Green Weenie

[jayL]

I am the exact opposite. During a major hatch, I usually lose count of fish caught subsurface. When I am forced to switch to dries, my catch rate goes down.

 

[jdaddy]

gfen,

Catching trout is not boring. Not catching is boring! Anybody who goes flyfishing and says they don't care about catching huge numbers of fish are lying to themselves. Everybody likes to catch huge numbers of fish! Catching is the important thing. That's why they call it catching. If the other stuff was fun they would call it fishing.

/thread

 

[WildTigerTrout]

Going fishing and not catching anything is boring no matter how much you enjoy the outdoors. Nobody likes to get skunked. How many here like to go fishing and get skunked?

 

[bam]

Maybe it's because I don't chase hatches, but I'm lucky to see topwater action 10% of the time. My biggest number days come nymphing or fishing wets before and during a hatch. At the same time, I'm reluctant to switch... I'm a lot more confident in my abilities to catch fish subsurface. Spinner falls are fun though. I got into a few of them last year in central PA. Your only limit to catching fish is keeping your rig tangle free and on the water at dusk.

 

[pcray1231]

What time of day do you fish?

I fish mostly evenings, as a result of working during the day. Most local trips I could get to the stream by 7 or so, and fish till dark.

On weekends, if I stayed local, I hit up brookie streams. Other times I'd head to central PA to see my wife, and often wanted to get on brookie streams AND bigger streams. So I'd fish the bigger waters morning and evening, when they're best, and the brookie streams during the heat of the day cause time doesn't matter as much, and I'd rather be in the forest than the sun.

Hence, I end up on the big streams which see hatches at the appropriate times.

Part of it is likely just the streams you fish too. Maybe don't have as many hatches in that area of the state. Though my central PA fishing is going to take a nose dive this year anyway, wife no longer in State College, so I'll be trekking SE PA on weekends more, maybe things are gonna change a bit.

 

[gfen]

WildTigerTrout wrote:
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 regret stinking up another thread with this same stupidity.

Which is why I'm done with it, you may feel free to have the last word.

However, I want to point something important out: You missed the whole point, again.

"The purist think that their method is superior and look down on anyone who does not fish like they do."

No, actually, they don't. You think they do, and you're desperate to make everyone else think so, but yet every time I run into a "purist," they simply say that they have more fun on top than on bottom.

I know, I know, its hard for you to grasp...

"Anybody who goes flyfishing and says they don't care about catching fish are lying to themselves."

You think? Again, if catching was the sole purpose, I'd just dead drift actual food on the line and catch 20x the guy who chooses artificials.

"Everybody likes to catch fish!"

Sure, but not everybody uses it as a fun gauge. If I had to fish to eat, maybe I'd care a bit more, but fortunatly I fish to decompress, forget the hassles, and relax. You do realize that's why alot of guys do that, right? Relaxation.

" Right back at you on the steaming hot mug."

You might want to take a sip of yours and contemplate it before you fire off a last word sort of post.

Carry on.

 

[gfen]

Actually, I can't. Because as several members will gladly point out, I'm long winded and the like.

Y'know, on purism, its funny.. Original fly fishing wasn't dry flies. It was subsurface. The type of fly is certainly debatable, but it surely wasn't on the surface very long.

Natives from around the world probably figured out "fly fishing" long before there was written history. Take your bone hook, wrap some long feathers around it, and drop it in the water. What is it? A streamer? A wet fly? A plume (another name for early streamers). Doesn't matter. Its a vibrant, "living" creature underwater that fish will consider food. It looks alive, it moves around, it must be edible because rocks and leaves don't do that,

So, if I were a "purist," I'd be fishing streamers, eh? No, I'm a refined purist? Must be wet flies, when random feathers on hooks became codified, and I started to create actual patterns, right? This is clearly a definable period of fly fishing, because the earliest examples, written or otherwise, all seem to revolve around wet flies. Sure, I'm using a 20' greenheart stick to dap them to the water, but no matter how much animal fat I've slicked to them and the braided horsehair line, they're still goin' down.

