As a non-fly-fisher and someone who has been around fly-anglers since the 1970’s, I’ll offer my “unbiased” opinion on the degree of “elitism” that currently exists. I’ve been a member of the Blair County Chapter of TU (now called John Kennedy TU) since 1979. I don’t consider myself to be “active” in the chapter, but over the years I’ve gotten to know some of the guys. In 1979 (and earlier) there were a lot of guys that I would have thought of as “Fly-Fishing Snobs” To support this claim, my dad told me a comment made many years ago by an officer of the chapter. This fly-angler related a story about how several fly-anglers were trying to catch a specific large brown trout. They couldn’t catch it and then a guy caught it, he said, with a “darn” spinner, with particular emphasis on the word “darn.”
Today I don’t know even one F-FS in the chapter, and some of the guys there were also there in the 1970’s. I’ve done my spinner-fishing seminar for them and other places across the state quite a few times and the best gauge of fly-fishermen attitudes toward spinner fishing comes during the Q&A period at the end of my program. I don’t get as many snobbish questions now as I used to get.
I think I’m much more accepted on this site now than I was years ago. I would consider the anglers on here to be a little more enlightened, though, compared to elsewhere since shared, educated opinions over the years tend to mellow bad attitudes. As an outsider, I’d like to think that maybe I had a little positive input in mellowing those bad attitudes, but many would probably disagree.
I don’t think the clothes a fly-angler wears have much, if anything, to do with whether they are a F-FS.
With this said, I do believe there is still at least some “elitism” among fly-anglers on here, but there is a lot of peer pressure to not express it. If there was a way to get people to express themselves honestly, I think a good way to measure the current degree of “elitism” on here would be by starting a thread entitled, “Should the PFBC Consider Doing Away with FFO Regs on Public Land?”
To show that “elitism” still exists, I thought some of you would get a chuckle out of some the comments that were made on my last four photo essays that I did for the Facebook group “PA Native Brookie Chasers.” Full disclosure: These comments came from just five fly-anglers, and most of them came from just one fly-angler.
F-FS1: “I would love to see some pictures of their mouths after you rip those barbed treble hooks out of them”
F-FS1: “Honestly any kid with a Barbie pole could catch brookies on a spinner.”
F-FS1: “I've actually talked to people that have met you in person and they all agree that you are an XXX.”
F-FS2: “Seriously, Treble hooks on those beautiful brookies ?”
F-FS3: “Someday you should throw away the hardware and try fly fishing …”
F-FS1: “No way on a 4 inch fish.”
F-FS1: “not only do you ruin their jaws with your treble hooks, you take the time measure everyone and document them...lol!!! You're a bigger XXXXXX than I thought”
F-FS1: “I'd really be curious to see to go slumming down here in Washington county amd see how many you can snag with your barbed treble hooks.”
F-FS4: “For someone with as much experience as you have I’d think it wouldn’t be too hard to land trout with pinched barbs, and much better for the fish.”
F-FS1: “You're a snagger, it's ok, we all know. Keep ripping their faces off.”
F-FS1: “you fish the hottest months of the year in low water conditions when the fish are all stacked up and snag 2 out of every 3 fish.”
F-FS1: “Go sharpen your barbed treble hooks to make sure they don't get away and you can rip their faces off.”
F-FS1: “Just show me exactly how you remove a barbed treble hook from a native brook trouts eye.”
F-FS1: “when you rip their eye out, do you leave it on the hook or discard it?”
F-FS2l: “You really should consider using barbless single hooks”
F-FS5: “he could become more skilled and use a fly rod but he needs the attention on here boasting about his #'s so he won't do that either...”
F-FS3: “he really ought to learn to fly fish. Pitch the hardware.”
F-FS3: “Someday you should try fly fishing.”
F-FS3: “if I set out to kill brookies I’d be sure to sling hardware at them..”
F-FS1: “I cam honestly say that my barbless hooks on my flies have never caused any damage or have been deep in their mouth, and never once in their gills.”
Regular Joe: “How long till the fly fishing snobs start bashing you?”
