Went to the bank today to transfer some funds. The teller was a young man who noticed my FAOL hat, and asked me if I was a flyfisherman. I opened my mouth to reply with the automatic response that I’ve given in the past, and wanting to be entirely truthful, I hesitated for a few uncomfortable moments while I asked myself the same question. The hesitation was prompted by the fact that I’d been fishing only twice this year, and one of those times didn’t count. The first time was from a boat on a reservoir, trolling leech patterns, and the second time I was wading, and the wind was blowing so hard that the cast wouldn’t go anywhere near where I wanted it to go. I’ve caught two fish this year, and both were on flies trolled from a boat. In reply to his query, I mumbled something on the order of: “Well, I used to be”. I half-heartedly explained that it was due to age and infirmity, not wanting to go into any detail of my excuses for not being “out there”. I’d be lying if I said that they were valid reasons. I’ve got bum knees, and my balance on a slick rocky bottom is pretty shaky. My wife is disabled and needs help every day, and has become another built-in excuse for not doing what it takes. So, the questions jumps to the forefront of my mind. Can I call myself a flyfisherman? Do I need to turn in the hat? Have I got the gumption to do what it takes to mitigate the obstacles and try to rekindle some of the fire that I used to feel? I look at the posts on this board, and suffer pangs of envy that I’m not willing, or am unable to do most of the things that everyone else is doing and enjoying. My old passion was flipping dry flies to trout in small streams and rivers, which entails hiking and climbing and busting through the willows. I know that I could still do some of that if I would just get out of the Lazy Boy and get to the gym and work on getting some tone on and some weight off, and work on the joints and ligaments. I know how tough that can be when you’re my age, but the phrase from “Andy”, in the Shawshank Redemption comes to mind. “Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.” Differing circumstances, but I think if works. You’re not a truck driver if you don’t drive trucks. You’re not a skydiver if you don’t jump out of airplanes. You’re not a fly tyer if you don’t get on the vise, and you’re not a flyfisherman if you don’t fish with flies. It’s something you used to be. I’m not quite ready for that, so I’m working up the resolve to do something about it. You’re not gettin’ my hat back yet!!
For health reasons I have not been out much this year either. Bill DeSavage gave me an FAOL hat in the spring when we met in Michigan. I fished the Rifle that week end and hardly scared fish let alone caught any. The day I was diagnosed with cancer I went to a small pond with a Tenkara rod and fished, dapped, for bluegills. I have been treated and “cured” since then. I only started fly fishing three or four years ago after 40 years of not fishing at all. I think about tying and fishing all the time. I try to “tie a fly every day”. I plan on going fishing more next year. If you tie flies, cast flies, think about tying flies, or think about casting flies, and, think about occasionally catching a fish on a fly… you are a fly fisher. And, my phrase for it, I do not plan on “wasting oxygen” either. I’m keeping the hat. Thanks, Bill. And, thank you too, Lew.
I’m another who has had to cut back on my fly fishing. I went only one time this last season, fly fishing from a pontoon boat, and caught only one fish. My balance and strength has all but abandoned me. The rest of my fishing days I fear are going to be from my jon boat, but that’s OK. At least I’ll be fishing. Except for the 7’ 5-6 wieght fiberglass rod that nighthawk gave me, I’ve cut my rod quiver down to just 2 workable fish sticks. I do plan on using the fiberglass rod from my jon boat next year for crappies and bluegills and look forward with a smile in doing so. Up until yesterday I walked on a cane. But yesterday I believe I tore a meniscus and now walk on two canes. I’m sure I have knee surgery in my future and that will preclude even more fishing. However, with all this in mind, I will continue to tie flies, and I will continue to at least plan on fly fishing. I will continue to dream of fly fishing/camping trips with friends. Sometimes I miss just plain casting so much that I take a stool out to my yard and throw a line for a while. My neighbors think I’m crazy and ask if I’m catching anything. I answer “Just grass carp.” As long as fly fishing is in my heart and mind, I’ll continue to say “Yes, I’m a fly fisherman.” Thanks Lew, for forcing me to thinks about it.
