What Keeps You Tying/Fly Fishing?

[Wabusk 0]

Everyone has those days...where we ask ourselves just what the hell we are doing getting out of bed in the wee hours of the morning just to make it to the river and fish for hours without a tug, maybe a car door slams on a favourite fly rod or we even fall in the creek. We will risk frost bitten finger tips chasing winter steelhead and sun stoke stripping flies for bass in the summer but what always keeps me coming back is the memories ive gained from a few select outings where everything has seemed to come together.

 

I invite you all to share a favourite fish story which explains why we all do what we do...

 

Im sure like the rest of you, you have quite a few but for me one instance sticks out when I was fishing my favourite tailwater by myself on a warm June day. I had caught a few smaller browns while nymphing searching patterns but by mid morning fish were clearly rising to the caddis flies emerging from the waters surface.

 

I began casting my Elk hair caddis to the various splashing rises throughout the pool when i noticed a snout penetrate the surface and engulf an unseen insect without so much as a dimple in the water. I positioned myself for what i believed to be a good sized brown and after a faulty start, I was able to drift my little dry over the fishes last seen rise and.....nothing. I began to blame myself for spooking the fish but after a minute or so the same tell tale snout rose a yard or so from the last rise. I drifted my elk hair perfectly over his location and again...nothing.

 

A quick pattern change to a green klinkhammer with shaky hands took longer than expected but soon after I was false casting and was able to lay my fly down a few yards above the last rise. Just as I began to worry my fly was going to pick up some drag, like a scene out of "A River Runs Through It" that same snout like rise plucked my fly off the waters surface. Despite my heart beating in my throat I set the hook and connected with the fish and felt the weight of the fish head downstream.

 

After a careful fight and some great runs from the fish I was able to slip my net around the fish and admire my prize...a beautiful 22inch Brown. Luckily, another angler saw what was happening and offered to snap a few quick photos for me before I released the fish back to its lair.

 

While I had caught larger trout nymphing or streamer fishing this fish was my first 20 inch plus fish on a dry fly and the amount of effort and the reward that followed make it one of my best flyfishing memories.

 

 

[JohnP 0]

Great story. Who's next?

[MWl 0]

Simple reasons for me, I love to, I love to cast, I love to tie flies, but most of all I LOVE the outdoors. From the trout stream to the flats. Speaking of flats two time I will always remember.

My first Tarpon of whic I became addicted. My all time favorite stories. I was fishing with my long time guide "Rick Miller" of Islamarada. We were staked out just out side avery long dock. I hooked about a 90lb. Tarpon who proceeded to scream away maybe a 100 yds. straight out. Then my line went slack. I thought for sure I lost him. Then Rick said look at your line it's moving. Just then the fish sailed into the air right next to us, he was coming straight back to us. And the you may have guessed what happened next. My fish went under and thru the dock we where in front of. Rick pulled the stake while I frantically took the tension of my drag. Rick pushed us up to the dock and said I think we can make it under. He pushed the boat me laying on the floor watching my line peel away. When we where almost thru our motor got stuck on the bottom of the dock. Rick layed down and pushed it was just enough to get us out. He then jumped back on the pole. I stood up and started winding. I caught up with the fish adjusted my drag and we were on again. 10 mins or so later we landed that fish! Now if that isn't exciting I don't know what is. Well it's not always as crazy as that. But the real part for me is. Every time I go fishing I see something I had not seen before.

I learn something I did not know before. So really everytime I go fishing it is a new experience.

Like my Dad always said. It's not about how many fish you caught today. It's about how you caught them, what you learned and who you shared your day with.

 

MWL

[ThaSandman 0]

As I was getting myself back into tying my own flies, a friend and I hit a local lake that neither of us was very familiar with. I threw on a olive woolly bugger (nothing fancy I know), and started to slay them. I pulled in three species that day - bows, cutties, and smallmouth (the only species in that lake), and my buddy only caught a couple of rainbows. I reached the daily limit, and then far exceeded it, all on one fly that I had tied.

 

It was the first time I had limited out on a fly that I tied, and it was retired to the beak of my hat where it remains to this day. The hat site next to the tying bench, and I often look over and reminisce of that day fooling fish after fish with a tiny little woolly bugger that was just miscellaneous materials a couple of days before. The chance of acquiring more memories like that are what keep me tying.

 

[TheCream 0]

For me it's all about the unknown for both tying and fishing. With regards to tying, it's answering questions about the work I have done. Which of these flies is going to fool the best fish I catch this year? Which of these topwaters is going to provoke the most vicious strike I have seen? Which new pattern is going to tear the fish up, and which one will I see not produce like I hoped/envisioned? Which one will I wrap around a tree branch 10' above the water on the first cast? When I head out on the water, it's still the unknown that drives me. I'll be in my kayak and wonder what's around the next bend? Maybe I'll find a hot new spot on a lake? If I'm in the mountains in WV chasing wild stream trout, some of the streams will look near dry at the bottom where I start hiking in. Will there be enough water farther up to hold fish? Will there be fish up there? What strange things and wildlife will I come across? I'm driven by the unknown.

[Hillbillyredear 0]

I mainly fish for the bite. I love to feel that tug on the line.

Several years ago I would have never even thought of tying my own flies let alone fly fishing. It just looked way too hard for me. Then a friend of mine got me a flyrod for Christmas, next thing I knew I had a bunch of tools for tying flies.

Another friend taught me to cast a flyrod and it was easier than I had thought so I was hooked.

Now I get not only the thrill of the bite but also the thrill of tying and creating my own lures and flies and the excitement of fish actually biting on them.

