Thoughts on Fly Fishing

I was out of town most of this week. The only times I'm out of town without my wife I'm either on business or fishing. This week it was business. But I couldn't stop thinking about fly fishing. Where there any good streams nearby? What type of fly is the best for this area of the country? Would anyone really notice if I skipped dinner and went fishing?

Since I wasn't actually able to go fishing this week I've been thinking. What is it about fly fishing that has captured me? Why can I, someone who has trouble sitting on the beach and enjoying looking at the ocean, stand in a stream and wait for a fish to take my lure? How has fly fishing been able to immediately give me a batch of patience with inactivity that I didn't have before?

Learning Something New

After writing about my struggles with trying to fly fish for bass last week, I realized something.  Not only was my casting geared toward trout fishing.  My style of fishing was geared to trout fishing.  Let's make a comparison to hunting.  Do you hunt for deer the same way you hunt for ducks?  No, not at all.  Lake vs Forest.  Moving target vs stationary target.  Rifle vs Shotgun.  There are a lot of differences.

So in that regard, how do you approach fly fishing for bass?

Trying Something New

I went camping last weekend.  One of my friends lives out of the country, and when he and his family are back in town a bunch of guys take him camping.  The past few times have been on some private property on the Meramec River.  A friend of one of my friend's father-in-law has a campground set up on the river with chairs, grills, and even an outhouse.  We headed out midday on Friday for a night with the guys in the middle of nowhere.  Now, it's been a couple of months since I've been able to go fly fishing.  And from having camped out at this spot of the river in the past, I knew that I wasn't going to be catching any trout on this trip.  The water is too warm and there is too much float trip traffic scaring off the fish.  But, maybe I could try catching bass.

I've caught bass with worms real and fake, but I've never gone fly fishing for bass.  I had gotten a gift card for my birthday so I went to Bass Pro on my lunch break and picked up some fly fishing bass lures.  The salesman recommended a 3-Pack of poppers, a red crayfish, and a dark purple snag-less worm.   I had my bass lures and was looking forward to the weekend.  But to be honest, I didn't have any idea what I was getting myself into...

Book Review Pt 3: 1001 Fly Fishing Tips

This is the final installment of tips and advice from 1001 Fly Fishing Tips.  Part 3 of the book review is actually from the last two parts of the book.  Part 3 from the book is Hatches and Seasons.  You'll find tips on determining what fly to use in a situation to advice on weather and competing outdoor sports (Boom! Boom!).  Part 4 is Travel, Destinations and Species Other Than Trout.  Leaving home to go fishing in the vast outdoors has different conditions to consider, such as extra equipment and dangerous wildlife.

I have to be honest in that as a novice, my knowledge of these topics is even less that in the previous two posts about this book.  So if I seem to disagree with a piece of advice, you might be better off going with the advice from the book.

Let's dive in...