I hate to sound all Zen about it but I think it’s part of who you are when it’s something you really enjoy. No matter how often you get to the river I think all you guy’s are fly fisherman. Just my two cents.
there are only a very VERY select few people who get to do what they WANT to do, as much as they want to… Mostly choices we have made, and also choices which have been made for us, cause us to be doing something other than what we really WANT. But then we must be forced once in a while to examine what it is we really want. I want to be a good provider and a good father and a good husband too… so it looks as if I’ll probably be working until I die to pay for a nice house, clothes, food, taking care of crap like that while I’d rather be fishing. I get to fish an hour here, a couple hours there maybe, in so-so quality water… maybe get to hunt squirrels on crowded public land a few hours a year, this year deer hunting looks out of the question. I WANT to instill the same outdoors hunting/fishing values in my son that my Dad did with me somehow, but it ain’t easy to compete with modern technology and how a tween-age brain works these days.
So YES, I’m a fly fisherman and a hunter to the core of my being, even though I don’t get to do “much” at all anymore. I’m going to start taking the time and money to go on a hunting or fishing trip somewhere every dam’ year from now on, because we just don’t know how many chances we might get. I love that quote, you better "get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’. " It is SO true.
Once a fly fisherman always a fly fisherman.
I figure a Fly rod, Fly Line, Leader, Fly…yup that is fly fishing. Am I a fly fisher, you bet, am I a Trout Bum, sometimes. Flyfishing is a style, that is all, just a choice. Some feel it is special, well if it is to you, so be it, I personally know no other way. Even if I skip a year (heaven forbid), it is still my chosen type of fishing, so yes, I am a fly fisher.
I wrote this thread during a moment of melancholy in the wee hours, and now in the light of day, I’m abashed at what appears to be a “poor me” wail. I apologize for the characterizations made, of those of us who no longer are able to do what we used to do. The realization that the things we love to do are no longer within our grasp is painful, and I fear that I may have added to that pain. No matter what our infirmities are, there is someone among us whose troubles are worse. My casting arm still works well, and there’s hope for the rotator in the left arm. I can still walk (limp) around and my eyes and ears still function. If I’m relagated to fishing from a boat, it’s still better than not being able to fish at all. I’m thankful for what I still have. I wish you all well in your struggles with the inevitable limitations that come to us all if we hang around long enough. You youngsters enjoy it while you can.
Lew,
No problems here. I appreciated your thread for what it was. It gave me a chance to reflect and that’s always good in my eyes. Sometimes we just need to vent to family, and that’s what we are here at FAOL, Family. Limitations of one kind or another are a binding factor that helps to tie us all together. Whether we like it or not, life is about change. Sometimes good changes and sometimes no so good. How we handle those changes determines our character. So, not to worry.
If you fish with the fly, no matter how often, then you are a fly fisherman.
I am a Fly Angler, since 1995!
I have been a member of FAOL, since October 1997!
Just what does it take, or mean, to be considered a Fly Angler?
Fly Angling (Fishing) is comprised of many different topics. How each of us build-up on our knowledge pertaing to fly fishing, is a individual’s private quest into previously unlearned knowledge.
So many topics and path ways to follow down, never knowing where what you have learned and experience, will next lead you.
The knowledge you have gained, and the experiences that you have had, the people you have meet, are some of what you have added to all of the previous contribution of other fly angler who have taken up the long rod…
I currently am limited by my health, and financial status to take part in fishing expeditions (Fish-Ins), but I still participate in Fly Angling with articles for FAOL, and hosting “Beginner’s Only Fly Swaps” (in memory of Al Campbell!
If you are reading FAOL, you are a Fly Angler…where every Fly Angler counts…
~Parnelli
Chartered Member of “Friends of FAOL”
Lew:
I, too, appreciated your thread as I have been impacted by things this year like no time before in my life. And, yes, it doesn’t take long to find out your life is better when compared to the next person. We are still fly fishers and we still wear the hat. Like so many have said, it is a state of mind more than a trip to a river.
Thank you, again.
