What is your biggest myth in fly fishing?
I’ll start off…
“The fish don’t care”.
It has been said so many times and is so illogical…OK so someone some time caught a fish on a bare hook…it is a cop out statement.
There is a mystery to fly casting that only few have solved.
Mark
You need big flies for big fish. Cought a 20" Brown ona size 20 fly.
“The fish didn’t want anything but a <insert pattern here>”
Translation: After thrashing the water all day with no results, I finally managed 1 or 2 fish with this pattern.
or
“You need 7X, minimum, just to be in the game.”
Translation: I can’t drift properly, and the lightest tippet I had was 6X.
“I’m a good caster and can put it in a bucket at 80ft…”
I hear that all the time, mostly just before a major blown opportunity at 1/2 that distance
To be fair, they never said how BIG of a bucket, or after how many hours of trying. 
“You have to have the perfect rod and line taper to land dry flies correctly”. One of my best days of fly fishing came after I:
- broke the whole tip section of a 5-piece rod off.
- proceeded to take off about 18" of tippet with it.
- Tied on a dry fly and caught the most fish I ever had on dries.
For me it’s a lot of the “you HAVE to do it this way” thinking that some fly fishermen have.
“You have to be a good caster to catch fish.”
and
“The fly must look like what the fish are feeding on at the moment.”
You just need to get out, put some flies in front of fish, and they will tell you what they will or will not eat that day.
The whole business about a falling or rising barometer.
Fish don’t care about air pressure, they’re in the water.
Changes in weather and light level affect them but the actual rise and fall of the barometer means nothing.
Not washing dirty vets, hats, etc have “karma” and you catch more fish!
All you do is smell like spoiled fish!
A properly tied Catskill style fly will float upright on the tips of its hackles supported by the ends of its tail with the hook riding above the water.
Not in this universe.
“I consistently cast over 100 feet with my new 2 handed rod.”
I often hear this even from accomplished casters. Fact is a 100 foot long cast isn’t all that easy and most can’t do them regularly if at all. Even 2 handed casters who can cast well.
“You should have been here yesterday!”
If I could have, I would have so don’t rub it in!
All the best.
Mike
“Flyfishing is more expensive than other types of fishing.”
Sure, it can be, but it certainly doesn’t have to be.
Here’s another one I always questioned. “You need at least 200 yards of backing on a steelhead reel.” Why? I have never had a steelhead take anywhere near 100 yards of backing let alone 2. And if a steelhead did take out over 100 yards of backing in a river you have likely lost it.
From an employee at a local store that carries some fly gear, " It will take 2 years to become a good enough caster to think about catching a fish".
I don’t know about this one Ray. Something tells me there is something to this old dirty hat of mine. I might be wrong but I am not taking any chances and this hat is not getting washed anytime soon.:lol:
you need a $200 reel with an aerospace composite stop-a-freight-train drag system on your 5 weight to catch 12" stocked trout… unless you spring for the $600 Hardy reel which just has a click-pawl… then no drag at all is just fine. Better, even.
What a load of sh**
That one’s laugh out loud funny :lol:
Those old style flies don’t work here.
- Jeff