What is a flyfisherperson?
Flyfishing Stories by Bob Lawless

While I have no intention to stir anything up, I don't mind a good but courteous debate. I believe a good discussion is something from which we can all learn at least a little bit, and it is certainly appropriate for this site.
Given that, allow me to begin: a flyfishermen is not something that is one's head, although I like to think that all fly guys are a cut above most others when it comes to conservation and surely when it comes to skill. That's not snob; it is mostly fact, of course, there are exceptions to this rule. A flyfishermen, to my way of thinking, is just someone who uses fly gear. In other words, it is the equipment that defines the man, just as sailboats define a sailor. To be sure, there are people who have the equipment but don't amount to much when it comes time to use it. But we are simply then talking about a poor fly fisherman, not to be kicked entirely out of the fraternity just because he or she stinks.
If you see someone with a long willowy rod and a big, thick line which he is whipping back and forth, and he has a reel whose purpose is to hold this line but does not aid in casting, and on the end of this line you have a fly, then you have a fly fishermen. It's as simple as that.
But is it really? I have no argument about the rod, the reel or the line, but the "fly" is altogether something else. What, then, is a fly?
This is where the real debate comes. I know fly boys who think that anything that can be thrown is a fly. What about a bass plug ( a river runt comes to mind)? Is that a fly? I might be able to cast one ( watch the hell out if we are fishing near one another), but I'll be sculpined if I am going to allow that to be a fly. To write quickly: any fly with a spinner on it--No. Any treble hook--No. Anything with illegal gear attached--no. Anything made of wood or metal or stone or whatever--No. Flies must be made from feathers and hair, although I will allow synthetic materials because they are so fabulous and because I use them. What is a fly to you may not be a fly to me and vice versa. Anything you call a fly is OK by me. But I might think you are wrong,
Although I would probably keep this to myself, I would be unwilling to use it personally.
Here's something real and the true reason why I made this post. I was fishing on the Hoh recently and at dark this guide wandered over to my trailer to check on me (good guides get every bit of information they can from anybody, anywhere, anytime.
He looked all beat up, having been out for a week or more. I offered him a glass of whiskey and he greedily accepted. I had ice and he couldn't believe it. "Is that ice," he exclaimed. "Yea," I said, "I'm part of team sissy." He didn't get it.
Anyway, after a few glasses, he told me that his guests had taken one or two fish each day and all were over twenty pounds. He asked me how I fished and I told him that I like to swing my flies across and down with a quick mend upstream.
He said he would love to swing flies; he repeated it several times, but he says that you can't catch much that way. He uses a strike indicator ( that's a bunch of bull right there, he should have said I use a big bobber painted fluorescent orange ), and I nymph fish with this: he gives me this fly or, excuse me, a nymph. It fell heavily into my hand. It had a huge bead head, tied on a 5/0 hook. The dressing was mostly egg imitations of one sort or another and maybe a hint of leech thrown in for good measure. To me, this was no fly. To cast it is dangerous, at least in my case. Since it was no fly, certainly not a nymph, then we have to return to the above. You shall know a flyfisherman by his gear-- a flyrod, flyreel, flyline and a fly.
No fly, then no flyfisherman. I suspect he was dredging runs and snagging the hell out of the fish. He did say that one of the fish was hooked in the tail. Bustard. Fie on him! May the rock gods snag every one of "flies."
I might be a snob, but I don't think so. I just think there should be a few rules around here, a few sportsman like rules. Rules that we can be proud of. Is that too much to ask?
blawless