The following was "lifted" from a thread on the Fly Tying Forum. Thought it might make an interesting topic for the FAOL Forum.

"Originally Posted by Byron haugh
To each his own, indeed. But, I think some of us do not see catching a trout as the end-all of the experience. For example, I have been in situations in which I knew I could have hooked more fish with a nymph, but I preferred to catch fewer with a dry as I get more enjoyment fishing a delicate dry fly on the surface and seeing a trout take it.

That is not to say that I don't use nymphs and soft hackles as well. It is more like there is a hierarchy in methods of taking trout for me.
Highest is dry fly fishing
Second is emergers
Third are nymphs
There are times when I have to forgo the top two because the trout are only feeding on nymphs, and that is ok. But when they start rising to dries, that's when I switch leaders and go to dries even if I'm having great success with nymphs!
Anyone else like me??? "

To which I replied:

"For me, it is not a "hierarchy" that I stick to. But my preferences generally run to ...

... fishing the water with dry flies
... fishing the water with nymphs
... sight fishing with dries
... sight fishing with nymphs / emergers
... fishing to rising trout with dries / emergers

The first two, fishing the water, are more about the "hunt" which is what I really enjoy. Figuring out where the fishies are and enticing them off the bottom or out of their lie with a well presented fly beats getting an obviously actively eating trout to take a fly, for me. The sight of a fish coming to the fly from several feet, or more, down, is visually more powerful than seeing a fish move a few inches to eat another bug. Nymphing the water doesn't offer the same visual benefit, usually, but it is still about the hunt.

Sight fishing with either dries or nymphs ranks a bit higher for me than fishing to rising trout because it is generally more of a challenge than fishing to rising fish.

None of this is to say that I always follow this order of preferences. Sometimes rising fish are irresistable. Sometimes actively feeding fish, eating subsurface stuff, are irresistable.

Sometimes it is more about the fly than it is about catching fish. Sometimes I'd rather thoroughly test a new original pattern, even unsuccessfully, if you measure success by catching, than change to something I know will catch them just for the sake of catching some.

Anyway, since I never catch anything with prince nymphs, it never fits in my list of preferences.

John

P.S. Swinging wet flies and / or stripping baitfish / sculpin streamers is in a P.S. because it usually is an afterthought, or kind of a specialized thing for certain situations or times of the year."