Bill
Just ME talking but there is a difference in “Fishing a Fly” and “a Fly Fisher”. You can put a fly on a spinning outfit, in that case, you are fishing a fly, or a lure.
Fly Fishing is using a rod with different guides, a reel that is backing and fly line, to which leader/tippet/fly, using the LINE to get the fly out on the water. Just like using the rod/reel/line/leader/HOOK and a Worm, you are bait fishing.
I didn’t take it that way at all. I apologize if my reply made it seem as if I did… Everyone will experience a day when they must confront reality. And I don’t mean reality like “oh no, my internet connection is slow” or “my cel phone battery is dead”…
I bitch and whine constantly about not having time to devote to fishing and hunting— and then after a while I remember I’ve always had a roof over my head, I’ve never been truly hungry, I’ve never been truly alone, Mom and Dad and God and Uncle Sam instilled values in me which I try to live up to every day, my son is a really good kid, my wife makes really good chili(most of the time…), and I’ve made a positive influence in a few people’s lives… so I feel better.
Being a Fly Fisher is not defined by ones activity level, it’s a state of mind. Which partly explains why we’re all head cases to some extent.
Seriously,
During my years in the shops, etc, I’ve met literally thousands of anglers. Most of them identified themselves by their participation in years. " I’ve been fly fishing for so many years ".
Rarely have I spoken to an angler who identified their participation by days or sessions on the water. While many admitted to not having fly fished in some years, they all still identified themselves as fly fishers.
One of the most talented American commercial tiers I’ve ever known hadn’t actually fly fished in sixteen years when I met him and he didn’t fish for another half dozen years after that. Yet, he was a walking encyclopedia of fly fishing and tying knowledge and still identified with being a fly fisher. Truth is, for all the anglers I’ve met in my life, most fly fished rarely.
So Lew, you’re still a fly fisher, you just haven’t been on your next fly fishing trip - yet.
See you on the water, Dave
I’m heartened by all your replies, and promise not to whine any more. Forgive me for being a bit envious of you who can still get to those places where I’d truly love to go. I’d dearly love to explore both sides of the Sierra. I only fished there once (East side) back in 1964, and circumstances have kept me from returning. I climbed Mt. Whitney that same year and had a look at both sides. It’s truly some of the most beautiful country on the planet, and I’m not easily impressed. I guess it’s the same for everybody. There’s always going to be some creek or river or lake that you’d love to fish.
Lewie, you are and will always be a fly fisher and so tagged a fly fisher.
fly fidhing, as said, is a state of mind. when i fish,it is not always flyfishing but i usaully ask yself would it not be great if i could catch these fish with a flyrod. sometimes the bite is not right for a flyrod, like weth the smallies are 30ft down on a rocky ledge. but i usually associate myself as a flyfisher.
Several years ago I posted an “are you a fly fisherman ( or whatever as to gender?) or do you merely fly fish?” post herein. Answering my own question I stated that I merely fly fish. A fly fisherman , in MY opinion based on observation of many years, is a bit of a nutcase 
to whom fly fishing is the alpha and omega of things to do. He has waaayyyy more fly fishing stuff than he needs. His friends are almost all of the same persuasion. He travels MILES to fly fishing shows and spend more than a day there ( I spend about an hour). Ties his own flys. Builds his own rods. Is member of several fly fishing clubs and associations ( I’m a member of TU. Pay my dues but seldom attend meetings). FAOL is the only fly fishing website I take time to visit. I have been to several Fish-Ins and drank my share ( I hear, they’re really meant for fishing).
Needless to restate, I, with noted exceptions, don’t practice or do any of those things that would make a fly fisherman of me. I enjoy fly fishing VERY much BUT, that’s where it ends, I fish (fly) Wyoming once a year and have done that for about 40 years on and off since school at UW, own only ONE Orvis ( gifted- a green one) rod and a TFO 4pc that I won here on FAOL. Vacations, unless Wyoming, never include a flyrod ( or golf clubs. Much for the same logic)
In view of the above, I do not consider myself a fly fisherman.
Mark
I am definitely a Fly Fisher:cool: