K.i.s.s.
Three cheers to Neil Travis and this week's from a journal by..column.
I salute you from the top of my 30 year old vest to the bottom of my patched waders.
Fly fishing is all about skills... not brand name on your rod or having the latest hot fly in your flybox
All the recent new member should bookmark that page so they can review it when ever they have the urge to "upgrade"
The simpler the outfit, the more skill it takes to manage it, and the more pleasure one gets in his achievements.
--- Horace Kephart
We all tend to over complicate things. On my waters within 30 min. of my house when i lived in Denver caddis flies dominated. Because of this i carried 2 colors and sizes a soft hackle caddis pupae, nippers and 1 spool of tippet. i carried these things in 1 pocket of my jeans. Hip boots a ball cap and my fly rod and i was good to go.
when i planned for a farther trip but still in state i would add a few midge patterns, and bwo nymphs. it was like heaven
It's been exactly 1 year since moving to Tennessee and I've managed to fish for 12 straight months. I quickly learned that I was carrying way too much gear!!
My waders are patched, smeared with Shoe Goo and still leak!
The go to fly's are weighted/unweighted soft hackles with the occassional midge so I carry 3 small fly boxes
I did just purchase a new vest. Why? My old one was too long and tended to get everything in the lower pockets soaked. The new one is short and has a water proof pocket for my camera and a couple of large pockets for lunch/snacks. (the reason for 3 small fly boxes!)
Standard equipment is a release tool, a hook file, 1 spool of tippet and a spare furled leader. As we often fish 'til 0 dark thirty a head lamp and a flash light. (Lets not forget T.P.)
I soon discovered that wading in 48 degree water required a size larger wading shoe for that extra pair of heavy socks.
So now my garage looks like a used fly fishing gear shop!!
Jack, PLEASE do not be "shy" about asking me for my address so you can "unload" all that awful, un-needed, cluttering up space, junk gear, you now have left over!!
I PROMISE to give it ALL a very good home, especially those junk rods, reels and extra lines you're always tripping over! Fly boxes, are good too, I never can have too many of those!!
Now, as to the actual "idea of traveling light and becoming a minimalist"... nawwww, no thanks. I carry WAY too many fly boxes in my vest. Usual count is about nine. My vest is "heavy" by most people's standards, but I LIKE the heft of it, when I put it on and I also know "I've got anything and everything I may need when headed off, up stream, for a 6 mile wade.
If I drop my clippers in the water, because an old zinger finally gives out, (which HAS happened, on more than one occasion 2 miles from my rig), I have another pair, somewhere, deep in the bowels of my vest. Same with an extra hook file and a pair of small, folding, scissors.
It's only "my way" of enjoying fly fishing and I SURE DO NOT suggest it to anyone else!! I guess, maybe, I'm just "old school" and every time I unload and reload my vest, I think of two guys that I've read their stories over and over again and always make me laugh....... because of the way I travel and fish, too.
Lee Wulff, was once asked to "empty his 32 pocket vest", to show others, what exactly he carried on the water. He did so, then went to re-load it. He reloaded every, single, pocket.....................three times and STILL in the end, he didn't have a place left to put on one, remaining, fly box that had come from the vest originally!?!
MY other, "Junk packing hero" is "Robert Traver". In his fantastic book, "Trout Madness", he describes "Buckshot", his "Fish Car" and what he carried in it. Upon unloading it himself when, finally over come with curiosity."As to how much was really IN, "Buckshot", he covered his entire, single width, driveway with all that came forth from inside his car!
NO, "Boy Scout" is ever going to have anything on ME!
Saint Paul-"The Highly Confused"
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I almost decided to NOT take up fly fishing when I first started looking into it - too complicated, to the point of being overwhelmed.
I made a conscious decision to do it only as long as I could keep it simple and have fun at it. For almost five years, I have been able to pretty much keep it simple, and have had a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of the time I spent learning, experimenting, fly tying and fishing.
Things like the t.c.t.k. ( thread on a hook ) and the pine squirrel cheater ( a p. s. zonker tied to a hook ) and "Which Twelve" are my stock in trade. A chest pack with the essentials, waders and fleece when its cold, a box or two of flies, and a spool with a sinking or floating line on it, depending on what I am actually fishing, a bottle of water and a couple cookies and I'm good to go.
