Wish there were a poll option here.
I am an aging fly fisherman. I am 68 and have no problems YET, but know my wading days may be numbered.
Just wonder, at what age have others felt they needed to hang up their rod.
I am not talking about bank fishing. I am talking about wading in fairly swift water.
Thanks
I’m 74 and plan to spend my 75th fishing the St. Joe in Idaho with my kid brother this September before heading down to Lowell, ID to the Idaho Fish-In!
Tomorrow I’m meeting some friends to beat the Duck River here in Tennessee to a froth!!
I did have some serious eye surgery in Dec. but that’s healed up now!
That bodes well for others.
Thanks, Jack
75 years and on the river yesterday. Find that most times I don’t need to get into the water. When I wade it is with a staff (old ski pole).
OK, we are up to 75…any more bids?
I am 66 and feel I am still in pretty good shape although right now I am recovering from rotator cuff surgery on my casting arm and hope to be released to fly fish again on April 14th. I am going to therapy 3 times per week and, according to my therapist, progressing very well. I have not cast a fly rod or fished since surgery on January 31st, and, yes, I am going stir crazy!
Prior to the surgery, I have noticed that I do not wade in moving water past my waist like I use to. My balance is not what it use to be, but, I have worked on improving my casting to reach areas that I use to get closer to by wading. I am still able to wade fast moving water (carefully) and I am still able to paddle my NuCanoe and explore many miles of the rivers here which I really enjoy. The NuCanoe eliminates a lot of walking and wading for me and that is a plus. At the present time, I do not see a time in my life where I will hang up my fly rod unless for a major health issue that would have to be so serious that it would put me down.
Warren,
I no longer go out over my waist, and I do carry a ski pole with me. At times I do take my toon out on a lake, and even then I do ware a
CGA Life vest. I will be turning 80 April 4th and am looking forward to it. To stay in practice I cast at the local park from the pitchers mound.
Not many fish there but I try right and left handed casting. The distance from the mound to the bases is about all I need for the places I
fish in N. Idaho. And besides I haven’t lost a single fly to a tree or bush, and you don’t have to match the hatch. The walk to the park is
good therapy for me after my hip replacement. I even have a couple kids that want to learn to fly cast.
Crunchy
I’m 80 and turned to stillwater fishing when I couldn’t wade anymore…sad memories since I remember when I used to wade up to my arm pits in the Deschutes…not an easy river to wade.
Folks around here think I’m doing well considering last summer when I was 79 I shot one less than my age playing golf.
Check out my article in the next issue of FAOL. It speaks to this point.
The Chronicler
I don’t know how you folks are going to face up to puberty. 
I admit that I no longer wade but I have been pond fishing from my canoes and from shore.
I’m also still active in a fly tying club that I started decades ago.
My age: I’ll be 87 this summer. Some say I’m on the slippery slope but they forget that I’m wearing spike cleats.
There also is a guy in my club that is slightly older than me.
I am still green behind the ears, of course that green is moss, but what the heck. Nope not the oldest here, nor the youngest. I figure I still have many, many more years of fishing in Montana and WA left in me at 67. Larry —sagefisher—
I will be 80 in June. I wade with a staff, in October I was steelheading on the Clearwater in Idaho and at the end of this week, I’m heading up to Casper, Wyoming to fish the North Platte at Grey Reef! I’m not as spry as I once was, but plan on fishing until they pry my flyrod from my cold dead fingers !!!
I am between 79 & 80. I manage a coupe days on the water each week. I now prefer my high Mtn lake fishing from my toon, but do get in a bit of very careful wading now & then. I have not stepped into any water including the bath tub without my Fallstaff in hand for a couple years now. I do not think it is as much an age thing, more of each persons medical thing.
Just go fishin
Denny
I’m 70 and my husband 74 - he started picking up driftwood sticks probably 30 years ago to help with wading, and we have both progressed to staffs, but still out there giving it a try. Just stay a bit shallower and slower.
I’ve been blessed with good health and it is a blessing! I’ve had to make some adjustments like using a wading staff and fishing 1/2 day instead of from dawn to dark. I can cast as well as I ever could. Takes me longer to change flies. I still love it! Eighty-two in June. Thought I’d be the winner. Congratulations Ray! Keep movin’.
I’ll soon be 68, and my best friend, who I fish with several or more days each week all summer, is 78. We both still hike to fish, and wade (too often over my wader tops for me) but I’m sure we each have slowed year-to-year, and become a bit more careful.
I also spend quite a bit of time fishing in my drift boat and pontoon. As long as I have the strength to row, they are options in the event that I can no longer walk and wade to fish.
I’m coming up 80 this year, a few of us born in 1934 on this board!
I still wade to a limited degree … depth to my knees only and in the nicer places (use to call them the sissy areas!). But a large portion of my fly fishing is done from the canoe (sitting down of course!), lucky that I have some waters where it can be used.
If you’re only as old as you feel I’m the winner hands down. I’ll be 70 next month and it’s not the calendar or the mental years that cut the rug out from under me but COPD. I was fine until about two years or so ago, then things went downhill fast. Now I’m kind of limited to wading where I can walk in and stand without much shifting. That and I’ve been hiring guided float trips the last year or so and that works and can jump out and fish a bit here and there too. Heart’s strong, body’s strong, but for a guy who hasn’t smoked in over 45 years, wore a mask whenever I did anything dusty, at home or at work, I feel I kind of got shafted on the lung thing.
One thing that will help is that the Elk City park pond is well stocked with panfish and bass for kids and over 70 and I plan to wail on that water starting next month. If any of those kids get in my way I’ll beat them with my cane. I’ll become known as the terror of the Elk City Park Pond.
72 troding along wade fish last week and use a wading staff ,have a burning sensation in my right leg when walking fast for a period of time having a ultra sound scan tomorrow. Plan on wading a lot more
This is a very encouraging thread, as a youngster of 68 I feel like I may have another 20 years or so of fishing (if I can eliminate that flipping of float tube type action). I talked to my 88 year old mom last night and she was wanting to get out and cut her grass, except she now has trouble starting her mower.