The other day I was listening to the
Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast and Tom Rosenbauer was interviewing
Joe Humphreys early into their banter back and forth, Tom asked a question that struck a cord in my brain. I am paraphrasing a bit but he asked, "
What have your learned about fly fishing in the last years?"
Now, for someone that is pushing 90 years old, it would be easy to assume that Joe Humphreys, who is mentally as sharp as a tack, would just have 70 or 80 some years of fly fishing knowledge all pooled up in his head but that question sparked a conversation about all the different ways that his fly fishing has changed over the past several years, the techniques, the advances in gear and his approach to different situations on the water. That got me thinking about my own angling path.
Anyone who reads this website or follows along through social media may have noticed that I have done way less trout fishing and way more flats fishing over the past few years. There's nothing wrong with trout. I still enjoy it but what started as a fascination with tanker carp and smallmouth that cruise the flats near and around Beaver Island, Michigan each summer quickly turned into a fetish for all things flats which has ranged from redfish in the grass in the Lowcountry or the Louisiana marsh to bonefish and permit (who I just don't think eat flies) in places like Belize and Mexico.
Where re-discovering fiberglass fly rods flipped a new switch in my head some thirteen years ago, fly fishing the flats (wherever they may be) has done that all over again. There were and continue to be new things to learn, how to approach different situations, new flies, simple things like how to lay out my fly line on the boat deck floor, how to lead a fish, how to listen to what the guide was saying, new gear and tackle to consider, wind (always wind), dinner plate goals with dropping the fly in the right spot, how to get through cloudy days, cleaning and re-cleaning my sunglasses and most of all, learning to enjoy the hunt.
Fly fishing the flats typically isn't about making a zillion of casts over the course of the day and it's often much more about finding a particular fish, which is hopefully on it's nose feeding, and figuring out how to present the fly to put it in the zone for an eat. It's a trilling game and I just don't think there is anything more exciting in fly fishing that I could be doing right now.
Is it always successful? Yes and no. Am I learning something? Undoubtedly, yes. I've learned a ton over the past several years and figure that will never end. Listening to guides, putting their suggestions into action and then just figuring out things on my own really make this a lot of fun.
Success can't always be measured with an eat and I'm finding that there is a satisfaction to quietly sliding out over the side of a panga to wade slowly within casting range of a tailing permit. False cast, false cast and presenting a fly inches from the discerning eye of a permit only to have it slowly swim off the edge of the flat. Feeling like I made the best possible play to a fish that continues to elude me is a large part of what keeps me going back.
I will say however that it's weird to walk into work from a week in Belize to tell my friends (who already don't get what the fuss is about fly fishing) that I saw quite a few permit on the flats, had some shots but didn't end up catching anything.
It's a process. It's a game. It's all part of the hunt and what fly fishing the flats is all about. I don't see myself getting tired of it anytime soon.
So, what have YOU learned about fly fishing in the last five years?
