Simms
New member
Today was a beautiful day here in Massachusetts on the Deerfield River. Brookfield increased the release an hour which made floating down to the 3rd take out possible and hitting some of my favorite spots. The individual whom I was guiding today was very nice, but extremely INEPT in terms of fly fishing. With less than a few days on the water in his entire life, I knew today was going to be a challenge.
So we pulled into FIFE lot and I dragged the raft down to the waters edge. I rigged up the rods, one rod employing a size 2 chubby chernobyl wth a small nymph dropper and one rod with my 250gr sink tip and Maroon Sirloin. With a few demonstrations in the Diamond Hole about how to properly mend, stack mend, and swing flies while we waiting for the gate to open, he thought he had a grasp on it. Chuckling silently, I reluctantly nodded.
The horn went off and the water began to rapidly rise. We jumpe din the boat and headed down to the first hole, keap froging my buddy and his client in front of us. Approaching our first spot where I know fish sit, I told him to strip out some line to make the approaching cast. What looked to be what a monkey fucking a football resembles, he finally got line out and made a "cast" over to the spot in which I indicated. With hopes taking a nose dive quicker than Beetle's sex life, I thought today was going to be a LONGGGG day.
His first cast revealed hydrolics behind the chubby, while another float over the same spot revealed the same fish and it make contact. With the rod tipped lifted out of mere excitement and not proper technique, he button it up. To the net came a beautiful 18'' bow. With that released and the skunk off his back, I again told him to cast over "there", convinced his first attempt WAS LUCK. AGAIN, another fish came up and whacked the Chubby, taking it down almost instantly. The Brodin net scooped up another chunky rainbow and I pulled up the anchor and headed down to the next spot.
"OK," I told myself. This STILL has to be luck. HAS TO BE. To the next spot was an area amongst lots of rapids. I would need to be on the sticks and keep the boat in the zone while he would cast to overhanging grass/branches where hungry trout love to sit. We roll over the first set of rapids and we were quickly decending. Back paddling just enough to keep the boat a touch slower than the surface water, I kept the boat 10 yards out from the bank where I instructed him to cast out the chubby and land it as close as he could to the bank. His first attempted revealed a less than stellar cast but it did not matter. A dandy native brown came up and whacked the chubby with a vengance. Normally I would paddle out of the fast water where one could easily fight the fish, however we were right at the beginning of this FISHY stretch so I just dropped the anchor and let the poor bastard fight the fish in the current so we could take advantage of the rest of the run. Knowing he was a novice, I upped the lb test to prevent premature fish loss. He successfully landed this fish.
So, with him on the front module, up against the lean bar ready to go, I pulled up the anchor and positioned the boat again, the first cast to the bank revealed nothing, however his follow up cast to a downed limb made connection with another rainbow.
LUCK? WHAT THE FUCK.
So, the next section of river was a bunch of long glides and pools so I had time to kick back and let him flale away. It also gave me time to think about what just happened minutes before. A guy, who's barely fly fished in his life has had a better day in the first 400 yards of the float than people with decades of skill. Perhaps the flows just happened to put fish EXACTLY where is was "casting." Perhaps he was a trout whisperer? Or maybe, it was just luck?
We all have experienced this. We all have taken a friend, girlfriend, or family member to the lake or stream, put a fly rod in their hand and they couldn't keep fish of the hook. Is this luck? Of course. It's beginniners luck, but does it run out at some point? Does that lime light go dim and thenyou must pick people's brain, getout there and practice on your own, and develop a relationship with rod and fish, to again be productive?
Does that beginners luck just morph the person into an accomplished fly fisherman, only needing to brush up on types of flies, stream anatomy, and the usual fly fishing "lessons" to compliment their particular "gift" to be able to bring fish to hand?
Or does one lose that beginners luck, left in the fight without any back up, back at ground 0, only needing to build back up with constant practice, reading, and 'being out there?"