Last fall, before I "found" the Bulletin Board, there was a tremendous amount of discussion on several different threads about a fly of the week I had submitted - the t.c.t.k. DShock called it the ORPHAN of all fishing flies - others called it a lot of things, some good and some not so good. ( I stumbled across all those threads and comments months after the fact after I started looking at the BB, and was quite amused. )
One reason I submitted that fly, that was missed in all the discussion, was to remind people that fly fishing can be very simple, and to maybe encourage someone else who was thinking about it but hanging back because they were concerned about how complex it all seemed to give it a go.
So I particularly enjoyed Neil's comments in his current article. I think our "sport" if I can call it that for the purpose of this post, has a better chance of attracting newcomers and growing in a healthy way if more time is spent portraying the actual simplicity of what we do rather than blow the horns and beat the drums over how complicated we can make it.
I also very much enjoyed Flybinder's fishing report on his day with his granddaughter, Sam. For all the things Paul said above, ask Sam how simple he makes it.
John
Last edited by JohnScott; 03-18-2008 at 01:48 PM.
The fish are always right.
I really enjoy new stuff. I really like studying streams, and fish, and insects, and rods, and reels, and lines, and waders, and vests, and boots, and flies, and buying/tying new ones. I really like having an extra rod or two in the car and a couple of extra fly boxes so I chan change from cadis to BWO to a mouse for night. I usually have more than I need for fear of having not enough. I like it this way. But I don't think you should have to do what I do.
I have more rods and reels than I need. I have more shotguns than I need too. I just like them.
And I have spent hours tying new flies that I will never use. And I have other things I could be doing. But you may not want to do that. Doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you. But then, it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with me either.
So there!
Godspeed,
Bob Bolton
This topic cracks me up since I've been on both sides of this fence.
When I started fly fishing I had to have EVERYTHING and sported a vest with a zillion fly boxes and every conceivable gadget and gimmick. I looked like idiot wearing a gigantic overstuffed pin cushion. In those days if you dropped me off like Survivor Man on a deserted island with just my fishing vest, I could have got along just fine for about a month or two.
Then the unpleasantries of days fishing in 90 degree heat and humidity while toting 60 pounds of stuff, along with a rebellious desire to look like a homeless guy who fly fishes had me rethink my kit and I became a vest-less, logo-less minimalist who sported homemade contraptions to hold my gear and solve my problems.
While my new appearance may still have me looking like an idiot to many; my fish catching ability didn't go up or down as a result of my equipment getting simpler although one advantage of the lighter load is not looking like I know what the heck I'm doing so people leave me alone on the stream.
I still buy lots of new stuff when I feel like it or the old stuff wears out although most of it is stored in my gear bags or the trunk just in case...so I can have it without spoiling my "look". My years invested in fly fishing have helped me to decide what is necessary and works best for me. It's sort of like traveling; the inexperienced typically over-pack and have the most luggage while the frequent flyers seem to have figured it out and can get by with just a carry-on. But maybe that guy with the smile and the 16 suitcases IS experienced and having it all with him makes his travels more enjoyable.
Because of my "travels", I kind of chuckle at the guys fishing the local stocked crick with overloaded vests, lanyards full of tippet and gadgets and backpacks complete with two rod tubes and hydration bladders because I assume they are finding their own way in the hobby. But maybe, they have years of experience and success on me and that's just how they like to fish.
At that same crick I'll offer an insider's wink at the other homeless guys assuming that they have traveled the same roads as me and came to the same conclusions but maybe I'm wrong again and they are just happier fishing their way too.
Who knows and who cares!
Last edited by Bamboozle; 03-19-2008 at 02:55 PM.
Bam -
I think you and I need to go fishing together sometime.
Bob -
Its a BIG tent, and as far as I know, all are welcome and all are right, none better, none worse, and different is good.
John
The fish are always right.
I am like Paul and carry more than I really need, but, I just need to know that IF I do need any of it that I DO have it!!I have a DVD of Lee Wulff and he was asked why he carries so much in his vest and he stated that he carried it for the weight. He said that once you step into the water, you need the added weight to keep your footing plus he said he could wade across some fast water sections to reach a pool that others could not wade because he had the added weight.
Warren
Fly fishing and fly tying are two things that I do, and when I am doing them, they are the only 2 things I think about. They clear my mind.
Each to his or her own. I rarely use more than 3 or 4 patterns in a day, out of the dozens in my vest. Like someone else said, I carry (or own) far more than I need, but rarely have less than I need. At the end of the day, I don't have any regrets.
God Bless America
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