy gave me a Coffin Fly and suggested I cut leader back to about 4x. Glad he came along. I still bump into him from time to time and always remind him about that.
 
I pretty much always share anything that's working if the other person is interested in chatting. I even tell about other spots that they might want to check out in the area! I never really thought to hand out flies, though. If it was a kid that needed some help I sure would. I just don't seem to run into that situation.
One little pet peeve is when somebody is having obvious success while I'm struggling is when you ask them what's working, they say something like "nymphs". Then walk away.
 
Sure.

Sometimes I’ve had success and shared info and given flies to people.

One instance that I recall was a stream in SC PA that has green drakes and some guys were there - I think from VA or MD and had no idea about the green drakes , gave them my last 3-4 dry flys. Not sure how you drive 5 hours and not know about the biggest big of the year.
 
Acristickid said:
Sure.

Sometimes I’ve had success and shared info and given flies to people.

One instance that I recall was a stream in SC PA that has green drakes and some guys were there - I think from VA or MD and had no idea about the green drakes , gave them my last 3-4 dry flys. Not sure how you drive 5 hours and not know about the biggest big of the year.
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The funny thing is that the fish ended up eating Caddis that night and they had plenty of those in their boxes 🤣🤣
 
I don't usually engage other fly-fishermen unless they start to talk to me.

However I have shared tips and flies with more conventional fishermen than fly fishermen, sharing information and giving particularly interested spin guys weighted streamers to try.

I have got back glowing reports, thanks and kudos on not being a "snobby" fly-fisherman on more than a few occasions. ;)

I also recently put my own rod away and taught a teen how to fish on his 2nd attempt at a local creek I frequent for sunnies & such in the summer. I was about to start fishing when I saw his bike by the creek and observed him fishing alone, struggling to learn how to use his spin casting outfit. He told me no one in his family fished so he was trying to figure things out on his own.

That's the way it was for me too when I was a few years younger than him so I felt good about teaching him how to use his rod & reel, helping him catch his first fish and gain enthusiasm, even if it wasn't for fly fishing.

That's the kind of sharing I relish the most.
 
I've always been willing to talk with and share fishing info along the stream.
It just makes sense - both ways.
Many times I've arrived at a stream after not having been there for a long time.
And have no idea if anything has been hatching.
So why not share info - and maybe even flies?

When I come across someone on the water, I usually just give a quick Hi.
And if they seem receptive, maybe even ask "how's the fishing"
And let it go from there.

If they act like they don't want to be bothered, that's OK too.
Ill just keep move on and give them their space
 
McSneek said:
Absolutely. I can’t believe there are actually people that don’t.
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When I first started this sport - over 40 years ago now - there were quite a few people out there that were very secretive.
I remember being out with others near me - guys who were fishing with their friends. And one of them - after catching a fish - would whisper, or say in some kind of secret code - what fly they had on to their buddies.
This happened quite often then.

Don't see that too much anymore now, though
 
I ran into some old timers fishing Slippery Rock Creek in Lawrence County about twenty- five years ago (last century, LOL). I was in my middle forties and these gentlemen were in their seventies. They said that years before, there weren't a lot of fly shops or places to buy flies or materials. Those that tied their own flies were very secretive and had their own patterns. The one fellow said even his dad wouldn't show him his flies! LOL
 
I've offered help and given only when it's accepted. My boys and I had a great time at Outer Banks Pier helping a "Pappy" from WV with about a dozen grandkids.
I've also grumped at guys who thought I wouldn't mind if they "fish through" and clearly told them why they shouldn't. (I've also told them to not similarly bother anyone I'm fishing with.)
 
I had a lot a help from the "old timers" in my fly fishing club when I first started and I'll share my limited knowledge and always have enough flies my box to give a few away.. though sometimes if I'm feeling a bit perverse when they ask me what I'm using I'll say "the Usual" which often draws blank stares. I often have a few in my box. So I give them a couple. I've learned from asking guys using spinning gear, particularly when I was first learning how to catch smallies in the Wissahickon. As far as folks "fishing through" I was fishing Ridley Creek, a set of riffles maybe 50 yards below the bridge in the FFO section about 22 or so years ago. I'm sitting on a comfortable boulder, dressed in urban camouflage BDU's, scruffy t-shirt, a beat up vest, a baseball cap and wearing rubber boots cut from a pair of boot foot waders. I was a putting on a new fly when I looked up and there was guy who looked like he stepped out of an Orvis catalog wading down the middle of the creek. He stopped and looked at my fly rod, I build my own and they're not traditional, and told me that this was a fly fishing only stretch. I held up the rod so he could the line and reel. Then he looked at my leader and told me I'd never catch anything using that. I was using a thread furled leader, then asked what fly I was using. I told him I was using a CDC and Elk, a dry caddis. He shook his head and told me I should be using a nymph, if I knew what that was. He slowly worked his way past me and downstream. He was still in sight, close enough that he could hear me. So I made a lot a noise as I netted the trout I had hooked. He was a good lesson on what not to do or say and a prime example of why fly fisherman are considered snobs.
 
"Is there a greater sin than stolen work?"

Yes, stolen wives.
 
tomgamber said:
Why not?
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Because a truly unique pattern may be very effective because maybe I and my best buddy are using it. If it gets shared and winds up in the bins of a fly shop on the river there will be hundreds of them. Then that unique pattern has lost it's appeal and it's jut one more of the familiar flies a trout will see hundreds of times over the season.
 
You don't have to share everything. It's the old, " I taught you everything you know, not everything I know" situation. ;)
 
19 'As in water face reflects face
So a man's heart reveals the man'

Old Testament
Proverbs 27:27
 
tomgamber said:
You don't have to share everything. It's the old, " I taught you everything you know, not everything I know" situation. ;)
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Over 60+ years I've given away a couple thousand flies and spent a lot of time showing people, if they ask, how to cast better.
 
To answer the OP - Definitely. If I pass guys/gals in or out to where I'm walking to, I always hand out bugs and share the methods in which I fish them.

To all the guys who think their patterns are "too good to share". I got news for you - There's nothing new in fly tying and definitely nothing secret.
 
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