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You ever have one of those days when Flyfishing is a pain?

2K views 30 replies 16 participants last post by  Old Man 
#1 ·
Today was one of those days.

Nothing seemed to go smoothly. I was having trouble casting from my SuperCat and I have no idea why.

The line was at war with me as where my fly patterns. I was using my usual two fly set up and one or the other -- or both -- of the patterns kept hanging up on my fins or the pontoon boat. The leader was hellbent on continually wrapping around my rod and my nail-less knot between the fly line and the leader was refusing to easily slide through the tip-top line guide.

When I did manage to cast the line into the lake, one of the flies would hang up on something in the in the water... sometimes it was a rock or snag on the bottom and I had to break off the fly. Other times, I'd snag some submerged tree branch that was wandering around the lake looking for my fly. I even kept hooking submerged leafs that had blown into the lake.

What a pain in the butt!

To add insult to injury, when I did catch a fish it was either a species I wasn't fishing for (like a perch or northern pike minnow) or a tiny fish.

Plus... the wind came up and every one and their dog had decided to blast by me in their power boats so I felt like I was riding a bucking bull when fighting the continual waves.

Most of the time, flyfishing is fun. Other times... not so much. :confused:
 
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#7 ·
To add insult to injury, when I did catch a fish it was either a species I wasn't fishing for (like a perch or northern pike minnow) or a tiny fish. :confused:
This is the part that I don't understand, every fish I catch is the species I wanted to catch, small or not, even if it wasn't a fish. Yes, I have gotten excited over landing sticks and I do have a continuous small fish contest.
 
#8 ·
I feel like a lot of lies are going to come of this.

I could of gone fishing if I wanted to but there was football games on today. Don't ask me who won because my attention span is shot. But Washington Huskies did. I sure hope they develop a defense by next weekend as their pass defense sucks.
 
#10 ·
Lol. I don't have enough walls to mount those "trophies." We all have those days; I've bitten the bullet & just quit more than once. Then there's the often-included physical pain on such days . . . I've pierced my ears & other aspects of my anatomy more than a few times. Such days come with the game.
 
#11 ·
Learning to spey cast, I put a #2 owner right through my cheek. Luckily I'd pinched the barb well. Should've known to stop then. But no, I just had to keep on punishing myself. Finally stopped when I broke my sunglasses, ripping them from my face.
 
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#13 ·
Gene I don't wanna hear it. About 2 hrs ago, in the span of one minute, I managed to snag a sunken tree trunk (one that I knew was there), wrap my sinker around it somehow, pulled said sinker to the point of snapping apart rendering it useless forevermore, went to remove my reel so I could mount the spare complete with another sinker, the sliding ring was slightly jammed from time in that position, finally unstuck it with a jolt and watched my Battenkill III fly off the butt of the rod and into the abyss, then watched it sink for maybe 3 seconds before disappearing for good, reached in for the spare reel only to find the spool by itself...I loaned the reel to Christian to take a buddy out last week, he returned it as we were on our way to the bar so I never put it back in its place on my float tube.

For the next 20 minutes, as I made my way back to the truck, I watched all the dancing and flipping as the early part of the minnow hatch began to go off, thousands and thousands of them, complete with fat old trout crushing them like bass every few seconds.....rod still in hand, reel resting peacefully on the lake floor. Fast forward to now and I just got home, sat down to dinner and logged onto wff, only to find GAT whining like a 6 yr old because his two fly setup won't behave just so and it's a little windy out.

That's my attempt at helping you feel better. Gotta go, I have a Battenkill III to find on eBay and yet another SA Type V Uni to order, not to mention a brand new leader and a pretty nice little minnow pattern still wrapped around that tree trunk.

:mad:
 
#15 ·
I had a day like that yesterday... when my furled leader got tangled (again) I decided to sit down on a rock, slowly untangle the mess, pick another fly & tie it on... (which had been a task unto itself... even with the reading glasses)... & then I moved up the river to a new spot... (passing a very large but, not poisonous, snake)... made all the difference.
 
#16 ·
I have what I call "Struggle" days ... Usually starts with can't thread the leader through the eye of the hook ... followed by wind knots, hooked brush, slips on rocks, broken-off flies, back to trying to thread the leader through the eye ...

Even an hour of this struggle is exhausting for me ... way more exhausting than fishing for four hours without the struggles ...
 
#17 ·
Okay... if we're going to do a "top this" :D

One day Rocky and I were fishing a private lake that held trout up to 8 pounds.

We were doing well.

I hooked another one of the trout and I don't remember the circumstances but I managed to lose the grip on my rod as the large trout was fighting the devil out of me. I watched the rod, reel and line go flying off and sink in the lake.

I looked at Rock and he looked at me.

The trout took my rod, my reel and most importantly, the only quick sinking line I had. I always carry backup reels and spools and even a travel rod I keep in my gear bag back in the rig. But I only had that one sinking line.

Crap.

I started finning back to the truck to retrieve my backup rod.

Rocky said something about trying to hook my rod,reel and line with his fly.

Damn. That was one of my favorite rods and I didn't like the idea of buying a new line... I was not happy.

Suddenly, Rock yells "I got it!"

I turned around and Rocky was reeling in my rod and reel! He had indeed hooked my line with his fly and was bringing my gear back to his boat.