No? So, "purism" doesn't start 'til the early 20th century with Frederic Halford? How can that be pure, its been tainted by guys who insist we have to float these little fly analogues on the surface, centuries after the first person tied a couple of song bird feathers to a bone hook and dragged it through the current.

Your argument is stupid.

 

[Acristickid]

J-

April really? Not May? Humm.

Let's see what we got in April- bwo's maybe, hendricksons,blue quill, quill gordon, grannoms, craneflies, an early sulpher.

Maybe the fish aren't as beat and the water is a little higher and stained plus less anglers.

Okay, maybe.

 

[jayL]

acristickid wrote:
J-

April really? Not May? Humm.

Let's see what we got in April- bwo's maybe, hendricksons,blue quill, quill gordon, grannoms, craneflies, an early sulpher.

Maybe the fish aren't as beat and the water is a little higher and stained plus less anglers.

Okay, maybe.

The fishing in may is entirely too good to muck around with nonsensical purism. I refuse to deny myself the chance to hammer fish all day nymphing the sulphur hatch. I also basically fish every waking non-work moment in may. I'd get bored of floaters.

 

[pete41]

Nobody likes to get skunked. How many here like to go fishing and get skunked?/quote
Only the pure of heart-
thought we defined purists as though who use any method as an excuse instead of saying"
"I got skunked"
zilch
zero
nada

 

[JackM]

I never go home skunked without trying at least one decent junk fly, or a nymph or streamer.

Also, I am very disappointed if I go fishing and there is no hatch activity. If I can simulate a hatch or catch fish that don't know there aren't supposed to be insects available on the surface or in the film, then I will try that before resorting to other fly and non-fly imitations, artificial baits, or what have you.

This stuff about "purists" is absurd as gfen points out. It is all about what your goals are. I once used the analogy of bouncing a ball against a wall. As kids, we could do this for hours. We took an action and got an expected result. Whoopee! We are still doing it. Some of us take a different action for a different expected result than others.

 

[troutslammer]

jay how dare you go out to pound fish. You are supposed to go and sit on the bank for a few hrs take in the scenery , enjoy the fresh air , swap patterns with the local yocals . You are missing the point about fly fishing ...........lol i do like your style jay

 

[jayL]

I like a mix of everything. Just no competition with anyone else. I fish to escape competition.

 

[dbudday]

I have to throw in here...

I started fly fishing a few years ago and I quickly got into tying most of my own flies. I like the challenge of tying patterns to imitate hatches...I've gotten pretty good at it and I think it's a lot of fun.

I also got to be pretty good at fishing drys...I can hold my own with just about anyone I fish with and I think I fish dry flies about as well as anyone else. I have a tremendous amount of fun when trying to match hatches and get a fish on a fly that I actually tied myself...it's a great rush. Some of my favorite days fishing were days that I didn't land any fish.

But there are days that I want to catch fish...on a fly rod...and I don't care if I have to use drys, wets, streamers or the lint out of my jacket pocket. There's days I'll throw everything in my vest, wink at them, blow kisses, promise them dinner at the Outback, whatever it takes....if I have to be a dirty nympher to catch fish that day, then I'm going to be a dirty nympher. My point is, I like the feeling of fighting and landing a trout...handling it to take the hook out...admiring it...then turning it loose again. Some days I want the challenge of catching one on a dry or a particular hatch...other days I just want to relax and fight fish.

As far as outsmarting a fish... I have a couple of degrees, I dress myself, cook my own food, drive a car, use a computer... I never felt the need to "outsmart" a trout... I'm already smarter than they are because I don't have sharp objects hanging in my lips...

I wish I could say that all of the kids I teach were smarter than trout.... jeesh!

Dan

 

[SBecker]

dbudday wrote:
I have to throw in here...

if I have to be a dirty nympher to catch fish that day, then I'm going to be a dirty nympher.

Dan

There is no such thing as a dirty nympher, only dirty pinner.