MINIMALISM
Have you taken a trip to the grocery store lately? What about the mall, or even your local fly fishing shop? If you have you have undoubtedly noticed that we have too many choices. Take a trip down the cereal aisle at your local food store. How many different ‘flavors’ of Cheerios™ do we need? If you have examined the bins at your local fly shop you might well ask yourself the same question about certain imitations. How many different types of dry caddis imitations do we realistically need? What about midge patterns? Let’s face it – we have too many choices which ultimate equals the reality that we have TOO MUCH STUFF.
Occasionally, in various sporting endeavors, you read about someone reverting to the rudiments, the historic roots of the sport. There seems to be something purer, something simpler, something more wholesome about reverting to doing things the way they were practiced in earlier times. Perhaps that is part of the lure of some of the fly fishing methods that currently have become somewhat the vogue in certain areas. However, my idea of minimalism has less to do with the equipment that we use and more to do with the amount of stuff that we think we need each time we hit the water.
The dictionary gives the following definition for minimalism: Minimalism: achieved by using a few very simple elements to maximum effect. The key is to use a few simple elements to their maximum effectiveness. Let’s see what this idea looks like in practice.
Often when I am fishing I encounter the angler with a vest bulging with fly boxes, a landing net dangling from the back, one of those necklaces hanging around his neck complete with every kind of fly fishing accessory available, and enough tippet material to tie a complete set of leaders for anything from trout to marlin! It’s worse than the backpacks that I see kids carrying to school. I wonder, how often does he use that stuff?
Perhaps it’s my advancing years, but that looks like carting all that stuff around is a lot of work. Now there are times when I my vest is bulging with fly boxes and various other pieces of fly fishing paraphernalia, but those times are limited to those few occasions when I may be far from my vehicle and I may be fishing in various types of situations.
I think that one of the reasons that most of us tend to carry too much stuff is that we are far less competent than we should be. We hit the water and we don’t have a clue what kinds of flies that we need so we take everything we have. Some people carry two of everything – just in case. Maybe, if they did their homework they could leave half that stuff at home or at least in their vehicle.
There are various degrees of minimalism. Some will head out with a fly box stuck in their shirt pocket, a bottle of fly floatant, and a spool of tippet material, while some will opt for a small pack containing a couple fly boxes, tippet material, a couple spare leaders, and a bottle of floatant. They might even carry a net stuck in their wader belt. I tend to gravitate toward the latter group.
I prefer to wear a vest for the sake of organization. I find it easier to locate things in a vest than I do in a waist or chest pack. A vest also allows me to carry a rain jacket for those times when I’m too far from my car or other shelter and a brief shower turns into a downpour. My motto has always been; “The fish are supposed to be cold and wet, the fisherman is supposed to be warm and dry.”
My fly boxes are organized according to the types of flies that they contain: caddis patterns – pupa and adults, midges – larva, pupa and adults, mayflies – nymphs, emergers, duns, cripples, and spinners, and terrestrials. I have separate boxes for lake flies and streamers, as well as boxes for attractors and warm water species. I have boxes of flies that I have set up over the years for specific places. These boxes are filled with flies that have proven effective over the years under most circumstances and it is a rare occasion when I cannot find a fly from these boxes that will match the angling situation that I encounter when fishing a specific place. I have fly boxes set up for the various seasons on the local spring creeks, Yellowstone National Park, the Big Horn River, and the local freestone streams. If I head out for an evening of fishing on the Yellowstone River behind my house I select a couple boxes of flies that are appropriate for the time of year when I am fishing and I’m set to go.
When I go out for a day of fishing I pick out the fly types I need for the water that I will be fishing and they go in my vest. I have a bottle of fly floatant, a couple tippet spools, and a couple extra leaders. I carry a pair of hemostats and clippers. Usually I carry a landing net but if I want to go extra light I leave the net and hand land my fish. A small aquarium net, a stomach pump and some insect repellent fill out the compliment of stuff that I carry on an average day on the water. If I think it might rain I stick my rain jacket in the back of my vest.
Minimalism is not for everyone, but I have found that it pushes me to be a better angler. First, it has forced me to know the types of insects that inhabit the waters that I am fishing. I carry fewer fly boxes which greatly reduces the bulk in my vest. Secondly, it has allowed me to concentrate more on my presentation skills. With fewer flies to choose from I need to fish each fly with more confidence and I believe that has improved my hooking success. If I get a refusal I am less likely to resort to automatically changing flies. Rather than changing flies I change my casting angle, present the fly from different position or stop casting altogether and spend some time watching the fish to see if I have made the proper fly choice. I’m not ready to go back to Dame Juliana’s jury of twelve flies or horsehair fly lines and 15 foot rods, but my form of modern minimalism is definitely something that I find fits my style of fly-fishing.