My learning milestone.... and yours is?

Dear friends:

This is my milestone: I have now narrowed my flies down to olive and black mohair leeches, some same colored marabou streamers and a few dry flies (of no special format - for that undisturbed pond). Since I fish lakes mostly, these are my staple. They work better than anything else I've tried until now, and for the time being these are mostly what I tie. My hook sizes range is 10 (few), 12, and 14. All cast with a stillwater (read: clear intermediate sink) line from a fast 6wt rod. This is it folks, the sum of five years of experience and lots of trial and error.

So what are your learning milestones? -Migs

I have several hundred flies in various fly boxes, how does one narrow it down? I don't want to narrow it down......that's why I love fly fishing.,,...what fly to use next?

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I learn more about the world while talking to myself when fishing alone

Why in the world would a guy go to all the trouble to learn how to tie flies well, gather up all the tools and materials he needs to tie all the flies, and then limit himself to carry just a few flies???

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Jim Johnson

Jim, That may be the most sensible thing I've heard in a long time.

Migs,

Your choice of the mohair leech fly is excellent. But please tie a few using Canadian Brown mohair yarn, if you haven't done it already. Not just a single color the yarn has traces of other colors - reds, greens, etc,- although it's basically a dark brown. Also, try some with a conehead. Excellent , IMHO. G'luck

Bill

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Name indicates where I fish and for what I fish.

I tie, about 60 some flies, dry streamer nymph, and chrino, that give me everything i need to be a succseful helicoptor.

I figured out that I have been a 'Perfect" fly caster for years. I calculated that 50% of my casts go to the left and the other 50% go to the right. Therefore... my 'average' is dead-center! Perfect! I can live with that... http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/wink.gif
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/Jims...randpoobah.jpg

My point is that we all should try to get some better at casting, if for no other reason than it's fun. Beware, however, he who would impress you and feels that his rod has magically become a 'scepter'. No matter how proficient one may become, remember you are just standing in the water waving a stick.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/JimsTest/cstbb.jpg

[This message has been edited by J Castwell (edited 19 June 2006).]

Amigos:

Don't get me wrong in the sense that I havent tied a whole bunch and bought even more types to try. My fly boxes are fairly well assorted too. It's just that the flys I mention tend to out perform most of the others in my high mountain lake conditions. Thanks for the Canadian Brown Mohair input. Where can I mail order it? I sure will try it! As for tying other flies, yeah, its fun and I still do it, but I always make sure to stalk about 6 of each one I mentioned in my box. And yes, I do try others from time to time just to see what happens, but I'll tell you, as a beginner I would have wasted a lot less time sticking to these basics until other aspects of my skill became solid. (Like presentation, distance, retrieve etc.) -Migs

What a great point JC....dead on target!

My milestone. Be patient.
It takes the fish longer than I want for them to go to my fly.
Strip some line and wait...


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There is a fine line between fly fishing and standing in a river waving a stick, and YOU SIR have crossed that line!

I'm not sure if it is my milestone, but I have come to a somewhat similar conclusion. I have a ton of materials and tie lots of different patterns, but I have five go-to patterns that produce over 90% of all the fish I catch. They include black mohair leech or variation therof, Carters Sculpin, softhackle, floating mylar minnow and Polar Fiber baitfish. Understand that I fish mainly warmwater but the leech and softhackles work equally well for trout. I am not sure if they work better for me because I have so much confidence in them or if I have so much confidence in them because they work so well for me.

p.s. I always carry several boxes loaded with other patterns that get tried on occasion when I feel like playing around.

Jim Smith

Any fish can be caught with any fly at any given time.

Hi Kerry:

With a statement like that you can work some magic I sure can't! -Hats off to you-

Migs

Migs,

Tell me what fish I can't catch with the fly I can't catch it on.......ever. Dorado on a moose turd? Or maybe one of those giant Amazon cats on an Adams? What else you got down there that will take a fly?

Hi Kerry:

Here we have Dorado (buy in murky water) so an Adams is out, Rainbow Trout (mostly in lakes) so streamers usually work best, Sabalo (a kind of Catfish), Palometa (a kind of Pirahna), Tucunare (Peackock Bass) but a little far from where I'm at, Tacu Tacu (no idea how translate), Sabalo (?) etc...

Migs

I think it's great that you have flies that you can fish with confidence. I usually carry a large array of flies, but when it comes right down to it, there are only a few patterens that I reguarly fish and that work well when there are no hatches and I'm just pounding water.

I started fishing a new stream this year and it's very small and strewn with obstacles, it's humbled me in regards to my casting accuaracy. So my milestone is realizing just how much my casting needs improvement.

Scott