Angler's best asset?

[spinner1]

What do you consider the best assest?

1. Can cast a country mile....
2. Have the best gear on planet...
3. Handsome.....
4. Beautiful wife....
5. No wife....
6. stealth.....
7. can tie a sweet fly.....
8. presentation....
9. good bragger...
10. Can read water.....
11. Enviromentally friendly...
12. Good beer drinker.....
13 . Match Hatch....
14. Any more....???

Which ONE is best in your opinion?

[Panman]

Experience (by far).

Tim

[rainbowchaser]

A full wallet would probably help. Mine won't stay that way long enough to find out for sure. Seriously, if I could only get one thing right (if only I could get one thing right) I would want it to be the presentation.

[ohiotuber]

Reading the water.....you can do everything else perfectly, but if you haven't read the water right, none of the rest matters.
Mike

[Eight Thumbs]

I'll have to go along with Mike----reading the water. The person who knows where the fish are going to be has a tremendous advantage over the rest of us hackers. Good water reading also leads naturally to a good presentation which does away with drag and other problems. 8T

[flybinder]

Sound like "We're going to have ourselves a "CONVOY"! Wait, sorry, that's "CONSENSUS", maybe? Because I'm going with "Reading The Water", as mine also.

Like has been so well pointed out............ you can walk around, with a beautiful wife on your arm, drinking a beer, while dressed like an Orvis Ad......stop to cast a country mile, with your million dollars worth of gear, stealthily laying out a "sweet fly" you've tied yourself, making it land on the water with perfect presentation, but............ if you don't know how to read the water it's probably all in vain because you've done all of this, in the wrong spot!

I think "learning to read water" was/is, one of the most interesting and intriguing, parts of fly fishing I've ever been taught, (AND, am very much, STILL learning to do).

[Flyandtie1]

Presentation,,,Because you can read the water all you want but if you can't present that Hopper right under the blade of grass under that cut bank That you predicted the fish would be under then it is all lost...

But that works both ways, If you cannot read the water one bit, presentation doesn't matter. If you can read the water but, can't present the fly then reading the water doesn't matter....

Theres my take on it.

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

Spin.....My list.

1. Prayer?..I pray to god my wife will let me go fishing , then pray god will keep me safe.
And If there is any prayer points left over could the fish all be large.
I pray that if my old Junker does not make it all the way back home it at least breaks down on the way home not on the way to the lake.

2. Memory?. My memory is not as sharp as when I was a nipper.
I hope to heck I remember the correct turn to the Lake before the gas runs out.
I hope I remember to take at least my rod, reel, and some flies to fish with.

3. Stamina I need all the energy ican get so that I can last out till its too dark to fish
.

4. Food I run on food , without food the point is moot cause I?m not going fishing!

5. Luck And not the bad kind either.

6. Water I have tried fishing where there is none , doesn?t work.

7. Horticultural expertise. It does no good at all to go fishing if you sit in a patch of poison ivy at the start of your day .

8. Animalcultural expertise . Basically the same as Horticultural but with animals. ( don?t pet the snakes )

9. A profound Sense of Wonder The feeling of awe and wonder I get when fishing alone in gods beautiful wilderness is what keeps me coming back time and time again.

[dudley]

Motivation
If you sit at home 'wishing you were fishin' you won't get the experience, you won't be able to read the water, your casting will suffer
The most important thing in fly fishing is time on the water

[Wild One]

I can't believe no one said this already......



Handsome!

I guess since no one said this I must be the handsomest one around

If you don't look good to the fish, how do you expect them to want to get closer to you?