I once knew a young man who took up fly fishing to impress a girl he was dating and eventually grew so fired up about it, he fished all the time.
Then he started writing stories about it. I think he turned out okay, but, ooh-la-la… if I could go back in time and tell him a few things I know now, here’s what I’d have to say:
First, I’d tell him to do it all. Fish it all.
Go well beyond trout, because the truth is, the more you fly-fish for species other than trout, the better you get at (and the more you appreciate) trout fishing.
I didn’t learn to make longer, more accurate casts on any river. That came from banging flies into pockets among mangrove roots, looking for snook in the Everglades in Florida. If you want to get better at sight fishing and sneaking up on smart fish, swallow your pride, don’t be a snob, and take up carp fishing. You’ll find no greater adversary for the fly-rodder than a common carp, and that includes, permit, steelhead, muskies or any other fish.
Second, I’d say there won’t be a fly rod introduced in his lifetime that will improve his cast better than a new fly line and some regular practice will.
Nothing wrong with buying that shiny new rod once in a while, but when it comes down to brass tacks, that line you have on your rod factors about five times more when it comes to casting performance than the rod itself does, and lines usually cost at least five times less than fancy new rods do. Of course, your technique is the most important factor of all, and nothing improves technique better than practice. The neighbors will think you’re silly when they see you casting at hula hoops in the yard, and someone will inevitably snicker “what are they biting on?” (Ha, ha… such an original joke), but you’ll have the last laugh when you get on the water.
Along those same lines, I’d tell him that time on water equals fish.
Denny Breer told me that and I never forgot it. There is no substitute for actually being out on the water and learning by trial and error.
No books or magazine stories can teach you like experience, though, admittedly, some books and magazines are definitely better than others 😉 … No videos, no social media posts, nothing beats been there done that. And part of the learning curve is failure. You don’t have to win every time you’re out. In fact, if you learn a few things, even without catching any fish, you win.
To take that a step further, I’d say that the number of fish you’re able to catch in a given day is one of the most irrelevant measures of an angler’s true prowess.
Sure, we all like to get on a roll, and if you figure out the magic secret for the day, good for you. Luck still has a lot to do with that. Show me a person who uses the same technique to haul in oodles of fish, and I’ll say they figured out the production line and were in the right place at the right time.
Show me someone who can fool fish three, four or five different ways with different flies and techniques in the same day, and I’ll say that’s a truly gifted angler who knows how to observe what’s going on. Show me someone who catches some with mixed approaches and then takes her or his foot off the gas and gives the fish a break, knowing full well they could catch more but they opt out by choice … and there’s the true master of the sport.
Lastly, I’d say there’s a lot worth fighting for and almost nothing worth fighting over.
Clean water… public access… respect for the fish themselves, tradition, community, legacy… yeah, those are things worth sticking up for and being heard. The next run in the river is not worth the battle. At the end of the day, a little respect can go a long way.
Oh… and I’d tell him to marry the girlfriend, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to figure these things out, in time anyway.