# Fly fishing then and now



## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

I started this awesome sport 30yrs ago . Didn't have anybody to show me the ropes as only doctors and lawyers could afford fly gear....But somehow I managed ..fished with el-chepo rods , crap reels , junk lines, k-mart rubber hip boots and a $ 10.00 vest ...didn't have the internet so I learned to ty by looking at Dan Bailey catalogs and just copied what I saw....I would read every thing I could find about fly fishing and about trout stream bug life ....played with blue gills , and large mouth bass in farm ponds ....and somehow in 30yrs I've managed to put it all together ....... My Dad took me fishing as a kid starting at the age of 5 ....chunk of night crawler and a bobber on a zebco in some funky lake or pond...would sit for hrs watching that damn bobber....dad still fishes that way to this day .....but its down in florida....and he just tight lines to the bottom with shrimp and such.....Ive ran the gambit from wading small streams with spinning gear and cranks and spinners ...and ended up a full blown fly guy by my early 20's ....haven't looked back.....today you kids have it easy....the internet will show you how to ty everything ......good fly gear is very affordable ....and there's plenty of us old guys to pass on the torch ...... I cant believe the change in 30yrs.....fish on the fly is the most frustrating , challenging thing you will ever do in your life or your whole life .....but it will consume you but it will ultimately satisfy you if you let it.........the thought of using anything but fly gear and/or walking into Walmart to buy a lure is as foreign to me as walking on the moon......I can walk into a fly shop and walk out with animal hair and hide .....take it home and glue it to a hook ..then cast this weightless creation 50-90 ft and catch a fish.....how damn awesome is that.....?? If you can relate sound off


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## V Fisher (Nov 28, 2009)

I started about 5 yrs ago I still pick up some spin gear but I'm slowly getting away from it . I will say this there is nothing like tying up some flies and going out and catching fish on them or giving a friend his 1st fly box and having him tell you about the fish he is catching with them.I hope to some day to put that spin gear away forever.


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## Mstash (Nov 28, 2012)

Flymaker said:


> I started this awesome sport 30yrs ago . Didn't have anybody to show me the ropes as only doctors and lawyers could afford fly gear....But somehow I managed ..fished with el-chepo rods , crap reels , junk lines, k-mart rubber hip boots and a $ 10.00 vest ...didn't have the internet so I learned to ty by looking at Dan Bailey catalogs and just copied what I saw....I would read every thing I could find about fly fishing and about trout stream bug life ....played with blue gills , and large mouth bass in farm ponds ....and somehow in 30yrs I've managed to put it all together ....... My Dad took me fishing as a kid starting at the age of 5 ....chunk of night crawler and a bobber on a zebco in some funky lake or pond...would sit for hrs watching that damn bobber....dad still fishes that way to this day .....but its down in florida....and he just tight lines to the bottom with shrimp and such.....Ive ran the gambit from wading small streams with spinning gear and cranks and spinners ...and ended up a full blown fly guy by my early 20's ....haven't looked back.....today you kids have it easy....the internet will show you how to ty everything ......good fly gear is very affordable ....and there's plenty of us old guys to pass on the torch ...... I cant believe the change in 30yrs.....fish on the fly is the most frustrating , challenging thing you will ever do in your life or your whole life .....but it will consume you but it will ultimately satisfy you if you let it.........the thought of using anything but fly gear and/or walking into Walmart to buy a lure is as foreign to me as walking on the moon......I can walk into a fly shop and walk out with animal hair and hide .....take it home and glue it to a hook ..then cast this weightless creation 50-90 ft and catch a fish.....how damn awesome is that.....?? If you can relate sound off



Bought my first Fly Rod in 77 off of a friend while out drinking and he took all I had in my pocket. $36.00 and change. The next morning he took me to a Blue line stream and we walked 8 miles. I did more tree trimming that day. But fell in love with the sport that day. My next trip was with a friend of his that I have never met and it was Jan 2nd 1978 2 degrees in Western NC. We caught fish and him and I have fished together from Alaska to Maine. People told me you can save money by tying your own fly's. Then why do I have a room upstairs with thousands of dollars worth of material. But I still love it.


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## ejsell (May 3, 2012)

This was my 3rd season and was pretty much self taught with help from youtube and this forum. My wife says I've moved past hobby and onto obsession. I just wish I'd started 20 years ago.


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## Mstash (Nov 28, 2012)

We use to make Dry Fly fluid with Lighter fluid and a shaved candle.


