I spend quite a lot of time working with newbie fly anglers, and one factor nearly all of them share in widespread is a little bit of “paralysis by evaluation.” That’s, they let the quantity of choices and decisions in fly fishing (how ought to I rig this fly? What’s one of the best ways to cowl this run?) paralyze them into inaction.
I ponder if that very same downside doesn’t afflict us extra skilled anglers, a minimum of once we open our fly bins. In case you’ve been doing this for any size of time, you in all probability have a pleasant assortment of flies that price greater than you’d like to recollect. However how typically are you lugging round flies—complete bins, maybe—that you just by no means use?
Years in the past, I used to be on the Decrease Provo River with my buddy Mike, and he was catching fish left and proper. I couldn’t get a lot as a have a look at my flies, so I naturally requested what he was utilizing. Mike confirmed me this little two-toned midge sample, and I had nothing prefer it within the eight fly bins stuffed in my vest. I borrowed just a few from him, promptly caught a bunch of fish, and spent the remainder of the afternoon questioning how Mike had the good fly in one among his two small bins.
Mike has caught extra fish in his life than I ever will, and I’ve by no means seen him with greater than two fly bins in his vest. That day on the Decrease Provo impressed me to scrub out my bins and slim my fly choice down to simply the fundamentals. It took some time, however I presently have 26 patterns I depend on, and that’s about it. Clearly if I’m touring or fishing a “vacation spot” location, I decide up native flies or patterns, however for the overwhelming majority of my very own trout fishing within the Rockies, these 26 patterns are all I would like.
Since cleansing out the flies I by no means used, I’ve not as soon as felt paralyzed on the considered selecting a fly (one thing I actually felt in my earlier years on this sport). Only a few days in the past I used to be on a neighborhood tailwater, early sufficient to see the remnants of a fall blue-wing hatch that had the fish up and consuming spent-wings. I took a minute to look at the rise types and have a look at the water’s floor earlier than I tied on a mayfly spinner adopted by a sparkle dun. In previous years, I’d’ve agonized over the fly selection till nicely after the fish had completed feeding on high.
A part of that progress could be my expertise, however I attribute quite a lot of it to retaining issues easy. Fly fishing could be as advanced as we would like it to be, however sufficient issues in life are harder than they need to be (paying a mortgage in 2024, for example). Maintaining it easy retains the pleasure within the sport.
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