what needs to change in fly fishing...now

[J-Kno 0]

What the hell is "street credit" or "soul fly fishing"?

You got no street cred, yo? Street Cred

[crazy4oldcars 0]

"Soul Surfer"?

"DUDE! Get off of that! I might need it later!"

 

Sorry, It just sounded like so much more-aware-than-you bullshirt to me.Then it went off on a tangent.

 

I enjoy fishing, but it ain't Zen for me.

 

Kirk B.

[JSzymczyk 0]

well ....

 

there are good points made in the article. Not all the points, but some. You've got to be more of a curmudgeon than I am (and that's saying something...) to disagree that "Fly Fishing" is held on a separate shelf in the fishing world by the general population out there. I know full well lots of us are just regular guys. There are even Doctors, lawyers, and Indian Chiefs here. Read the Trout-Centric mags and websites. Several years ago I read an article in Fly Rod and Reel magazine which was an interview with a New York City chef who discovered fly fishing in mid-life. One of the major points of the article was that this person then went and bought a riverside estate with a substantial private beat on a famous creek "as a natural step" in his short career as a fly fisherman. Come on. That's not elitist is it? He went on at length about catch and release, the purity of the sport regarding holy trout swimming away.... I went on the website of his NYC restaurant and found several stupidly expensive fish dishes......

 

Truthfully, there IS a lot wrong with fly fishing.... there is a lot wrong with competitive fishing... there is a lot wrong now with kayak fishing.... Most of us would be perfectly happy to just fish how, when, and for what we want, but the saturation of social media continues to puke up adversity. I'm on a few social media outlets too, and I like to post stuff about fishing. I'm not that good at it. I try to have fun.

 

It's fishing.

 

If you cease to have fun, you are doing it wrong.

[SilverCreek 0]

The average flyfisher in the USA and especially that author does not know how good they have it. Try fly fishing in Europe. Much more exclusive and expensive than in the USA. Try it in Japan. Same thing.

 

We have and abundance of free water. We have Europeans and Japanese coming over here to fish because the there are so many rivers and water that are open to everyone. Try going to England, Scotland, Norway, Italy, Germany, or France to find free fishing. Good luck. You need to know someone and pay for a guide in the best waters. In the USA, you are free to fish in all the public lands of which there are mllions of acres. Even in waters that flow through private property, in Montana and in my state of Wisconsin, you can enter the river at any county road.

 

I think we have it pretty good. If hero shots, expensive equipment, tiers taking credit for a fly, etc, are the worst things he can come up with; we are doing really, really well compared to fly fishing in other countries.

 

My response to his article is REALLY? Get over yourself ! He is so taken with himself that he misses the fact that he is dissing self proclaimed experts in the very article in which he claims to be THE ONE that knows ALL the things that HAVE TO CHANGE RIGHT NOW!! How ironic and how personally blind to his own egoism.

[tidewaterfly 0]

I guess I'm not up to date on all the current urban slang!

 

The author certainly makes some valid points, but they don't really appear to me to be anything new. Some of these "problems" have been there as long as I can remember, and will likely remain as long as there are fly anglers.

 

It's highly likely some of us have been fly fishing longer than that guy has been alive.

 

Silver, your diagnosis is right on the money IMO.

 

Joel, there's a lot wrong with many things in this world. As Silver pointed out, it could be worse. But, I agree with you, it's supposed to be fun, and many of us would be happier if we simply stuck to "fishing" and left all the "social" issues to others to worry about. I guess I'm not a very social person, as these forums are my only social contact with like minded folks other than the old fashion face to face. I don't do the other social media thing.

 

I also noted that he only mentions "trouts" as if they're the only species of fish anyone would fly fish for. I know some here and on other forums share that ideology, but there are many that are multi-species fly anglers or some who only fly fish for specific "other" species. Hey, we all might be better off if we stopped holding specific fish species to higher praise than others, but does it really hurt anything? We're all different and as far as I know there's never been a war started over it.

 

His issues are not restricted to trout nor to anglers who only fly fish IMO. I know bass anglers who don't fly fish & consider bass & bass fishing to be the holy grail of fishing and treat it just as some fly anglers treat this sport. I've had conversations with others who do offshore deep sea fishing, or fish for various other fish species with either/or fly tackle/other tackle who have very similar opinions & concerns of/for "their" sport as this author, so his concerns are not exclusive to fly fishing.