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## FAB (May 26, 2013)

I guess its been just a tad over 63 years ago that I sat at the vise with my grandpa and he coached me through tying my first dry fly. The next morning he and I loaded up in the old Studebaker and headed off to the headwaters of the Elk river in WVA. Wasn't far we lived near there at the time. He had given me a really nice split bamboo with a good reel and line for an earlier birthday. We fished together on the local rivers quite a bit but this was the first time with my own creations. Ya know what ? Third cast and drift through a little pocket behind a big rock and I had me a tussle with a respectable 14 or so Brown. Oh what a monkey grandpa put on my back that day. Don't have that ole bamboo anymore, wish I did. Got a closet full of some modern carbon fiber what cha ma call it's now with big ole reels and special taper line. Oh don't get me wrong, they are good equipment but there was something magical about a trout on a wooden rod. Another thing that just slipped away somewhere like grandpa was that ole wicker creel that hung from a leather strap over my shoulder like a sword on a gladiator. 
Carried a little wet moss in it to keep the fish from drying out. Of course every once in a while it would dip into the river a little. I can still smell that musty river fishy smell of it. 

Those times were so simple so relaxing and so special. Were they better than today? Maybe, maybe not but if you met another guy on the river, which was very rare, then he'd fish along with you for a spell or just take a sit on the bank and dry out moment and talk. ya know I still do that with anybody I meet on the river that I won't offend with my chatter. Speaking of which it's time for me to hit the sack. 

Two things before I go: Tie em tight and drift em slow.


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

ejsell said:


> This was my 3rd season and was pretty much self taught with help from youtube and this forum. My wife says I've moved past hobby and onto obsession. I just wish I'd started 20 years ago.



I feel ya....I used to Bow Hunt deer , Varmint shoot and call predators and Fly Fish .... I had my seasons planned out . Once bow season would come in , I would lock onto that till I got my deer.....then it was back to the river ...if it was to cold to fish then it was time for predators....in the spring when the rivers blew out I would take some time to shoot ground hogs off farmers fields that gave me permission for hunting.....about 20 yrs ago I said screw it and just perused the fly fishing full time ..... sold all my rifles and gear and turned it all into rods, reels , lines and tying supply's.....so Ive past hobby long ago ..if I'm not out fishing , I'm wishing I was ...... somehow catching a nice fish and releasing it is way more satisfying than killing something for meat or hide......I have no desire to hunt any longer ..... My basement is basically a fly shop..not plans on stopping ...being 49 I hope to get another good 15yrs or so......


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## Mstash (Nov 28, 2012)

Flymaker said:


> I feel ya....I used to Bow Hunt deer , Varmint shoot and call predators and Fly Fish .... I had my seasons planned out . Once bow season would come in , I would lock onto that till I got my deer.....then it was back to the river ...if it was to cold to fish then it was time for predators....in the spring when the rivers blew out I would take some time to shoot ground hogs off farmers fields that gave me permission for hunting.....about 20 yrs ago I said screw it and just perused the fly fishing full time ..... sold all my rifles and gear and turned it all into rods, reels , lines and tying supply's.....so Ive past hobby long ago ..if I'm not out fishing , I'm wishing I was ...... somehow catching a nice fish and releasing it is way more satisfying than killing something for meat or hide......I have no desire to hunt any longer ..... My basement is basically a fly shop..not plans on stopping ...being 49 I hope to get another good 15yrs or so......



Kids of today won't be able to say that 20 years form now.We need to get kids involved this sport.


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## Live2Fish (Apr 7, 2004)

Man Flymaker, that post I could have written.


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## FL-boy (Feb 12, 2013)

I'm 32 and have fished as long as I can remember, but just started fly fishing about a year and a half ago...I'm already hooked on it and spend most of my fishing-related time and resources on the fly. A friend of mine takes his daughter, she's 10. My daughter is 6 and has fished with me since she was probably 3 and now I'm working her into the fly. Maybe the kids will have a future full of fly fishing!


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## ejsell (May 3, 2012)

I've started my kids on the path. My 8 year old can cast decently with a little help starting out and has caught some small but nice fish in a local pond. My 5 and 6 year olds both have shown a lot of interest and now every time I head out they ask if they can go. My 6 year old is always interested in what I'm tying. He sits to one side of me watching while our dog sets his head on the edge of my desk taking big sniffs of any feather that comes near him.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

I was really slow starting out. I picked up a 5wt cheap outfit from Cabela's and pretended to know how to use it. I caught some fish but didn't take it too seriously for the first few years. Then I added a second rod, a smaller 3wt to use on panfish and WV trout. I had just started traveling into WV for trout and thought trout on the fly was some mythical, difficult thing to grasp. My "plunge" that was the beginning of the end of conventional fishing for me was that first year with that new 3wt. I made a decision: if I am going to get anything out of this new fly rod, I had to learn how to use it and remove the "training wheels." I left for WV for a weekend with only the fly gear, the crutch of an UL spinning rod I left at home. I had no choice, fly fish that weekend or enjoy the scenery and come home. I learned that weekend that trout aren't mythical finned creatures and they weren't that hard to catch. I also learned that I loved fly fishing. Shortly after that, my fly tying obsession hit full steam ahead, also. I went from having a cheap 5wt to having eight fly rod outfits, ranging from 1wt to 10wt. My fly tying storage went from one small metal tool box full of materials to an entire room in my house dedicated to fly tying. My spinning and bait casting gear...it collects dust.


