what it means to me

jayL

jayL

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Joined
Jan 2, 2007
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I guess I'm turning into a trout bum. When I get frustrated, annoyed, sad, angry, or whatever... I just picture myself on a trout stream. I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I love fishing deeply. I want to be out on a stream every minute of every day.... It's all I can think about sometimes. Being at the jam this weekend made me realize that there are others who share the same passions and that was really neat to experience. I've only met two people before this weekend who felt the same way about it, and one of them sadly passed away a few years ago. I guess I felt like I was kind of a rare breed... but maybe not. It's late and I'm ramblin a bit, but I'm just curious to know what fly fishing and trout streams mean to all of you. Post your feelings about being on the stream here if you want.

I know I'll never put it as poetically as some of our favorite writers, but I kind of wanted to get it out there in my own way.

Lookin at those awesome jam pics got me thinkin I guess. Living in a city is tough for a fly fisherman.
 
Jay,

I hear ya, one of my favorite times during a fishing trip is dipping the thermometer in the water and waiting for the mercury to go down. I look up, absorb what I see and take a deep breath before looking at the thin red line. The aroma of a trout stream is intoxicating.

I enjoyed fishing with you. As you may have picked up, I enjoy sharing my experience with others as much as I enjoy fishing alone....but my side-track on the way home was arguably the best fishing I had all weekend. I had the place to myself and the trouts were cooperative. I went through two crowe beetles on those eager trouts.

Great post. Happy fishing until next time.

Maorice
 
I'm with you jayL. Flyfishing may not be a way of life for me, but it's certainly more than a hobby. Whether with friends or alone, the serenity and rhythms of flyfishing always calm me in a way nothing else can. Over the years I've learned to listen to birds and enjoy the sound of running water. It's so much more than catching fish.
Coughlin
 
Jay,
My thoughts exactly. I have made several significant decisions in my life based on the proximity to trout. (moving back to the burgh not being one of them). I hold my 2.7 collegiate GPA proudly because with my time on the water I could have done a hell of a lot worse. I once even got out of a speeding ticket by giving a statey some flies. I guess he understood what the "hurry" was. For me the magic is in the waiting for the hatch. The last night we were all down on Pine there was nothing doing. We were sitting above the water waiting. The trout were a few feet below us also waiting. At first you see a few flies. Maybe one of the younger fish taks a bug out of anticipation. Maybe I make a blind cast also out of anticipation. After a little while a few bugs turns into a full blown hatch and the fish go ape if we are all lucky. There is an electricity in the air and the water swirling around my legs feels alive. After living through a long winter it is nice to see that nature remembers her annual rythems. Just being on the water during a good hatch is a magical experiance. The world would be a kinder place if more people got to witness it.

"The eagle looked down on the canyon below
wrapped his wings around him and fell like a stone
and the big salmon fought but the talons held true
and shuddered as the world turned from silver to blue

Me and the eagle are of the same mind"

-Steve Earl
 
Well said guys, my thoughts exactly.

Maurice, I didn't get to make any stops on the way home since it was torrential downpours... When I got back to the city, there was actually a bullfrog hopping through the flooded streets! It was good fishing with you too, man. Thanks for the all the advice, I definitely have alot to learn yet.

Oh, and to the GPA point.... I'm in the exact same boat, as the person who goes to a jam the weekend before finals! Oh well, I'll be fine.
 
there are moments in life to live for and fishing provides a path to live in those moments. Catching a wild trout on a dry seeing a bear............ These are exciting moments and we need to have this things happen to make life worth living. In my younger days it was rock climbing that provided the moment. Now its skiing and Fishing. Dry fly fishing and skiing through the trees. Thankfully they both occur in places I love to be and very oftern you can do both in the same day.

Just keep your skis on the same side of the tree and your fly in the water and everything isw gonna be alright
 
Flyfishing represents freedom to me; it is easy to become so involved that lifes cares, unpaid bills, jobs, etc. cease to exist for a time. The sound of the water is soothing to the soul, and the places trout like to live, are often places we would all like to dwell. Had to laugh when I read Brunos post, cause a few years ago my family took a vacation to Littleton CO. Flyfished the South Platte one day, skiied the next. This pattern held for a week, and it was one of my best vacations ever! The family went to Easter sunrise service at Red Rocks, I worshipped (fished) Elevenmile Canyon. I've missed the best hatches this year due to a torn Achilles, but my cast is coming off tomorrow, so rehab will start. When I am able to stand in the stream again, you can bet I will take time to appreciate the entire experience! Tight lines to all.
 
I know that flyfishing has largely shaped who I am now, and I know it will dictate a signifigant portion of my life from this point on. I remember first starting out, I was borowing friends equipement, went maybe once a month, and never caught anything. Then you catch one, then more, and now I go 4-5 times a week while working a 50+ hour a week job. Next year I will be living in Centre county, where intend to become a full fledged trout bum. When I start using the stuff in the lint filter for dubbing, then I'll know I've crossed that invisible line between a passionate hobby and a lifestyle.

