Why Fly Fish?

Getting started in fly fishing may be the most exciting--and challenging--thing you will ever do... well, almost. Why exciting? Because it involves hunting--in this case for fish--in the most beautiful spots in the world, the lakes and streams of the earth. More importantly, fly fishing is the most self-involved sport of all. You prepare yourself, through fly casting, fly tying, reading, practicing, observing, fishing, exploring, and learning through realtime online peer-bonding, and travel--all done as a lifelong adventure quest to capture those most beautiful of creatures, the fish of the world. And when you have caught them, you release them.

Does this make sense? Absolutely, but only to fly fishers. The rest of the world considers us a bit nutty. "Why," they say, "would anyone put so much effort into such an obsessive behavior?" Relax, guys. Is this fly fishing a sport after all? It is a sport, in a sense the king of sports because it requires that sporting behavior follow the most demanding code of conduct.

What are the tenets of this code? Some fly fishers insist that their fishing be done exclusively with dry flies fished only over rising fish. This is the crowning, exclusionary challenge, requiring in some cases (on closed club waters) that one not cast his fly for hours, until he glimpses that first rising trout. These practitioners are called "purists." God love 'um, for they teach us all to be good, if not practical. Virtually all of us now use barbless hooks as a canon of good behavior, for we want to hurt the fish we hook less than we did when using barbed hooks. And we can release fish more easily and without touching them.

We share the waters with others, queuing up and waiting our turn to fish. We share the often arcane and secret knowledge and lore of our sport.

We demand that waters be open to the fishing public; we demand that the fishing regulations be designed for the preservation and restoration of wild fish; we demand that wild-fish habitats be preserved, restored, and protected from further destruction by man; we support Trout Unlimited in its programs to research the science of wild-fish (especially trout) survival needs and in its lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill for legislation that assures wild-fish futures.

Fly fishers are the "good guys" of the fishing world. We hold these ethical pursuits to be not only self-evident but immutable, a lifelong mission. In this sense, fly fishing is both sport and religion.

We fly fishers are Panglossian We blindly expect favorable outcomes when we fish. The grail-like honey-hole of all fishing honey-holes is always just around the next stream corner A day's failure never dims our light.

This first edition of Fly Fishing Made Easy (another magazine offered several decades ago by Scientific Anglers/3M carried the same title) is designed to help you take your first steps into our sport. We have been writing helpful, informative pieces on the sport of fly fishing for 40 years. Our philosophy as editors of Fly Fisherman has always been to share the wealth of information that drives and informs fly fishing so that more people can enjoy its promise and fulfillments. What this issue makes clear is that fly fishing is the most technique- intensive sport in the world. Thus instructional information is the golden key to its promise and fulfillment.

A brief justification of that assertion follows. If you are just beginning your lifelong journey in fly fishing, here's what you can, and should, expect--hours learning how to cast effectively, in effect learning that casting is truly "presentation." This can take an hour for first results but a lifetime for expert achievements. Basic fly tying can be accomplished quickly (or never attempted), but expertise is a pearl of great price. (There are an estimated 30,000 extant fly patterns, all different, and one could spend a lifetime just learning to tie mayfly imitations or Atlantic salmon flies.) Stream entomology and matching the hatch by imitative impressionist or exact imitation tying can become a micro-obsession within the macro-obsession of fly fishing. Rod-building (graphite, glass, or bamboo) can become a source of wonder and fulfillment for you, demanding long hours of labor (as much as from 75 to 120 hours to finish one bamboo rod).

The search for a "life list" of fish can also take a lifetime, sending you across the globe in a quest for that "next species" to catch, photograph, and release. You can become a "gear junky," buying the next high-performance rod, reel, line, flies, fishing clothing, books; the list of passion-driven purchases goes on. We fly fishers are afraid to enter flyshops; we know that we will depart loaded, smiling and our plastic burdened.

Welcome to this introduction to a challenging and fulfilling journey. (Many books are written on each introductory subject in this issue.) You will find an ongoing offering of more information in Fly Fisherman, where we hope you will become our lifelong reader and companion. You will find that the sport of fly fishing is a worldwide club, in effect an extended family of enthusiasts who will welcome you. We all speak the same language--fly fishing. Its dictionary is contained in this issue, written and prepared by Editor Ross Purnell, Art Director David Siegfried, and illustrated by Dave Hall.