Fly Fishing

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I agree with most posters as to “what is fly fishing.” I really don’t care how someone is fishing provided it’s within the law. I certainly wouldn’t care to argue the point with someone. Life is too short.
 
stashe said:
My brother in-law has been fishing with a fiberglass fly rod, martin reel, 20# mono ,6ft 4# tippet, wax ,red, etc. worms for 50 yrs. Is he fly fishing ? Other than bait he's still high sticking or Euro fishing.
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No, it's not fly fishing.

That doesn't mean that it's wrong, it simply isn't fly fishing. In the same way that an apple is not an orange.

In the old days, spin gear did not exist. So, they used fly rods and reels for trout fishing.

When they used bait they were bait fishing. And when they used flies they were fly fishing.

I don't think they were confused about this, and there is no reason we should be.
 
troutbert said:
I don't think they were confused about this, and there is no reason we should be.
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Yeah it really is a non-conversation.

What does it really matter?

I think a lot of it comes down to people choosing to self-impose a gear/technique disadvantage and then they see others having more success or enjoyment. Then they get upset and arbitrary definitions somehow become significant. It's also a sign of guys who just need to get out and get after it more often and worry less about what others are doing.
 
troutbert said:
No, it's not fly fishing.

That doesn't mean that it's wrong, it simply isn't fly fishing. In the same way that an apple is not an orange.

In the old days, spin gear did not exist. So, they used fly rods and reels for trout fishing.

When they used bait they were bait fishing. And when they used flies they were fly fishing.

I don't think they were confused about this, and there is no reason we should be.
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No, we weren’t confused about it. We never said we were fly fishing; we used to say we were “fishing. ” If asked, we would have said we were “fishing with a fly rod.” Those were simpler times; we didn’t allow our underwear to get all tied in a knot over which technique we were using vs that of the next angler downstream. Plain and simple, it was just fishing.
 
troutbert said:
No, it's not fly fishing.

That doesn't mean that it's wrong, it simply isn't fly fishing. In the same way that an apple is not an orange.

In the old days, spin gear did not exist. So, they used fly rods and reels for trout fishing.

When they used bait they were bait fishing. And when they used flies they were fly fishing.

I don't think they were confused about this, and there is no reason we should be.
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The reason we are confused is we no longer can argue incessantly about brookies and invasive browns so we need another thing to get our knickers in a twist... ;)

More good news, we have 69 days to wait before the annual barrage of posts titled "Can I fish at Stream X on February 19th?" :cool:
 
jeffroey said:
I thought the PAFBC actually defined it.

For me it's somewhat simple: if I'm relying on the weight of the line to propel my lure, I'm fly fishing. If I'm relying on the weight of my lure to unspool my line, I'm spin fishing.

I don't care to argue over length of leader, whether my reel has a gear ratio between the handle and the spool, or the length of the rod. In fact I've flyfished with traditional rods a lot shorter than a baitcaster I've used with a Carolina rig for bass.
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There it is
 
It's funny how the way others fish seems to rub some folks the wrong way...

Me, I don't care about semantics as long as it's legal and ethical which I assume it is because it's legal...

I save my angst for rude behavior and littering versus mono rigs or other things that fall outside of someone's definitions...
 
afishinado said:
You can (and I now do at times) fly cast mono line instead of only using fly line to fish for trout. The mono line (20lb test Maxima Chameleon) has enough mass to use a conventional fly cast for smaller dries, including a dry-dropper, nymphs with or without an indy as well as streamers or wets. This rig is the most versatile setup I have found for fly fishing. I can switch over to a conventional fly line for dries and longer casts or for long distance streamer fishing. Check out this short video about casting a mono rig:

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I wonder how this system would perform if one were to use a silk line instead of the 20lb mono? Silk lines being thinner than plastic coated fly lines but they still might have more mass than mono.
 
Bamboozle said:
It's funny how the way others fish seems to rub some folks the wrong way...

Me, I don't care about semantics as long as it's legal and ethical which I assume it is because it's legal...

