I'm not gonna add to the hate...
I don't know about other states....this is my first year really fishing Wa. hard, till it kicks in up north again..so for B.C. and a little bit of Or. I've haven't seen fishing like this in the numbers I do down here...
It's a shock in a way but your not fishing the rivers like I do everywhere else either....You don't see that many drift boats...you will see a lot of toons etc. and guys traveling from spot to spot on a rivers up north...or you see a shit load of bar fishing and no boats....this boat traffic is quite an eye opener...
From what I have seen down here, it seems to be the norm that you drift from run to run, maybe a few swing, most don't and you fish from the boat on the in between water...Pretty hard to cast and swing a spey rod from a drift boat traveling down river...I get the single hand/switch rod method...I also get again on a Wa. river like the Yak. you can drift and fish for trout with both...so not sure but think that this is where the cross over came from?
If I'm wrong, correct me....
Here's the interesting part for me and my ilk....A lot of us came to fly fishing after fishing gear...speaking for myself, I got bored with gear, going from standard gear to pins to try and make it more exciting and finally just got bored with all of it...Saw fly guys, was amazed you could catch salmon and steelhead with a fly rod...(knew about trout and some coarse fish obviously) and moved into it, eventually making a transition to spey rods for most of my fishing, though I still love my 000, 2wts singles for pure fun factor...and a couple lake rods and a salt one....
So that's why I fish a fly now, the challenge and blah blah blah...my thing, not yours...I have nothing against gear guys or gear fishing...Les Johnson said that if it wasn't for the gear guys the WSC would have gone no where..try getting fly guys to anything together and good luck....There are good and bad in all groups...but most of the gear guys I see and talk to on these rivers and all over are good people and pretty damn courteous, like the spoon guys I've met and talked with on the T. I guess I don't consider beads really any different then other gear...and don't know why you somehow think using it makes you a fly guy? Or would want to for that matter?
It's not the first time or second I've talked with guides out there who say the fly guys are getting a really bad name because of bead fisherman....One told me, he fishes a fly regularly (swings) but won't bring out a bead rod for between runs as he'll only let his clients use a gear one for that....
How or why we all got a bad name I don't know?....I've watched more then a few of you go by and I don't really see anything your doing any different then anyone else drifting by....I am actually amazed at with the amount of boat traffic going by how courteous boat guys are...So I would like to know how that's happened?
For all my bitching on the subject, I've come to the conclusion that it has to with how guys fish, (mostly from boats) a lot more then anything else...and I could be wrong on this as well but just my observation....I don't like fishing with a hoard of people...I like being out solo or with one or two guys,I love floating a river but I am looking for swing water and stopping, I don't own a drift boat so I don't have an option...don't want one...
I like to walk in or drift down to bars, I don't like being in a boat...Most of where I fish is done that way...The only time I've seen indicators is when it's trout season....The culture shock from fishing one way to how guys fish in Wa. is like moving from San Diego to Blaine....
I was more concerned with how guys pin their beads and the flossing, sucked down factor...The guys who I've talked to who fish them assured me they don't fish them that way...I'm very glad to hear that and sometimes looking at my own set up with tube flies and a tailing hook or stinger, there might not be much difference..in where the hook ends up!!! How they got there is the difference....
I don't consider it fly fishing as I would an indicator and nymph rig.....I know entomology or bug science to some degree from trout fishing...flies are flies, plastic is plastic...you can't fish them on fly only water..so if you know that and are fine with it...then that shouldn't bother me either....
So with the fact that you know how to fish them, i.e. pin them correctly and know they can't be used on fly only water, fill your boots....I am not looking for a fish that will bite, re bite an egg...So while not a hundred percent sure ...I don't think your hooking the fish I'm after anyways....
So my only bitch in all of this is if all the above can be accepted, then why is it such a big deal and brought up in every winter steelhead FLY thread etc.? Don't kid yourself or pretend it's something other then what it is... maybe an easier method of hooking more fish?..Please don't insult us about skill, I've honed that skill many times over fishing gear and pins and nymphs...It's about one thing and one thing only...NUMBERS....beads like bait will land more fish then a swung fly...
So I'm done with all this other pissing and moaning etc. If you are in a boat, if your new, young, like the idea of being a "flyfisherman" but haven't gotten time in on water and have the lust for numbers...do what you got to do..I don't know why you think gear is such a bad thing though? I remember a shop guy telling someone who came into his shop looking at getting started in winter steelheading this...
"You caught a lot of steelhead? No? Then stick with gear and catch them till you got it figured out, till you can go out and get more then one a time...till you start thinking they are just dumb and want a new challenge...then come back and see me"...
That's what I think you should do as well..but that's just me talking....Egos are funny things and it's pretty obvious on here that there are enough of them hanging around in the backrooms, talking smack without much skill to back it up...but this argument is becoming almost as similar as the old....single hand versus spey....Are skagits cheating? and should weight on a fly be legal or outlawed....The difference is those still include a fly!!
I'll move on, Do I care how you fish? Maybe I shouldn't...but I do when it's in the spey section...and I do as for me personally I think your missing out on something....but you weren't put on this planet to please me and visa versa..so maybe someday down the road you "get" what some of us keep harping on....or why we keep harping on it... I sure hope so anyways...
I try and talk with everyone I meet on the river...I don't care if your swinging flies or spoons...but leaving your beer cans on the shore and dumping your yarn, hooks etc. next to where you pulled your WM out will get you some lip action....and I know that it's been an interesting year...I like some of our rivers...I will fish them again...but I know where I seem to fit in a helluva lot better and look forward to going back as I've been really spoiled...I got to take a few bottles of really good scotch with me on my upcoming journeys and thank a few guys....
I know some guys on here get what i'm talking about and I hope all of you do some day as well....
Now I'm done!!!