Green Weenie

Jack, if I could consistently catch fish using only dry flies, I would. I think they're more fun. But I care a little too much about catching fish for that.
 
No one has to apologize to me or anyone else for how they like to fish, including bait-chuckers, real and artificial.
 
Haha, I'm not apologizing. I'm just saying that I'm not good enough to be a purist.
 
It doesn't stop me trying 90% of the time.
 
So fishing a meat fly during a major hatch= Purist? Just because you make something harder on yourself does not make you a purist.

It makes you cuckoo bananas as my 2 year old puts it. And thats fine with me. I'd rather drag that big old sculpin down deep than fish a size 32 anything. I don't really carry anything smaller than a 16 unless I bought it somewhere or it was given to me.

I'm not diggin at anyone here, as I'm probably the last person to critique anyone for doing what they enjoy. That's why we do it.
I just hate the word "Purist". Makes me throw up in my mouth.

/stupidrantaboutnothingimportant
 
Excepting olives and tricos, major hatches are size 16 and bigger.

Sulphers, March Browns, Drakes, etc....
 
What's a "Purist" anyway? I fish drys when I think the time is right but I also fish numphs,streamers and yes those darn junk flies. I fish with a bamboo rod from time to time but I also fish fiberglass and modern graphite. I tie flys with natural materials but also use synthetics. I guess maybe I'm a "Half Purist" LOL! I do enjoy fishing the size 24 Trico's so I guess their is hope for me after all. LOL.
 
One time back in Delaware I was out in my 10 foot pram-Catching blue gills with wet flies.A guy sitting on the bank, bait fishing saw me having a blast-when I came in he asked "how did you do?".
About 75
What were they?
Bluegills
"Oh,I only fish for trout and bass".
He hadn't caught anything but he was a better man than me and we both knew it.
A PURIST
 
I have seen purists like that. I catch 15 or 20 trout subsurface and the purist catches 2 or 3 on drys. Who is the most effective fishermen? The purists of course. I used to fish drys ALOT. I had a good nymph fisherman show me how to fish effectively subsurface. I have not looked back. I want to catch trout the heck with that purist logic.
 
I'm certainly no purist, and do fish nymphs, streamers, etc. fairly often. But over a year, I'd venture to say I fish dries more than 50% of the time. I do enjoy dries more, but I mainly do it because I find them more effective. The adage that you should be nymphing 90% of the time doesn't fit for me. And I'm not saying I'm a great nympher, but I hold my own.

I catch bigger fish underneath. But every situation is different and much of the time I find I catch more on top.

Of course, I may find them more effective because when I fish bigger streams, I usually plan the trip around hatches and its often in the evening. The daytime fishing is largely brookie streams, where dries are IMO more effective in most situations between early May and October.
 
April is my purist month on wild trout streams. I still fish junk flies on stocked streams then.

Anyway, last year, I decided to pay homage to the dry fly snobs by becoming one of them one month per year. April is it. I enjoyed myself last year, and actually caught some of my nicest fish of the year. Lots of sitting around and doing nothing, and a couple of complete bust trips. Highlights included a surprise foot long jumping brown that smacked a BWO in 6 inches of shaded water on valley, a few 16" class fish on BFC, and chunky browns on penns during the hendrickson.

When the morning and evening temps were low, I allowed myself to fish wet flies and streamers to prevent total skunkage once or twice, but I justified it after a 3.5 hour drive.

The nymphing action throughout the rest of the spring was much more consistent, though. Either way, I am looking forward to hard-headed purist month.
 
What's nice about nymph fishing is you don't have to plan your trip around a hatch. Just fish! I can agree that drys may be more effective during a hatch but what about the rest of the time? That's when you go subsurface. I have a friend who nymph fishes through the sulphur hatch and just slams the trout. I however tend to stay on the surface if they are rising. Those are the times I love fishing drys. I have to admit their is nothing more thrilling than a trout taking a dry fly off the surface. I catch my share on drys but big number days almost always come from fishing subsurface.
 