I save my angst for rude behavior and littering versus mono rigs or other things that fall outside of someone's definitions...
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Exactly, fish bait with a flyrod, fly reel, and flyline or fish flies with a spin rod and float or do the mono rig thing or tenkara. Whatever floats your boat, I fish the way I want to fish and could care less how you fish so long as it's done legally and more importantly, ethically. Hell just yesterday I was helping out a kid and his non-fishing dad gear up the kid's spinning rod. Gear doesn't matter to me, attitude and actions do. We're all fisherman, there's no need to behave like cavemen.
 
DomR said:
Exactly, fish bait with a flyrod, fly reel, and flyline or fish flies with a spin rod and float or do the mono rig thing or tenkara. Whatever floats your boat, I fish the way I want to fish and could care less how you fish so long as it's done legally and more importantly, ethically. Hell just yesterday I was helping out a kid and his non-fishing dad gear up the kid's spinning rod. Gear doesn't matter to me, attitude and actions do. We're all fisherman, there's no need to behave like cavemen.
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I will take this opportunity to admit I have a Spiderman spincast combo that I will trot out on a few occasions just to annoy the fly fishermen in the stream... :cool:

Special Note: At no time have I been involved in overt rude behavior, rules infringement, littering or thinking I was fly fishing... ;)
 
PennKev said:
What does it really matter?

I think a lot of it comes down to people choosing to self-impose a gear/technique disadvantage and then they see others having more success or enjoyment. Then they get upset and arbitrary definitions somehow become significant. It's also a sign of guys who just need to get out and get after it more often and worry less about what others are doing.
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Or when people make up disadvantages, like stating my rod will prevent me from catching fish because it's shiny.
 
Silent Ocelot said:
Or when people make up disadvantages, like stating my rod will prevent me from catching fish because it's shiny.
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In all fairness, the thread question was do I buy for aesthetics or functionality.
I gave my opinion on what I look for, it was you that didn't like my opinion.😂
 
As for myself, I will only fish with fly rods, fly lines, and fly reels, with the exception of having a lengthy leader for tight-lining but it's ok because I have fly line behind this leader. If someone calls a mono rig not fly fishing I will not agree with them but can understand their way of thinking. Now if that same individual that is holy rollin' with their fly tackle also uses conventional tackle for other types of fishing, like using spin for stripers or centerpin reels, then they're a hack, plain and simple. People can fish how they want to, but if they want to talk the talk then they need to walk the walk. People can fish how they like but if an individual is going for a fly fishing exclusive persona, then they need to adhere to that. I've met people like that only to learn that they used bait off of fly rods to catch permit. One person in particular, a mod from this very forum, once instructed me to use surface ants for trout and didn't like the idea that I was nymphing. I really didn't mind but then I learned this same individual targets shad and I don't think that individual was tossing dries to those fish I lost respect for said individual. Basically, be consistent. I may be a pedantic gear/native fish-loving ******, but I am consistent in that regard.

I will use all manner of flies, even to include the obnoxious stuff such as eggs, mops, and squirmy worms. What I won't do is use a sponge fly where I'm essentially tearing off pieces of sponge to attach to a bare hook. I will use premade flies only and I will never put some kind of scent attractor on a fly.

I will also say that there are echelons to fly fishing that make you cooler, even at the expense of fish caught.

Actively stalking fish to get a shot on them will always be cooler than just poking around blindly. It is cooler to catch a trout on the dry because it's harder to get that fish to move than to eat a fly directly in front of it. I think a lot of dry guys get a lot of unnecessary hate and get touted as being rude and condescending for simply fishing the way that they want to. I respect these cats. I think streamers can get more love too. I think the people lasering streamers to ultra-spooky saltwater fish species are pretty rad, and anyone who swings for steelhead/salmon is pretty cool. I think the cats swinging high-maintenance silk lines are cool. Basically, if there's a harder/more traditional way of fishing and an angler chooses to fish that way, they're awesome human beings. I am but a lowly bobber chucker.
 
Slight tangent (!!!), but it's kinda funny that what I assume is the most read piece of writing featuring fly fishing - those middle chapters of The Sun Also Rises - is a depiction of using a fly rod with bait.
 
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