It's just an appreciation for nature, and realizing that we loose part of what makes us human in the modern world. I'm an avid hiker, mountian biker, and rock climber, and I take much the same fulfillment out of those activities as I do fishing.

I always find it hard to go back to work in the corporate life after a weekend devoted to fishing. Going back to an environment where what heppened last night on Grey's Anatomy is the focal point of all conversations, always leaves me questioning how people can live such dull, pre-packaged lives. I see these people, and while I would consider some of them my friends, I pity them in a way. Most of them have never expirienced the smell of a stream at 7 am, or seen a Black Bear, as Bruno pointed out. Instead that expirience the smell of the leather inside a Lexus, and see animals at the zoo. I feel like they have lost something which makes them human, and each day they spend working jobs they hate so they can buy stuff they don't need (okay, I stole that line from Fight Club), they dig themselves deeper and deeper into the vapid and superficial corporate lifestyle.

Obviously I am not going to work in a job like this again, and I am sorry if I offended anyone who works in one of these places. However, if you are on this board, reading this thread, you most likely empithize with me.
 
I heard some supposedly very intelligent person on the radio say that "The universe doesn't owe us meaning."

Errr, OK. So I'm not sure what flyfishing means. But I do know that when I was quite young I began walking for long distances along streams, for no practical purpose, and this was even before I began fishing. It wasn't the fish that came first, it was an attraction to streams. So what does that mean? I'm certain that if something happened so that I was unable to cast, but was still able to walk, I would still walk along streams. So what does that mean? Some psychologist out there might have a field day with this. If it's really embarrassing better PM me. :)

Or maybe it's just that streams and their surroundings are the most beautiful part of the landscape.

"The stream of the mountain pleases me more than the sea." Jose' Marti
 
You guys got it right. Good fishing to all of you, that's for sure.

I guess I was posting this thread while kinda trying to remember what I was thinking in that pic from the jam... The one where I'm just standing there... gazing at the water.... watching for a flash or a swirl. I've only been at this a few years, but I've been in such a state of Nirvana many times. My avatar, for example. Standing on that waterfall makes you feel profound, like you're part of the universe instead of some outside body trying to figure out how it all works. I'm a physics and astrology fan, but for some reason... when I'm fishing, all of those "I wonder" thoughts seem to disappear. It's like I'm contented with the world and ask no questions of it. When my fishing friend died, the only times I don't have questions about "why?" is when I'm fishing.... I just live for the moment and wish he were there teaching me.

That mindset lives in moments like these
http://tinyurl.com/2pza2p
http://tinyurl.com/37cyah

And of course the fish mean alot to me too. I mean, they are as beautiful as the surroundings....
http://tinyurl.com/33raqd

One week of finals and I'll be on the caddis at the tully :-D. Feel free to drop me a PM and join me.
 
Ahhh... This hit me well. Like minded folks that have experienced the "real" world or are just beginning. When nature calls to you... you understand. Naturally everything just makes sense and everything feels right. All I need is a reason to be outside and life takes full shape. Fishing, Hunting, hiking, gardening, sitting by the river out back... it all makes sense there... much much more than the humanly manipulted world our species makes it out to be. The Amish lifestyle makes me jealous even though I make a living in the semi corporate world. I escaped the city life trap in my college days and went home to good Ol PSU where I felt much more comfortable and in great mind from there on out. I finally got out "in the field" as much as I wanted too. No better place to be than Central PA and endless wild places. I've always followed my heart and the outdoors is where It's taken me. Such a great way to spend a lifetime and I finally found a lady who understands and shares the same love...priceless. I don't know how I could be any luckier to be here today. The wild brookies have been off my radar this year.. until this week. Next Tuesday (our one year anniversary) I'm off and spending the day in the mountains... then I'll catch a ball game in the evening with the fiance... Does it get any better?? Saltwater fishing on our honeymoon to boot! Life is great... but I still have a lot to experience. Without my pap, none of this would have been possible. Thanks and love... from the age of 4.. Pap! I owe you the world and am working on passing it on as much as I can. Live the life guys... just figure it out as you go and all will be well.
 
Dear Jay,

I'm not making this post to demean you or insult you in any way, and that goes for the rest of you too. I'm glad you have found something to be passionate about, it bodes well for an old fart like me that younger people are talking things seriously. Thanks to people like you folks I will have something to look forward to as I get older and fartier, though I don't really think I could get fartier! :lol:

But I do have to ask, Isn't anyone just a "fisherman" anymore? What happened to "all around" skills?

I grew up outside of Philadelphia, close outside, and learned to catch everything and anything by any means possible but legal. Freshwater, brackish water, salt water, it didn't matter. If it lived most of it's life wet I found a way to catch it.

As I got older I found myself gravitating to fly fishing, not out of any romantic notion of it's virtue but more because I found I enjoyed it more than any other type of fishing.

I'm not sure why I am posting this other than to say and/or ask if some of you know about making doughballs or stinkbaits, or drifting killies for flounder, or chumming with shedder crabs for weakies, or gigging frogs, or even catching tadpoles or crayfish?

