Survey question

[waskeyc]

I guess I'm what you'd call a "stealth fly-fisherman".

My passion for flishing in general, and fly-fishing in particular, is quite strong. I have read every book in the local library on fishing, most of them twice. I have purchased a number of books myself. I regularly read the articles on FAOL and other sites, as well as posting occasionally myself. I've listened to every single Orvis fly-fishing podcast, many of them more than once. I keep at least one fishing rod (fly or spin) in my car at all times, and if I take a different car, I move all of my stuff to the other car "just in case". I typically fish 3 times or more a week during the warmer months, and several times a month in the cooler seasons.

But I'm not very active in the fly-fishing community. I have 5 kids at home, and a very tired wife, so I never spend a whole day fishing. My longest outings are usually a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon between church services while the babies are napping. Becasue of my busy home life, most of my fishing is an hour on weekend mornings before the family wakes up, during my lunch break at work, and sporadically otherwise. I almost always fish unassuming small creeks that have mostly smaller fish and are overlooked by others, but are nearby so I can fish them with limited time. So other than an occasional trip to the local fly shop to get some tying materials or new leaders, the rest of the local fly-fishing community doesn't even know I exist.

[CoachBob]

Well, let's see. I'm president of the local fly fishing club, on the board of the regional FFF Council, ties flies, and wrap rods. Sounds all-in-ish, but first and foremost I am a fisherman and will use commie tackle when appropriate. Casting into a headwind with a three foot surf is challenging but I will use a spinning surf rod without hesitation. So, I guss I'm part-in.

[okflyfisher]

Faith
Family
Fly Fishing

[DaleW]

Well, let's see here ... I first picked up the fly rod and attempted to fly fish the summer of 1949. Would like to think, well I know, it's been major progress since. A leave of absence for a hitch in the Marine Corps (they did not consider a fly rod as part of their 782 gear), but really made up for lost time when I got back home. Fly fishing and the long rod have been my main stay and only on rare occasion have I used any other kind of rod. Never have I lost interest (well, O.K., maybe when I was sick as a dog that fly fishing lost it's obsession). In fact fly fishing became all the more interesting when I took up fly tying.

Do I golf ... naw, tried it and I'm lousy at it, and almost no interest. Tennis ... are you kidding! But let me pack up the little popup camper and gather up all the fly fishing gear and you would have my top attention! By the way, it's great to set up the fly tying gear at the National Forest Campground picnic table (right next to the stream), between wading times when I'm trying out some of my masterpieces! Now, this is living!

[sandfly]

Obsessed to the point in seeking help !

Own a shop, fly fish for anything that swims, including guppies and whales. caught a guppie casted to a whale..

started in 1966 and am still going strong...

[turvy]

I guess I'd be called 'all-in'. I fly fish only and when my fishing buddy offered me a plastic fluke with salt flavoring late this fall when he was killing smallies with his ultra-light gear and told me to put the fluke on one of my flies so I could catch something on just about every cast, I simply declined. My success rate was quite a bit lower than his but as I explained to him many times before "It's not about the destination, it's all about the journey."
Yep, I'm stuborn and all in.

[birddog]

I would say all in considering I have spent my entire savings getting into the business. If you took away fly fishing away from me you would loose a lot of who I am.
-Jeff

[Ray Kunz]

Please define "into". That word is misunderstood.

[johnstoeckel]

Guess I'd say that I'm "all in". I fish around 60 days a year and spend quite a few hours a year tying flies, tying leaders and otherwise tinkering with tackle. I won't say that all my friends are flyfisherman, but I do have a good number of friends that I met through fly fishing. I'm also a TU member, an active TU volunteer and have been a TU chapter board member.

[DG]

I am a fairly hardcore flyfisher, 100+ days per year, but my interest wanes rapidly away from the river. I am not political about it, don't belong to groups, clubs, associations, etc. I used to be much more active here, but my interest wanes every time this site goes through a period where people can't keep their opinions and facts separate. Attractive women aside, flyfishing is about 50% of my hobbies, shooting about 30%, and birding about 20%.