 

The "problem" is & always will be "people". It doesn't matter what or with what they fish for or the gear they use, opinions & ideology is always going to have a wider variance than some folks are willing to accept.

 

IMO the author simply needs to do his own thing, and let others do theirs. He doesn't sound like he's having fun, so perhaps he needs to find a different endeavor.

[crazy4oldcars 0]

Wait!?! You're sayin' that them thar troots fishermen ain't no better than my lil' ol' panfishin' self?

Well, ain't that a hoot! I'll just have to point a finger at 'em, next time I see 'em! Let 'em know they ain't so hot, after all!

 

Kirk B. (tongue FIRMLY in cheek, in case there are any ...sensitive souls out there)

[JSzymczyk 0]

what really needs to change in fly fishing? I'll tell you.

 

People holding fly rods in their mouths in photos.

 

People throwing their fly rods and reels in the water in photos.

 

Grown-up, adult, human males wearing WHITE FRAMED sunglasses in photos. For Heaven's sake, just stop.

 

after those top-three, next would be marketers and other know-it-alls constantly preaching that we absolutely require a totally separate kit for each individual type of fish, type of fly, and day of the month we fish.

[Adam Saarinen 0]

When i was shopping for glasses a few years ago, there were a pair of white framed glasses from LOOP, i thought "NO"!!!

[mikechell 0]

For anyone who believes $1000 plus rods are really worth the money ... Bear's Den has some Sage rods on sale at about 30% off. Looks like super deals if you have enough spending money in the jar.

[flytire 0]

tyers holding flies in the palm of their filthy hands

 

people holding their fly rod on the back of their neck while shoving the fish forward into the camera lens

 

people sticking their tongue out like miley cyrus while squeezing the shit out of a poor old trout

[notenuftoys 0]

From the article: "Stop hating. It’s fly fishing. We’re a community. And we’re all pretty much on the same page."

 

If the author had taken his own advice, he would have stopped writing. The rest of the column is exactly the tone that creates division in a community.

[Hatchet Jack 0]

I got through maybe one, two paragraphs in the article and found my

self waking up when my head hit the keyboard.

[djtrout 0]

Thanks to the author for the guidelines on how to fix my culture and industry and issuing a call to reformation. Seems to me that in his manifesto he committed about every sin he indicted.

 

I guess I didn't realize I was culturally defined because I fly fish. I can see it as a community I suppose, I don't know. No matter. I've been fly fishing and tying (with a hiatus in the middle for about 20 years on tying) for 52 years and don't know who April Vokey is and I guess it doesn't much matter because I feel no void in my soul for it. As far as "experts" goes, well, an expert is someone who helps me learn or do that which I do not yet know or cannot perform well. Lots of folks fit that bill for me. I get lots of good stuff off this forum. If my mentor is 20 or 80 I really don't care if they meet my need for skill and knowledge improvement. I don't get into hero worship, and I don't go all groupie on our sport's legendary icons.

 

I fly fish and tie because it's what I do. I do it the way I choose to. I get the results I'm looking for. I'm into it because as a child my dad and I had our best quality time together on trout streams it was neat to rig up our fly rods together and hit the stream. Whether he caught fish purely on fly, or put a bit of worm on his nymph to enhance the bite (he called his fly a little black fly, I'm not sure he knew about nymphs, dries, streamers - he never once used any of those terms in my presence), the "purity" of the sport was immaterial to him. It was fishing. He never shared with me where his passion for fly fishing came from. I have inherited and developed my passion for fly fishing, but also my father's independent spirit - no desire to seek elite membership in any "culture" nor do I feel any press to achieve expert status according to any esoteric set of standards. Fly fishing is a zen thing for me.

 

Agree with Tidewater above ... the author doesn't seem to be having fun. Needs to find something else to do perhaps, unless he's running for king of the fly fishing community, in which case he seems to have outlined a nice platform for reform. Go for it. I do love this forum.

[nick2011 0]

Reads like a bunch of blah blah to me. We all follow, copy, learn from other people. we all judge other people and styles or techniques of other fisherman..Who gives a shit, its part of development and evolution.I have never heard the term " Hero shots " until today..thats funny because i refer to all my pictures as memories. lol anyways, i thought it was a boring unoriginal piece.