Fly Fishing Mysteries

FAOL Community Sound Off
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Hare’s Ear’s post about tree grabbing flies got me thinking. Fly fishing remains a mystery to me, especially when I go fishing and these things happen. I stand there and ask myself, how come?[ul]* ?my fly snags on my waders, shirt, pants, hat, trees, rocks, and everything else except the corner of a fishes mouth?
*?leader to tippet knots & tippet to fly knots come undone but tangles are forever?
*?waders don?t leak when it?s really hot and humid?
*?the flies I spend all night tying for a trip don?t work and the flies I already had do?
*?I always run out of the tippet size I never use?
*?when I need to retrieve a snagged fly, I?m wearing hippers and the pool in front of the snag is 4 feet deep?
*?no matter how many pit stops I made on the way, nature calls immediately after the waders are on?
*?a trout will attack a leaf, feather, cigarette butt, or gum wrapper but ignore my offerings?
*…the worst tangles happen at dusk during a hatch with tons of rising fish all around?
*?when I forget my fishing license, the ranger shows up?
*? sinking dry flies & floating wet flies sometime work better than floating dry flies & sinking wets?
*?the tree branch always grabs the back-cast JUST BEFORE I attempt to deliver the fly?
*?the hatch I drove 2 hours to fish was ?better last week? no matter when I get there?
*?a 6? trout on a dry fly makes you happy but a 12? chub pi$$es you off?
*?the item you can?t be without, never seems necessary when you forget it at home?
*?when I get up at 2:00 am to get, ?my spot?, nobody shows up at the creek all day?
*?when I am fishing tiny flies and gossamer tippets, the wind ONLY blows when I?m casting?
*?scratching the hatch works just as well as matching the hatch? [/ul] ?Hatch-es, hatch-es?I don?t need no stinkin? hatch-es!?

What are your fly fishing mysteries?

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(you watching me or something)
Others that really leave me scratchin are :

  • all day you can lay a cast anywhere on the water you want with precision - even a 40ft cast, in wind, to place the fly between the tree branches to reach that honey hole. That is … until it is the last fly of that pattern that’s catching fish, then the trees will eat it and spook the fish.
  • fishing a freestone stream, I will always find that one rock that is big enough to steal a fly.
  • warmwater fishing for toothless ones (read: mono tippet) … a gator (aka pike) will always like your fly better than the miniscule food sources around.
  • on a 90 degree day - when you take only chest waders to get into the river, the river is only 2 ft deep.
  • work an area for a while with no success - high, low, dry, wet - nada. Then set the boy up to get going, and in that hole, and he pulls in the biggest fish of the day - same fly - same set-up.