Mostly, people are curious and ask questions about it. I have had the "no trout around here" comments but for the most part, people want to know more about it. I've let other fishermen cast my rods and try to spread the word about fly fishing.

Sometimes, I get a lot of questions about the fish in a particular stream or lake and how to fish for them. It seems around here, there are very few fly fishermen and some folks seem to think because I'm using fly fishing gear that makes me some kind of expert fisherman.

However, most of the comments are arouund "isn't that really hard to do." For some reason, a lot of people seem intimidated by the prospect of fly fishing like there is some great mystery that only practitioners of the black arts can master. I did make one convert last summer though. A guy who I let cast my rod and fish a little bit asked a lot of questions. A couple weeks later, I saw the guy at the same lake with a brand new TFO 5wt fly rod. We talked a while. He asked for some tips about the casting and equipment. I gave him a few flies I had tied that worked well in that particular lake. Since then, I've seen the guy with his fly rod a number of times and his casting and catching have gotten much better.

Jeff