These have been a few questions that have constantly floated around in my head since I picked up a fly rod. Now, you may think this is a question easily answered by us seeing we have lived this life cycle of fly fishing. However, it's more complicated than that. Whether the beginners luck has stuck with us and we just complimented such gift with the constant bombardment of reading material, lessons, and picking peoples brain. Or the fact the luck did depart from us, but with our persistant learning and practicing, we got such ability back. Either way, we got to the same spot so it would be impossible to say which path we took to arrive where are today.
Fast forwarding to where we are now, (accomplished fly fisherman) there are still times we find ourselfs nymphing the FUCK out of a particular run with no luck while our buddy just a stones throw away is kick'n ass and takin names, or casting a delicate dry fly to rising trout with boiling trout with not a hook up while our buddy, employing the same fly, cleans up.
WHAT GIVES?
This brings me to my next point, which is confindence. Ever since I began fly fishing, I have been a HUGE believer that confidence is 99% of the fly fishing game. Just take a few minutes and think about it. How many times has the aforementioned happened to one of you? You get to a particular stretch and your buddy begins to whack fish on a bead head Hares Ear, so you put one on, although at your dismay because it's not a fly you would normally chose. Sure enough, GOOSE EGG. You can't buy a fish if you tried, all the while, your buddy is turning the water red. You put on a prince nymph and quickly hook up, although not catching at the rate your buddy is. Perhaps this particulay boulder field layden with trout are just keying on HE's more than anything else. Nothing you can do about it except recognize this. But if you hadn't switched, you would still have that skunk on your back. How many actually would have switched? I've found myself going hours on end with a fly I had NO confidence in, my buddy using the same thing, KILLING THEM, while I kept telling myself, "ITS WORKING FOR HIM< IT WILL WORK FOR ME!" NOPE.
This happened to me the other day while my father and I fished together. My dad had been fishing this particular river for quite some time now. I have only fished it a handful of times in the last few years due to my location here in MASS. So, the whole ride there my father kept reitterating the fact a CDC emerger was the fly of the YEAR here, netting him double digit fish each outing. So, we both tie on a size 16 CDC emerger and approach the water. My pops give me the best spot while he takes a shity tail out. He quickly hooks up and it doesn't stop. Above me, below me, ON TOP OF ME, it didn't matter, he was hooking up, while I sat there in complete disbelief.
I finally threw in the towel and put on a fly I have EXTREME confidence in. Sure enough, the indie went down and I was locked. FISHING THE SAME EXACT spots I was with the CDC emerger. My pops and I both ended up with a slough of fish for the day, however it wouldn't have panned out like it did if I didn't switch to something I had confidence in.
The same holds true for BEADS. Depending on the particular phase of the egg drop or season, I have my GO TO colors...EARLY fall you will NEVER see my rod with a 8mm gloe or 8mm cerise mottled bead. Mid season its 10mm HONEY and Ontario Roe and late season/spring its 10mm Apricot Swirl or Steelhead Snot....THESE are the beadsin which I start out with. If they are not yeilding much action, I will then switch to my next most productive color for that particular season.
Beliving in your fly or bead allows one to fish a spot better, 100%. You KNOW it will catch fish so you approach the river in a stalkingly manner, careful about the shadow that gets cast up the river. You yank out enough line and false cast to a spot just above or below your target to gauge how much line you need. Then, you make the money shot, throwing a quick mend in, rod tip up, following the inicator down. once it gets to that rock, back eddy, or tailout, you just down your indicator will go down. SURE ENOUGH, BAM, hook set! You're locked!
Approaching the same run with a fly you wouldn't care about losing in a tree is a fools errand. YOU WILL NOT fish that particular run with passion, dedication or obession. You will not only miss fish, but you will not even have the slightest movement of your indicator FROM a fish. Approaching the river employing your favorite fly or bead already puts you a few steps above the rest and an advantage over the slimy bastards that reside in the boulder layden field. When your GO TO selection DOESN"T produced, you are OK with it, so you switch and reapproach/refish that area with that same drive as your first did. It's a vicious cycle.
So, is fly fishing beginners luck, learned skill, confidence or a combination of all three?
