Let’s take a moment of silence for your last memory of sitting in a lounge chair, throwing out a worm/bobber set-up, and waiting all day to not catch a single fish. You were probably left sunburned, empty handed, and never wanted to go fishing again. One…two...three…memory zapped.
Why Fly Fishing?
Now let’s introduce you to the amazing sport of fly fishing. Your setup is going to look strangely familiar, especially when using nymphs (will be covered in the presentation strategy section). There is fishing line (fly line), a bobber (indicator), and bait (flies). With these similarities in mind, let's discuss several important distinctions.
The biggest difference between bait fishing and fly fishing have to do with the flies themselves. In bait fishing, the fishing line weighs virtually nothing. When you tie on a worm and bobber, it provides you with enough weight to launch your line far out into the deep blue.
To contrast this with fly fishing, your flies (bait) practically weigh nothing. This allows them to land and drift like a real insect. To compensate, fly fishermen use weighted line (the green line you’ve probably seen before) to propel their flies forward. This ultimate fishing cheat code allows you to delicately present life-like flies at distance with accuracy.
Believe it or not, trout meals don’t ordinarily consist of rainbow powerbait, salmon eggs, and 5” nightcrawlers. Their meal plan looks more like bugs, bugs, and more bugs as well as minnows, leeches, and even crayfish. The madness to the method is trying to imitate these types of food using artificial lures or flies.
In our experience, bait fishing tends to be more of a “spray and pray, how far can I cast this thing” method. If you’re gonna give fly fishing a try, please leave the lounge chair in the garage. In fly fishing, you’ll learn how to think like a fish. You’ll be actively taking in your surroundings, making an educated guess, adjusting your rig, then testing it out. Occasionally you’ll catch a fish on your first try, more often you’ll repeat the process a few times before you're able fool a brainy trout. It's an absolute blast!
Fly fishing will often take you to more remote stretches of water. Trout do not live in ugly places! Henry Thoreau once said, “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” If you’re a nature loving tree hugger like us, then you will definitely enjoy fly fishing.
If we’ve convinced you to give fly fishing a shot or you would like to perfect your craft...read on!