Tonight as I was out fishing with my hera rod I was thinking just what is “fly fishing”? To me it is using any type of rod or pole or even none at all as long as it is the weight of the line that carries the fly to the target. The way I was rigged up tonight, though my micro jig and indicator were certainly light enough to be cast with a fly rod, I am fairly certain it was their weight and not the weight of the line that was doing the work. However were I to add a bit of fly line or a furled leader to the outfit, presto chango, it’s the weight of the line doing the work and I’m fly fishing.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree and why.
Right off the top of my head, I would say that basically fly fishing is fishing with a fly as the attractor/bait/lure. The fly isn’t heavy enough to deliver itself to the intended target, so a form of fly casting a line heavy enough to do the trick is needed. When it comes down to the rawest meaning of fly fishing, I suppose it could be done with a spinning rod, monofilament line, and a weighted bobber. There are however, as many different definitions of fly fishing as there are fly fishers. So, never mind. I’m not going to say what I just said.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Likewise, I think, the definition of fly fishing is in the mind of the angler. What one person thinks is fly fishing others may disagree. For instance I don’t think fishing with a jig is fly fishing even with a fly rod. However if I catch a fish with spinning rod & bubble and a regular fly to me that is fly fishing. Basic I think Lotech Joe and I are in accord on this subject.
Tim
That is a question each person must answer orf themselves. remember the arguement in past of those who used flies that did not float were fly fishing.
Also when the first sythentics came out were those creations really flies.
Rick
If the “bait” determines the method; maybe the first question to ask is, what is a fly or what constitutes a a jig? :roll:
[ul]
[li]Is a beadhead, conehead, dumbell eyed fly, a fly…or a micro jig?[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Is an epoxy creation or lacquered up whatever, a fly…or a tiny plug?[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Is a hunk of foam or rubber impaled on a hook with a bit of hackle added, a fly…or a finesse soft plastic bait?[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Is an ultra realistic creation a fly…or a sculpture?[/li][/ul]As for me, I really don’t care what folks do or what they call it as long as it is legal, they are having fun and they don’t put down someone else’s way of enjoying the pursuit!
Maybe that’s because I fish anyway that suits the situation and that includes LOTS of non-fly fishing. I never feel compelled to apologise or explain my choices or felt is was necessary to define my fishing methodology when conversing with other anglers or the uninitiated.
I just tell folks I went fishin’. 
Some of the conehead streamers I cast to trout weigh a lot more than the crappie jigs I cast for shad, and I bet either could be cast reasonable well with an ultralight spinning rod; same would probably hold true for some of the weighted stonefly nymphs in my box. I won’t even get into saltwater flies, where some of them are so big I have to go up to 12-13wt rods just to get them moving through the air. Still, as far as I’m concerned, if you’re casting with a flyrod, it’s fly fishing; in these cases maybe a more dangerous (to this caster) form of flyfishing (I have been tempted to use one of my son’s old batting helmets). I will draw the line at lobbing bait with a flyrod, something which I have done with success for baby tarpon that would have nothing to do with any flies we tried; that was fun, almost as much as learning how to use a cast net to gather bait.
Regards,
Scott
IMO, fishin’s fishin.
Some people say (I personally know several) that if you aren’t fishing a dry fly on top of the water, you aren’t fly fishing. :roll:
Personally, I’ve used a bubble on a spinning outfit with a FLY at the end of the line (very underrated tactic BTW) in NY for Steelhead with GREAT success! In fact, especially on the Niagara river, this gave me a very BIG advantage over the “fly fishers” in that I could get out into the river a lot further and still get a good drift (egg patterns most of the time). The fish out there were in far better shape (didn’t look beat up and half dead), and actually put up a good fight.
Was I “fly fishing”? Given that I personally tied the egg patterns I was using to catch the fish (see below), I would say so. :mrgreen: Who cares what the rod and reel look like? 
One is fly fishing and the other is fishing with a fly! That should explain it in a nut shell, or is it an explanation by a nut - you decide!!
Best regards, Dave S.
Fishing the long rod has been a long debated and controversial subject. Certainly the old timer who took me under his wing many, many years ago certainly had his view and I should say influenced my thinking. And I should say he was a master of the sport, not only a superb handler of the rod but an artist of fly tying. In his book fly fishing was on the surface, with a dry fly. You varied from that, say with a nymph, you were not fly fishing.
It was my understanding that the original long rod “anglers” were trying to fish the surface.
Amen to that.
For me, flyfishing is when I use my fly gear. Usually, it’s conventional flies delivered in a conventional manner, but I’m not above hooking a ripe muhlberry and tossing it out to some feasting carp. It it flyfishing? Sorta. But it sure is fun!
Thanks for all the insightful and interesting replies. I think from now on when I’m out fly fishing with my Hera rod I’ll worry less if it’s really fly fishing and just enjoy another aspect of the sport of fishing.
I try not to really ponder it myself. I do what it takes to catch fish. I don’t ever look down upon people who use other types of gear for something I might not consider fly fishing though there are those that do. Even some here on this board. To each their own.
One of the most enjoyable things you can do is to set up a kid with light spinnig gear, a bubble (dare I say bobber on this site) float and a dry fly on the end of their line.
Just don’t worry. Be happy. If it feels like fly fishing to you then in your mind’s eye it is. That’s what really counts.
In my most humble opinion , in order to be properly labeled as “fly fishing” one must, among other requisites, absolutely dress for the part.
Much UNLIKE the dude in the pic.
But Mark, I got-a say at least the fish looks good!
Feathers and Fur, Feathers and F u r. (and some synthetics)
Hmmmm, if I picked up a buddy at 4:00AM and if at 4:15 he had asked me what was fly fishing? I would have ignored him. If he had asked a second and third time, I probably would have turned around and taken him back home. If he couldnt make up his own mind he’s too weak of a person to run with me. He doesnt have to agree with me, but he better have his own opinion and be ready to defend it. He doesnt have to win an agruement, but he needs to defend his stance. I really dont want anyone to ask me that on the way to the river. I am afraid you might slice your wrists if you dont catch a fish in the top three inches of the rivers surface. Lets have this discussion around the water cooler in the first ten minutes that you find out I fly fish. That way I can never take you with me to the river and worry if I should contact a suicide prevention hotline.
AND, that WAS a nice cutt.
The point I should have stressed is that I am not ANAL about anything ,much less something as" trivial"as fishing . I’ve been “fly” fishing for almost 50 years and still enjoy doing it MY way . Anyone can call it whatever they wish and I won’t care a hoot. All I know is: I LOVE to do “it”.
Mark
I too believe in dressing the part.
I’ve met hundereds of Great Lakes steelheaders that would disagree to a man. Many spinfisherman and center pinners use flies. Your picture is not of a fresh run fish, either. Many people flyfish for steelhead-which means actually casting using the weight of the line, as opposed to chuck and duck, for the challenge and sport. A fly that has thread and one material that imitates a common bait, cast on a
spinning rod is really stretching the meaning. NY state regs. would agree. However, you look to have had a great time and the Niagra isn’t a that much of a flyrod friendly river. Spey, switch, and longer one handed rods do a great job of fishing farther drifts. I have no problem how you caught it, but it’s not flyfishing.
I agree with the folks that say fly fishing is when the fly line weight is used to propel the fly. Other than that, it get muddy.
Flies must have thread? Gummy Minnow is then not a fly? I would call it a fly, but I don’t use them . . . It would rather tie a Deceiver or other more normal streamer. But I won’t talk down to people that use them.