The fish was still on! When I reached Rocky, he was fighting the fish with my rod and reel. I grabbed his rod and he continued to fight and land the large trout with my rod and reel. He landed the trout!

Not only did he save my day by hooking and saving my gear, he landed the trout that took it.

Here's Rocky holding the trout that I hooked and he ended up landing.

Smile Plant Jacket Tree Fish


I'm not making this up. The event stands as one of the strangest days of my flyfishing life.
 
#18 ·
None of you have ever seen me struggle with threading the eyes on small hooks. I thought I was the only dumb shit having this problem. I see all of us's old farts have the same problem. I've taken to cutting my leader at a 45 degree angle it makes it easier to thread those small eyes. It doesn't seem like much on 6X and 5X but every little bit helps. Also stiffer leader also helps.

I've tried just about every toy out there to make it easy to thread them small eyes. But a very good pair of glasses really work wonders. Magnifiers are also good if your not needing glasses.


Also those needle threaders work to.
 
#21 ·
my recent trip to dragoon creek yielded no fish.
but it consisted of me constantly untangling my fly and line from overhead trees and the tall grass on the banks. getting stuck in knee deep muck, tripping in the creek and losing my sunglasses and cigarettes, and my wading boots blowing out.
finally, on the last day i found a beautiful patch of private water, and fished it with the land owners consent. watched with huge bug eyed excitement as a beautiful rainbow swam up from the depths and take my last floating hopper i had left, set the hook and heard a little pop. the fish and the fly were gone.
very frustrating three days lol.

but it seems no matter how bad the fishing was,or my lack of ability to fish, when i'm in town and at work on the day to day, all i can think about is getting back out there.
 
#23 ·
I think most of us who have fished long enough have had those days; broken rods, difficulty with line, knots, no fish, wrong fish, bad weather and so on. But, as time goes by I start to notice that the mindset that I bring on my fishing trip seems to manifest in my fishing. So, I try to go without expectations and try to find something wonderful in the experience despite those inconveniences that show up now and again. My old fishing buddy used to say that how you fly fish is how you live your life. I think that was a pretty good perspective.
 
#24 ·
Old Man, I now take two pairs of reading glasses with me, one in a front pocket of my vest and one in an interior one. Maybe one day I'll get smart and put a pair of croakies onto one.

I got one of those magnifying lenses that clips to the bill of your hat, but it's too far away to do me any good. I'll try it on my fedora-style cap to see if it works better on that.

There are days when I will just decide to stop fishing, sit down, have a drink of water, and relax for a half hour, watching the water go by. When I start fishing again, I usually do better, but at least it always calms me down.
 
#28 ·
Old Man, I now take two pairs of reading glasses with me, one in a front pocket of my vest and one in an interior one. Maybe one day I'll get smart and put a pair of croakies onto one.

I got one of those magnifying lenses that clips to the bill of your hat, but it's too far away to do me any good. I'll try it on my fedora-style cap to see if it works better on that.

There are days when I will just decide to stop fishing, sit down, have a drink of water, and relax for a half hour, watching the water go by. When I start fishing again, I usually do better, but at least it always calms me down.
I think they come up with all these gimmicks for old people to buy and TRY to use. I've tried all the gimmicks out there on how to thread small eyes on hooks, and there are a lot out there. I've never tried the clip on Magnifying lenses. But if it isn't right in front of me it wouldn't work. Besides I don't need all that junk hanging from my cap/hat.

Nothing like a good pair of Prescription glasses to do the job. Plus steady hands. This last part doesn't fit an old man.
 
#26 ·
Today was one of those days.

Nothing seemed to go smoothly. I was having trouble casting from my SuperCat and I have no idea why.

The line was at war with me as where my fly patterns. I was using my usual two fly set up and one or the other -- or both -- of the patterns kept hanging up on my fins or the pontoon boat. The leader was hellbent on continually wrapping around my rod and my nail-less knot between the fly line and the leader was refusing to easily slide through the tip-top line guide.

When I did manage to cast the line into the lake, one of the flies would hang up on something in the in the water... sometimes it was a rock or snag on the bottom and I had to break off the fly. Other times, I'd snag some submerged tree branch that was wandering around the lake looking for my fly. I even kept hooking submerged leafs that had blown into the lake.

What a pain in the butt!

To add insult to injury, when I did catch a fish it was either a species I wasn't fishing for (like a perch or northern pike minnow) or a tiny fish.

Plus... the wind came up and every one and their dog had decided to blast by me in their power boats so I felt like I was riding a bucking bull when fighting the continual waves.

Most of the time, flyfishing is fun. Other times... not so much. :confused:
Gene, it must've been something in the air. I had one of those days yesterday too. Was up fishing the Yak, and was having a hell of a time getting my flies out there. Was fishing a dry/nymph combo. Usually don't have a problem with it. But damned, couldn't get the flies to cooperate.

So yeah, know the feeling. BUT although it was a pain my butt, it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better then being at work. :)
 
#27 ·
By they way. To go with the "first aid kit" thread. After I got off the water, a Growler full of fresh beer and some makers mark sure made the day all right. :)
 
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#29 ·
If you have a bad day fishing you need to get your head checked.
 
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