Again, this isn't meant as a slam or a criticism. I just hope that there are other young people who may not have the means to pursue trout who feel just as passionately about the fish and other waterborne creatures that they can pursue as you all do.

Regards,
Tim Murphy :-D
 
Don't worry about that!

I'm currently planning to go carp fishing in the schuylkill at kelly drive this sunday. I'm guessing doughballs are on the menu. I can make a mean doughball with red 7up and quaker oat meal.

I grew up tossing cheerios on hooks to bluegills and eventually graduated to throwing corn to trout. I did this until I was probably 15 years old exclusively. I eventually discovered fly fishing, and it's how I'd like to fish most often. I also find that fly fishing takes me to the beautiful kind of places that I don't get to on farm ponds or muddy rivers.

A little more history on my fishing experience:

The largest fish I ever caught was a Mako on conventional. The largest fish in fresh water was a striper caught on livelined threadfin shad. I caught my first "big" fish while catfishing with shrimp in dallas texas with my grandfather. I'm also an avid ocean fisherman, plugging with my abu garcia 5000 for spanish macks being my favorite (OBX is one of those places that you can really groove to, but its no trout stream to me)



That type of fishing has it's time and place for me, but when I need to escape from the day to day life, I toss feathers to willing trout.

I live in west philly, the heart of west philly, for college right now. I'm not a trout snob, I promise. I love to fish for anything that swims, but again... the true beauty in the world and it's fishing opportunites comes to me in fly fishing a trout stream.
 
Tim,

I have fished nearly all my life (27 years) I took up fly fishing two years ago. Before fly fishing I fished for literally everything: saltwater, bass, lake, river, panfish. The "fishing" part got old to me, I needed to find something new which is why I started fly fishing. It's not that I need to catch something anymore it's that I want to catch a fish by other means. I have only been fly fishing for two years and I have only been fly fishing for trout. This summer that is about to change, I plan on fishing the Susky and the Juniata for bass. I really can't explain why I love to fly fish. If you read one of my previous posts, it will explain it partly.
 
Also, one major point, Tim.

I am yet to master fly casting while holding a beer. When that day comes, I might sell the conventional gear! :p

It's a shame you're not still in philly. You'd be welcome to come to kelly or FDR to catch em with us college kids to prove that we still do it. I hear there's still snakeheads down there in FDR!
 
Dear Jay,

The last time I was in FDR Park I scored a free dime bag by betting a dude I could catch two fish on one cast. I caught a credit card sized crappie and slightly stouter bluegill on two little hare's ear nymphs.

I never told the brother I had two flies on, I just made the bet. That's to win a bet, never give up the good stuff! He paid too, and our company picnic was all the more better for it. Some seeds and stems, but hell it was free. That was in 1989.

I wouldn't go to FDR Park today on a dare unless it was a really big dare, and I'd need more than a dime bag as an incentive.

You seem like a really nice kid, I'd like to apologize for peeing in Hay Creek and all over Birdsboro back in the day.

If somebody could show me a bay that held flounder 12 months out of the year I'd be on that place like stink on sh*t. When I lived in Florida I actually taught people that flounder could be caught on a rod and reel, they didn't have shine a light on them at night and gig them.

I've only ever caught one flounder on a fly rod and that was back in 1990 down in a back bay outside of Stone Harbor, NJ on a chartruese and yellow Clouser and a full sinking line. I caught it as we were drifting in to shore to buy more beer!

Take care dude.

Regards,
Tim Murphy :)
 
Jay and Tim,

It sounds like we have a whole lot in common. Cept you guys are from the wrong side of the state. And I never touch the herb. Stunts your growth.
 
My teen years were in the sixties and seventies, and I grew up on a farm in Chester Co. so you can do the math on the weed thing. I love all forms of fishing; since I've been laid up, I've been tying up flourocarbon fluke rigs. Don't forget that squid strip with your Kili! I'm sure I'll be doing some drift fishing before I can really wade strongly. I'm an ice fishing addict, as well, and I used to fish for carp below the power plant out side of Phoenixville, in the late winter. There are many forms of fishing I enjoy, but flyfishing is still my favorite. Grouse hunting is another sport I'm passionate about; just wish I lived in a better area. Fortunately in this society, we are not restricted to one love when it cimes to sports. Women are another story. LOL. Just another old fart checking in.
 
The Dude,
I work at a job that I hate so I can afford to be a bum :lol:

I used to write the same things....never matriculate...never give in to the corporate way.....Thoreau was right. Now that I am teetering on the edge of 30 some of those previous notions occasionally seem childish. Thats when I call in sick to work and go fishing on a wednesday. Hell all of that existential crap may be all wet but you got to believe in something.
 
Thanks for the compliments and stories Tim.

As for peeing in birdsboro... I might be guilty of that one too. And as a matter of fact, I'd feel safer in FDR than I do in downtown birdsboro now. That's no lie.

As for flounder, I've always liked to catch them in the last second to last row of breakers at the outer banks...Right off Avon Pier. Just let the wave jig the bucktail for you, and watch a fish come from nowhere in gin clear water to suck it in. That's neat.
 
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