Sorry for rambling. It's just something I've always thought about over the years. Hope this breaks up the immature posts/threads that have been riddling NEFF for the last few weeks. FUCKERS.
So we pulled into FIFE lot and I dragged the raft down to the waters edge. I rigged up the rods, one rod employing a size 2 chubby chernobyl wth a small nymph dropper and one rod with my 250gr sink tip and Maroon Sirloin. With a few demonstrations in the Diamond Hole about how to properly mend, stack mend, and swing flies while we waiting for the gate to open, he thought he had a grasp on it. Chuckling silently, I reluctantly nodded.
The horn went off and the water began to rapidly rise. We jumpe din the boat and headed down to the first hole, keap froging my buddy and his client in front of us. Approaching our first spot where I know fish sit, I told him to strip out some line to make the approaching cast. What looked to be what a monkey fucking a football resembles, he finally got line out and made a "cast" over to the spot in which I indicated. With hopes taking a nose dive quicker than Beetle's sex life, I thought today was going to be a LONGGGG day.
His first cast revealed hydrolics behind the chubby, while another float over the same spot revealed the same fish and it make contact. With the rod tipped lifted out of mere excitement and not proper technique, he button it up. To the net came a beautiful 18'' bow. With that released and the skunk off his back, I again told him to cast over "there", convinced his first attempt WAS LUCK. AGAIN, another fish came up and whacked the Chubby, taking it down almost instantly. The Brodin net scooped up another chunky rainbow and I pulled up the anchor and headed down to the next spot.
"OK," I told myself. This STILL has to be luck. HAS TO BE. To the next spot was an area amongst lots of rapids. I would need to be on the sticks and keep the boat in the zone while he would cast to overhanging grass/branches where hungry trout love to sit. We roll over the first set of rapids and we were quickly decending. Back paddling just enough to keep the boat a touch slower than the surface water, I kept the boat 10 yards out from the bank where I instructed him to cast out the chubby and land it as close as he could to the bank. His first attempted revealed a less than stellar cast but it did not matter. A dandy native brown came up and whacked the chubby with a vengance. Normally I would paddle out of the fast water where one could easily fight the fish, however we were right at the beginning of this FISHY stretch so I just dropped the anchor and let the poor bastard fight the fish in the current so we could take advantage of the rest of the run. Knowing he was a novice, I upped the lb test to prevent premature fish loss. He successfully landed this fish.
So, with him on the front module, up against the lean bar ready to go, I pulled up the anchor and positioned the boat again, the first cast to the bank revealed nothing, however his follow up cast to a downed limb made connection with another rainbow.
LUCK? WHAT THE FUCK.
So, the next section of river was a bunch of long glides and pools so I had time to kick back and let him flale away. It also gave me time to think about what just happened minutes before. A guy, who's barely fly fished in his life has had a better day in the first 400 yards of the float than people with decades of skill. Perhaps the flows just happened to put fish EXACTLY where is was "casting." Perhaps he was a trout whisperer? Or maybe, it was just luck?
We all have experienced this. We all have taken a friend, girlfriend, or family member to the lake or stream, put a fly rod in their hand and they couldn't keep fish of the hook. Is this luck? Of course. It's beginniners luck, but does it run out at some point? Does that lime light go dim and thenyou must pick people's brain, getout there and practice on your own, and develop a relationship with rod and fish, to again be productive?
Does that beginners luck just morph the person into an accomplished fly fisherman, only needing to brush up on types of flies, stream anatomy, and the usual fly fishing "lessons" to compliment their particular "gift" to be able to bring fish to hand?
Or does one lose that beginners luck, left in the fight without any back up, back at ground 0, only needing to build back up with constant practice, reading, and 'being out there?"
These have been a few questions that have constantly floated around in my head since I picked up a fly rod. Now, you may think this is a question easily answered by us seeing we have lived this life cycle of fly fishing. However, it's more complicated than that. Whether the beginners luck has stuck with us and we just complimented such gift with the constant bombardment of reading material, lessons, and picking peoples brain. Or the fact the luck did depart from us, but with our persistant learning and practicing, we got such ability back. Either way, we got to the same spot so it would be impossible to say which path we took to arrive where are today.