I love the outdoors always have since I was a child. The older I get the more I love the outdoors. I love most of all sharing that time on the water with friends and my kids.

[NJ All Day 0]

We'll lets see... A couple years back when i just started tying flies, it was fun, but then i started to fall in and out of it, i told my mom, " Mom im thinking about not tying flies anymore" She asked me why? I didnt really have a good reason to stop, so my mom told me to just keep with it and things will be easier and more fun. Well my oldest sister was in the room with me and she said its awesome that i tie my own flies and she loves that i do something not a lot of people do. There's one reason. The next is that when i was 15 i was catching fish on my own tied flies. My cousin(i somewhat look up to him) who was about 21 also loved fishing and hunting, and we would always go whenever they came to visit. I remember hooking into a 3 pound bass on an own tied woolly bugger. He took a picture on his phone, then he was showing all his friends that also fish and hunt the fish i caught they were all amazed that i tied my own fly and was catching fish. He then told them "and he's only 15!!!!!" that just made me feel so proud that i stuck with it.

 

The reason i keep fishing is someones gotta feed the trees with flies... No i was at a stream fishing for trout, along side the stream is a trail for hikers to walk, well one day i pulled a very beautiful 8" brookie out of a pool, when a mother and father with their 5 year old child was walking by and they stopped and i showed the little kid the fish and he was so amazed that i caught it on a small fly, and the best part of my fly fishing career was they were walking away i heard the kid say "daddy I wanna go fly fishing". I've had numerous accounts like that so thats what keeps me fishing. Plus i love seeing the sights and hearing the noises on a wild trout stream, and the fight a nice little brown, or brookie on my 3 wt.

[Wabusk 0]

Great stories so far...

 

The Cream - I totally relate to the call of the unknown. It seems that just about every time I'm on the stream I end up walking much further chasing that...whats around the next bend curiosity.

 

NJ All Day - Tying at 15 is awesome. I was 13 when I became engulfed by the sport and although my life has gone through countless unexpected changes I seem to always come back to tying. I have had periods of a year or two where I havent tied a single fly but then the year following Ill crank out thousands. Stick with it...this sport/hobby/lifestyle whatever is really something special.

 

 

[Mr. Vegas 0]

I really have no story to boast about but I tie because it keeps me sane!

[Steeldrifter 0]

I tie and fly fish for many reason rather than just one reason in particular. I enjoy fly fishing because I enjoy the outdoors and I love rivers. The one thing I love about a river is that they are timelss. When your all alone in the bend of a river and the suns beating down and there's a hatch coming off and trout are rising then that is a timeless experience. Because if you stop and think about it...that's exactly how it looked back 50-100 years ago. The water still flows downstream, the trees from 100 yrs ago may have fallen but there's new ones to take their place, the trout from 100 yrs ago are long dead, but there's new trout to take their place. If you take a picture of a spot on a river and make the photo black and white then compare it to the same spot in the river from a photo from the 1940's then you would be hard pressed to be able to tell much of a difference. Thats what I love about fly fishing on rivers.

 

Tying to me is enjoyable because it;s just one of those things that "go along" with this life style I have chosen. Sitting at the bench in my den with all my fishing decor, fish mounts, rods, reels and all the fly fishing gear surrounding me while I whip out a doz flies just seems to fit right in with the things I enjoy in life.

 

Steve

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

I do it so I have a reason to cast one of Steve's great rods

[Mr. Vegas 0]

I do it so I have a reason to cast one of Steve's great rods

 

it says what keeps you fishing not brag that you have one of steves amazing rods.... geeezz

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

I do it so I have a reason to cast one of Steve's great rods

 

it says what keeps you fishing not brag that you have one of steves amazing rods.... geeezz

lol at one of Steves rods

[Mr. Vegas 0]

so you saying you have more than one.. Im done here

[Matt24 0]

I'm only 15 and have been fishing ever since i was a little kid and tying for a couple years now. My dad is the one that got me into the sport or passion for me, he has been a big influence on my fishing/tying. Ever day i tie flys i don't remember the last time i didn't. I try and go fishing whenever i can, weather i catch fish or not i enjoy just being out there. Ive been kind of spoiled by being able to fish in alaska all my life and i think that anyone that gets the chance to come to Alaska should for sure jump on it. Bristol Bay trout fishing is like no other fishing in the world theirs tons of fish and there all big. I'm not trying to brag about Alaska or anything i just think its a great place.

 

I fished the ausable river this summer during the end of May/June. We stayed at Gates Lodge and had Two different guides on the two nights we fished. The first night the hatch didn't happen but on the second night it was a completly different story brown drakes everywhere. We stalked big fish only by listeniing to the way their jaws would crack or close. Around midnight we stopped at onther big fish only feeding every 45-60 seconds witch seems like forever. I made 3 cast and no takes my fourth cast i hear the fish rise not knowing if the fish had took my fly it just felt right where the rise was and it was perfect i hooked into the fish and he took of not use to catching big fish on a 4 weight it feltlike i had a shark at the end of my line. After a good fight we got the fish to the net and the guide goes damn i only see a few of these big boys a year, At that point my heart was going 100 miles an hour and hands shaking we snapped a quick shot taped him and let the fish go. He was 24 inches and was a helthy fish.

I only caught 2 fish that night and it was great

 

I dont beileve its about how many fish you catch or how big they are its all fun to me.

Heres some pics enjoy and fish on!!! First pic is pf the Ausable second is one of my biggest fish (and yes its a trout) and third one of my favorite places to fish.