My heart just isn’t in it anymore...

DaveS

DaveS

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Feb 18, 2010
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I was out enjoying a beautiful day this weekend with some friends. When the much anticipated bugs showed up, the fish were uninspired.
After getting one small fish on a dry, it was obvious i’d have to go down after them.

I re rigged with some appropriate flies, split shot etc. and started nymphing a spot I know from past experience holds plenty of fish.

Ten minutes later i’d Had enough.
I be flyfished a long time. I think I’ve gotten a lot of fish nymphing over the years.
It’s just not that fun anymore.

I can fuss and fool around in all kinds of cold uncomfortable weather with rising fish. But if I have to nymph...

I stretched out on a log and just listened to the river gliding by.

Maybe I’m getting old or something.
 
Must have the same malady I caught long ago.
Just can't seem to shake it - almost 40 years later now!
 
DaveS wrote:
I was out enjoying a beautiful day this weekend with some friends. When the much anticipated bugs showed up, the fish were uninspired.
After getting one small fish on a dry, it was obvious i’d have to go down after them.

I re rigged with some appropriate flies, split shot etc. and started nymphing a spot I know from past experience holds plenty of fish.

Ten minutes later i’d Had enough.
I be flyfished a long time. I think I’ve gotten a lot of fish nymphing over the years.
It’s just not that fun anymore.

I can fuss and fool around in all kinds of cold uncomfortable weather with rising fish. But if I have to nymph...

I stretched out on a log and just listened to the river gliding by.

Maybe I’m getting old or something.
Click to expand...


I have days where I only want to fish dries and nothing else. I enjoy nymphing at times, but long for dry fly fishing. I often choose to fish places where I believe there will be hatches and rising fish, but if not I nymph and bide my time.

There's nothing wrong at all with sitting on a log and enjoying the sun and the water rushing by. Back in the day, that was what all the old time FFers did, sit on the bank waiting for the hatch and risers.

The hatches will be here soon.

The grannoms and henricksons will get you off the fricking log.... :lol:
 
I hear you DaveS. March is a tough month in many ways. I like to think about the sulphur hatches that will be starting in six weeks on warm evenings.
 
You're not alone. Maybe I'm a "romantic fly fisherman" but I like to actually cast my line. Flipping multi fly nymphs 10-15 feet upstream doesn't satisfy my romanticism.
 
If your heart isn't in it than you shouldn't do it .........maybe you will get the interest back with some time away. In the mean time, if you still like the dry fly then do it!

I just got into the fly fishing last year, and love so many other types of fishing too much to be one dimensional..........right now the trout and bass and the salty ones are all whispering to me.

I went out with the spinning rod this morning and threw a Rapala a little bit instead of nymphs because of the wind. Went to a second spot and decided to pick up some trash and dispose of it properly instead. The rest of my trout season this year will be fly fishing.

Did I mention I hate Palaminos! :evil:

Good Luck! :)
 
DaveS wrote:
I was out enjoying a beautiful day this weekend with some friends. When the much anticipated bugs showed up, the fish were uninspired.
After getting one small fish on a dry, it was obvious i’d have to go down after them.

I re rigged with some appropriate flies, split shot etc. and started nymphing a spot I know from past experience holds plenty of fish.

Ten minutes later i’d Had enough.
I be flyfished a long time. I think I’ve gotten a lot of fish nymphing over the years.
It’s just not that fun anymore.

I can fuss and fool around in all kinds of cold uncomfortable weather with rising fish. But if I have to nymph...

I stretched out on a log and just listened to the river gliding by.

Maybe I’m getting old or something.
Click to expand...

I'm jealous. What you said above sounds so much better than my weekend. Most of it was spent sitting in front of the TV coughing my lungs out while waiting for the the rain to quit, whichinstead turned to snow.

I never was much for trout fishing in March. I'm used to Freestone and they just don't produce well on flies until later. At least not for me. But Thursday and Friday were nice enough that I was considering hitting one of my ponds for perch and having a fish fry. But alas, I didn't.

Maybe next weekend. Then again, I might just hit the Linesville hatchery open house which is this Saturday. link. The panfish they fry up at this open house is quite good.
 
Feelings like that come and go I think. It will probably pass.

I learned FFing in 2010/2011. From then until about 2015, I pretty much only fly fished. Some time in 2015 I kind of got burned out FFing and had a strong desire to spin fish again…So I did. I mostly FF now, but when I have the desire to spin fish for a day, or a couple days, I do. And I enjoy it. And I enjoy the days I FF more because now there’s days I really want to FF, and not spin fish.

Two Falls ago, 2017, I didn’t fish much at all. Combination of factors, but mostly I just didn’t feel like it. Sitting around watching football on the weekends sounded better than fishing so that’s what I did. Normally I’d much rather fish…I don’t know what was up. By Spring 2018, I was ravenous to fish though.

Again, it’ll probably pass. If it doesn't, try spin fishing. :p
 
I hope that's an April Fool's joke.
 
I'm guilty of this too...I have boxes of nymphs but really hate fishing them even though I know how effective they are. There are days when I could catch more fish nymphing, but anymore it's dries or die for trout unless I'm bassing with streamers.
 
We all have our favored ways of fishing. I'm hardly a dry fly purist (I fish mostly wets) but I find nymph fishing to be boring to the point where I don't enjoy it and don't even carry a nymph box with me any more. If I need to go deep, I'll switch to a streamer.

A lot of other people enjoy nymph fishing, and more power to them. If you're not one of them, there's not a thing wrong with just watching the river flow. You're not getting old; you've just finally figured out what you like.

As Leisenring said. "We fish for pleasure, I for mine and you for yours."
 
I have a really nice box of nymphs. I do what I can to avoid using them. This year my plan is dries or swinging wets which I still need to learn more about. I did do 3 seasons of "dry or die". Watched friends catch more fish than me. Didn't bother me a bit. I spent more minutes looking at the scenery and appreciating the time outside.
 
I wish I had a Trout Stream less than a 10 hour drive from me. GG
 
I feel your pain. Amen.
 
Dave,

I'm hoping your post was a joke. If not, looks like I'll have to rig one less tangler rig and add 12 beers to the cooler.
 
No joke Andy. I’ll happily row the boat waiting for the next pod of risers. You can nymph em up.

Last Spring I found myself catching a few on dries, then I’d just sit and watch the fish feed. Enjoing the risforms. It was unhurried. Dress up the fly, take a sip, put in a chew. Pick out a good fish, or maybe one that looked like a challenging lie.
I have really come to love the rise of the shy spotted trout.

I won’t give away all my nymph boxes yet. Just in case.

But I damn sure ain’t gonna start spin fishing for trout... that musta been a joke.
 
Dave S. et. al.,

Geez. I thought I was the only one who sometimes gets tired of nymphing, even though it is often deadly. Like some of the others, I eagerly anticipate fishing on top, esp. to hatches, though fishing the water is lots of fun, too.

Having written this, I admit that I nymph fish about 70% of the time.

Right now, I am just looking forward to getting back on the water.
 
perfectly understandable.

i am a wet fly angler. i will use a dry sometimes,if i have to,but,nymphs don't even make it into my fly boxes anymore.
 
On the other hand - I met a fellow on spring creek a few weeks ago, who was actually PO'd because the fish started rising so well, that they didn't want his nymphs anymore!
 
I'll be honest that there are days when I just want to sit along the bank of the stream versus throwing 16 split shots, weighted bugs and yarn indicators. If the fish start rising then that gets me excited to fish.

Ron
 
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