Fast forwarding to where we are now, (accomplished fly fisherman) there are still times we find ourselfs nymphing the FUCK out of a particular run with no luck while our buddy just a stones throw away is kick'n ass and takin names, or casting a delicate dry fly to rising trout with boiling trout with not a hook up while our buddy, employing the same fly, cleans up.
WHAT GIVES?
This brings me to my next point, which is confindence. Ever since I began fly fishing, I have been a HUGE believer that confidence is 99% of the fly fishing game. Just take a few minutes and think about it. How many times has the aforementioned happened to one of you? You get to a particular stretch and your buddy begins to whack fish on a bead head Hares Ear, so you put one on, although at your dismay because it's not a fly you would normally chose. Sure enough, GOOSE EGG. You can't buy a fish if you tried, all the while, your buddy is turning the water red. You put on a prince nymph and quickly hook up, although not catching at the rate your buddy is. Perhaps this particulay boulder field layden with trout are just keying on HE's more than anything else. Nothing you can do about it except recognize this. But if you hadn't switched, you would still have that skunk on your back. How many actually would have switched? I've found myself going hours on end with a fly I had NO confidence in, my buddy using the same thing, KILLING THEM, while I kept telling myself, "ITS WORKING FOR HIM< IT WILL WORK FOR ME!" NOPE.
This happened to me the other day while my father and I fished together. My dad had been fishing this particular river for quite some time now. I have only fished it a handful of times in the last few years due to my location here in MASS. So, the whole ride there my father kept reitterating the fact a CDC emerger was the fly of the YEAR here, netting him double digit fish each outing. So, we both tie on a size 16 CDC emerger and approach the water. My pops give me the best spot while he takes a shity tail out. He quickly hooks up and it doesn't stop. Above me, below me, ON TOP OF ME, it didn't matter, he was hooking up, while I sat there in complete disbelief.
I finally threw in the towel and put on a fly I have EXTREME confidence in. Sure enough, the indie went down and I was locked. FISHING THE SAME EXACT spots I was with the CDC emerger. My pops and I both ended up with a slough of fish for the day, however it wouldn't have panned out like it did if I didn't switch to something I had confidence in.
The same holds true for BEADS. Depending on the particular phase of the egg drop or season, I have my GO TO colors...EARLY fall you will NEVER see my rod with a 8mm gloe or 8mm cerise mottled bead. Mid season its 10mm HONEY and Ontario Roe and late season/spring its 10mm Apricot Swirl or Steelhead Snot....THESE are the beadsin which I start out with. If they are not yeilding much action, I will then switch to my next most productive color for that particular season.
Beliving in your fly or bead allows one to fish a spot better, 100%. You KNOW it will catch fish so you approach the river in a stalkingly manner, careful about the shadow that gets cast up the river. You yank out enough line and false cast to a spot just above or below your target to gauge how much line you need. Then, you make the money shot, throwing a quick mend in, rod tip up, following the inicator down. once it gets to that rock, back eddy, or tailout, you just down your indicator will go down. SURE ENOUGH, BAM, hook set! You're locked!
Approaching the same run with a fly you wouldn't care about losing in a tree is a fools errand. YOU WILL NOT fish that particular run with passion, dedication or obession. You will not only miss fish, but you will not even have the slightest movement of your indicator FROM a fish. Approaching the river employing your favorite fly or bead already puts you a few steps above the rest and an advantage over the slimy bastards that reside in the boulder layden field. When your GO TO selection DOESN"T produced, you are OK with it, so you switch and reapproach/refish that area with that same drive as your first did. It's a vicious cycle.
So, is fly fishing beginners luck, learned skill, confidence or a combination of all three?
Sorry for rambling. It's just something I've always thought about over the years. Hope this breaks up the immature posts/threads that have been riddling NEFF for the last few weeks. FUCKERS.
I just decided to write this on a "whim" last night...