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## SelfTaught (Mar 27, 2014)

V Fisher said:


> I started about 5 yrs ago I still pick up some spin gear but I'm slowly getting away from it . I will say this there is nothing like tying up some flies and going out and catching fish on them or giving a friend his 1st fly box and having him tell you about the fish he is catching with them.I hope to some day to put that spin gear away forever.


V Fisher has me hooked! I'm in my young 20's and am looking forward to learning all there is about Fly Fishing. Going to purchase another fly rod for Steelhead and hopefully get into tieing some soon. As soon as I can fix up/make space in my grandfathers farm house that I took over lol


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## wannabflyguy (Aug 21, 2014)

Interesting to hear everyone's stories. I chased smallies here in central ohio streams for years with spinning reel. Was always interested in fly fishing but did not take the plunge until my old job took me to western New York on a regular basis about 6 years ago. I had always read about the kings and browns of the Ontario trips and I had to give it a shot. Work was paying for the food, mileage and hotel, I just had to get the rod and flies. I purchased the vice about the same time I did the first fly rod which I got from the oak orchard fly shop. I think I have 6 rods and reels now. I still love to chase the whitetails but I can only store so much meat and I can't stop thinking about that next drift/swing. I have dragged into it with me, my father in law, wife's uncle, my nephew, one buddy and his son, and my two daughters (4 and 7). As of right now I just don't think I'll ever take a spinning rod into a creek again. Just is not the same. Can't explain it. It's just the way it is for me. I can't read, watch or listen to enough about fish on the fly. The river is where I belong with fly rod in hand!!! It is where I am at my easiest. It's where I am most intense. Somehow more so on the fly than it ever was for me with spinning reel. I did not think river fishing could get any sweeter, but it did when I picked up the fly rod. 




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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Starting out, on my 7th Birthday, my Dad bought me my first closed faced rod and reel combo, which I still have it to this day. When I was a young teen, my 8th grade science teacher was an avid fly fisherman and there were a number of times in his class, we would watch movies on fly fishing mountain streams out west. I cant remember how he correlated the movies to class lessons but I do remember that I enjoyed watching them. ( I would be remiss if I did not mention that he and I have reconnected so many years later and get together every now and then. ) Moving forward, several years later when I was 16 I was given my first fly rod and two reels from a neighbor; her husband that I used to caddy for had passed away and they had no children so I was the lucky recipient of his gear. It consisted of a Wright McGill 4 piece rod, a Pflueger Medalist manual and a Shakespeare OK automatic reel along with a felt lined leather pouch with a bunch of flys that were smashed flat. I would toy around with the gear at a local pond launching bluegills out of the water with the automatic reel but that was my extent of it until about a year and half later when I was a senior in HS. I went along with a friend and his father to a fishing club that they belonged too. It was fall, they had stocked the water with trout and his father was fly fishing and doing well at catching fish while no one else was. I stood back and watched him for a while, it was so artful and yet so effective that I knew then I had to get serious about using the gear I was given. His father gave me a lesson and some pointers and shortly after that, I was fairly proficient at casting and catching fish. For Christmas that year, I asked for nothing but fly fishing gear and I got a pair of waders, vest and some additional flys, I was in heaven. I then started fishing the Mad River, which was a totally different game going from stagnant ponds to moving water, I quickly learned about mending and roll casting. It wasnt until my second outing on the Mad that I finally caught my first trout which was a mile marker and turning point in this adventure. Several years later I decided to try my hand at the vise and when I hooked into a fish on the fly that I had made, that was the second turning point in my fly fishing journey. I have several friends and together we have fished many trout streams and rivers throughout the United States, each providing great memories of the fish we caught and time spent on the water together. I continue to fish a lot and do so year round like many of you do, I am fortunate to be able to go down to Tennessee on a regular basis to fish tail waters and mountain streams. Looking back for the past 36 years of fly fishing, it has been a good trip and I am glad I got started at a young age, I would change a thing. To those who are reading this post and just getting started, hang with it, you will be glad that you did. Great topic Flymaker.


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## V Fisher (Nov 28, 2009)

I look forward to then day Selftaught teaches me a thing or two I think it will be soon very soon


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