Well, this is a fly.
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Also, found this great quote over on The Drake forums. It was presented in a discussion on whether beads were a shortcut or not to the Alaskan experience of fishing for rainbows and char sitting behind spawning fish.
"Taking a trip for six months, if you get in the rhythm of it, it feels like you could just go on forever doing it. Climbing Everest is the ultimate and the opposite of that, because you get all these high-powered plastic surgeons and CEOs, and you know, they pay $80,000 and have Sherpas put all the ladders in place, and 8,000 feet of fixed ropes. You get to a camp and you don’t even have to lay out your sleeping bag, it’s already laid out with a little chocolate mint on the top.
The whole purpose of climbing Everest is to effect some sort of spiritual and physical gain; but if you compromise the process, you’re an asshole when you start out and you’re an asshole when you get back.” - Yvon ChouinardApplies to fly fishing. Applies to life.
Have a good long weekend all. Tight lines.
I've always said that people who fish for rainbows are assholes. Now I've got a big name backing me up.
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of service.
Deletethat quote is classic...it reminds me of the pay to play guys out on some of the local waters. As Chris Hunt would say, it's like going to a whore house...
ReplyDeleteAs long as you know you're in a whore house and not a sorority party, I suppose it's okay. But some guys get lucky in a whorehouse and think they're studs.
DeleteOK - not that I'm trying to start something, but...
ReplyDeleteIn Alaska, where beads are commonly used, the rainbows are wild and native.
In most (but not all) places where folks fish for them "legitimately" (you know, with Elk Hair Caddis and other real flies), they are non-native and, very, very often, not even wild. They're dumped off the truck.
It's not obvious to me why the latter is considered authentic while the former is not.
Which is why the topic is so enjoyable to watch.
DeleteI think my beef is that while a bead on mono six inches above a bare hook is deadly effective when fished on a fly rod (or any rod for that matter) it's not in fact fly fishing which in my state, and I think in the minds of many fly anglers, requires there to actually be something on the hook, natural or otherwise.
Some of the guides, including ones I fished with, would put a bead on the mono and then a flesh fly below it thereby making one feel more wholesome about the whole bead thing.
If the trout was just dumped off of a stocking truck, is pursuing it in fact fly fishing?
DeleteI mean, you may be using a fly..but are you really fishing?
Perhaps fly fishing requires that both the "fly" and the "fishing" part be the real thing?
For me it's a method. Fly fishing is done with a fly, not bait or a lure. Wrap something on a hook and it meets the definition. Fish with a bare hook and you're doing something else.
DeleteFishing to recently stocked fish is not a method question, it's a question of sportsmanship. I don't consider it very sporting but it does fill the frying pan.