MURPHY'S LAW OF FLY FISHING
Most everyone has learned of "Murphy's Law" which states: "If anything can go wrong it will go wrong." A pleasant tale says the name was coined at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 after Capt. Edward A. Murphy had bad fortune beyond imagining during deceleration tests. Whether or not this is the true source of the expression [which may actually trace back to bad luck English farmers (sods) and their ill-fated crops (called "sod's law")], after six decades of fly fishing misfortune, it is apparent to me that there are several corollaries of Murphy's law applicable to fly fishing.
- Planning a fishing trip a month in advance makes bad weather conditions inevitable
- The more expensive the guide/trip, the less probability of success
- A fish cannot be wished onto the line
- The reel you bought for 10% off will go on ½ price sale the next week
- What instructors do on DVDs is impossible when you try it on the water.
- Three casts into an overhanging tree are only the beginning
- If there are two ways to approach a pool, you will choose the wrong one
- When the urge to go strikes your chest waders won't come off
- Any stream can be read wrong if enough time is taken to study it
- The easier the cast the greater the chance of messing it up
- The number of tips remembered during a cast is inversely proportional to a successful cast, and
- The success of a cast varies inversely with the ugliness of the motion that produced it
- The official language of fly fishing is profanity
- If it feels natural, you're doing it wrong
- Any correction made to your cast works...once
- The best way to fish a stream becomes obvious once you have left for home
- When you have successfully overcome one bad habit, two others will arise
- A good disposition means you haven't made it to the stream yet
- Tree branches move just enough to snag your fly
- If there is a loose boulder in the stream, your boot will find it
- The best hole on the stream will be "kids only"
- No matter how much you hate the stream, catch one good fish and you'll be back
- Your waders will never leak until you far from shore
- The greater the need for a particular nymph the greater chance you forgot them at home
- The most valuable piece of equipment is the one you will damage
- If your casting is perfect, don't worry, that too will pass
- The more critical your need to change flies the greater the likelihood of dropping your fly box in the stream
- The more perfect the weather the more work will keep you off the stream
- The most productive stretch of a stream will be posted
- At the point your casting can't get any worse it will
- No matter how perfectly you present your fly, the kid with the corn kernel and a plastic cork will out fish you
- Any fishing trip will cost more and end sooner than you think
Good luck.