May in Montana-Caddis fly hatch-
we all have our weakness.
 
WildTigerTrout wrote:
I have seen purists like that. I catch 15 or 20 trout subsurface and the purist catches 2 or 3 on drys. Who is the most effective fishermen? The purists of course.
Click to expand...

Yeah? Says who? The "purist?" Probably not.

See, your little grudge is carrying over, and to ridiculous levels.. You keep acting as if guys who like to fish dry flies came to your house and kicked your puppy, but the thing is.. No one cares.

Great. You catch a lot of fish. Bully for you! You also do it in a way that's pure and utter boredom for a significant number of fly fishermen, and your ability to grasp the fact that many people could give a fig newton about how many fish are caught in a day.

If I wanted to catch fish, I'd dead drift worms or eggs. Its far more effective than nymph fishing. But, I don't care.

Good luck with your big number days, I'm glad you enjoy it. Now, could you have a a steaming mug of shut the hell up?
 
Pcray- That was my point. I do fish dries during hatches, but after that I'm out. Also, I've never really watched an effective midge fisherman. I want big fish and all my big ones come on streamers.
 
Catching trout is not boring. Not catching is boring! The purist think that their method is superior and look down on anyone who does not fish like they do. Anybody who goes flyfishing and says they don't care about catching fish are lying to themselves. Everybody likes to catch fish! I fish drys also but do not restrict myself to that one method. I learned from an old friend that if you want to become a good flyfisherman you must be versatile. Right back at you on the steaming hot mug.
 
I enjoy the banter over methods. There are right ways and wrong ways- the old m r ducks routine.
 
Like I said before if you really want to catch fish you need to learn all methods. And fish the one your not good at so you get better.
 
Make sure you learn something new every time you wet a line and you'll understand there are no purists , there is something new to be had all the time , even if a person got to "Purist" level it wouldn't last longer than probably a week. Are there still members of the Puritan Church around? Do they call themselves Purists? A size 20 foam ant (tie it on an Orvis Big EYE hook)
 
See, my big number days come on top, almost by definition.

I'll agree nymphing is more consistent. If nothings going on, I can very likely pull out a few from underneath.

But in a hatch situation, I get some time to fish the nymphs before it starts, and pull out a few that way. Then they start breaking the surface and I go on top and have a field day, thats when I get the #'s. Then it dies off. The # of fish I catch is strongly related to the duration of the topwater event. My only hope of, say, 15+ fish is a long duration of topwater action. Aside from brookie fishing, all of my big number days were situations where a hatch or spinner fall lasted a long time. I hit 30 fish days frequently with brookies, and sometimes more, and thats usually 95% on dries as well.

But when I'm on the stream, there's a hatch going on a high percentage of the time from say March through September. A hatch isn't a rare situation at all, for me its more common to be fishing in a hatch situation than not. I agree I self select that a bit, but its not hard to do and doesn't take any great effort. You simply think, ok, where locally am I gonna find something happening? And you go there!

In March I'll hit up streams with BWO hatches. Come April I'll switch to streams like Penns and LJR for grannoms, or else early season stockies. In May, everywhere is full of hatches nearly every day all day, you got the March Browns, sulfurs, several varieties of caddis, etc, barring severe weather events you can't find a stream or time where something isn't happening! In June, you got drakes, more sulfur varieties, still some caddis, etc. From July through Sept., I often switch to brookie streams, throwin Adams, stimulators, humpies, wulffs and such. When I do fish bigger waters, its in the morning chasing tricos or the evening skittering caddis for the egg-layers, some terrestrials, and the occasional swarm of something random. After that winds down, the BWO's are once again on.

I mean, really, you can fish every day from mid-March through mid-October and find a local stream where you can rightly expect topwater action. There are times where you're wrong, and yes, I nymph during these times, but they are never my best days.
 
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