I have an admission to make, I'm a reading nut. I've always enjoyed reading.
Occasionally I enjoy a good fiction book, a thriller, a sci-fi, but most of
my reading is in the non-fictional area. I love reading about history, or a
good "How-To" book, or a book on specific techniques used for gardening,
woodworking, fishing, etc. I've always said that the more you know about as
many different things, the better off you are. I refer to it as raising my
"BS Ratio" or the ability to talk with any level of person, at or near their
level, on nearly any subject, and have them know that your not feeding them a
line. What this is leading to is that I've been doing some reading lately on
a lot of little known (or used) fishing techniques. Most of these come from
some of the "Old Dogs" of fly fishing, although I hope they don't take offense
at the term, it's meant as a compliment. I'm talking about guys like Lefty
Kreh, Dave Whitlock, Gary Borger, Flip Pallot, etc. People, who at times, are
a bit controversial, but you have to admit, they are knowledgeable on their
subject matter!
I was reading one of Lefty Kreh's books which included a round table
discussion with a bunch of these guys. The subject at the time was
"presentation". One said that the fly had to be presented one way, another
disagreed or showed an exception, and they talked at length about the
different presentation styles. One that I had never considered for pan
fishing, especially bass, was mentioned and really caught my attention, mostly
because it broke a lot of rules. It really got some of their feathers
ruffled! Even the word "rule" sometimes makes my hair stand up, it intones a
sense of forced conformity. (Just ask JC what I think of his rule of
"upstream and dry...") Being a history buff, it also makes me want to find
out who started these rules, why they were "set" and who's going to enforce
them if they're broke? I'm not talking about Legal Laws here, we know who
enforces them. I'm talking about things like "matching the hatch", "this
weight line on this weight rod", "dry and upstream", "make the fly land on the
water first", "always use this style of knot to tie this to that", the "rules"
go on and on. One very critical thing I have learned in life is the fact that
for every rule there are exception(s) to that rule.
Sometimes it's necessary to break a rule, like when you weren't expecting a
particular hatch to occur and you didn't bring that particular fly or your
vice with you that day. How many of us get back into the vehicle and drive
back home to get that fly? Especially if it takes several hours for the round
trip? You scold yourself for not being prepared, then start going through
your fly boxes for something you feel might work instead. That's, officially,
"breaking a rule". It's also called creative thinking, emergency measures,
doing the best of a bad situation, etc. The amazing thing I've found is that,
for some reason, if the fish are on the bite, especially during the beginning
of a big hatch, and worked into a frenzy, they'll hit anything that hits the
water, matched or not! I've also noticed that warm water pan fish are even
less fussy about the matter. Bass for example are fairly territorial. If you
can get a fly into they're territory, regardless of what it looks like, their
aggressive instinct kicks in and they'll normally go after it.
Another thing I have to admit at times I go out fly fishing with
premeditated intent on breaking rules. I call it "experimenting". It's not
that I want to be known as one of fly fishing's social malcontents, it's
because I want to gain knowledge and experience. That way when someone says,
"I'm having a problem casting into the wind, every time I do, this
happens...." I'll read up on techniques for casting into the wind, not just
one persons opinion, but several opinions, then I'll go out on a windy day and
cast. I'll try all of the "conventional" techniques, then I'll start varying
them, then I throw them out completely and try totally unconventional things.
Somewhere along the line I find the same problem that the person who asked
what to do about it asked. Okay, so now I know what they're doing, and from
there I try to find a correction for it. I'm not an instructor by any means
and I haven't watched hundreds of people learning to cast, but at least next
time I'm asked what to do, I have some idea of what's causing the problem and
what worked for me to correct it.
So break a few rules! Put a nymph on a floating line or a dry on a sinking
tip. Shorten your cast stroke instead of ripping your shorts. Tie a few
weird looking variations of a "normal" fly and see what happens. Let the line
and leader hit the water before the fly. Don't match the hatch. Fish down
stream and wet. Try fishing all day with the same fly and just change
presentation techniques. Compare letting a popper sit for five minutes to
ripping it through a stand of lily pads. Try casting with the other hand for
a day. You'll be amazed at how much you learn by breaking the rules!
~ Randy Fratzke
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