Are fly fishermen smarter?

[jbird]

Carl

I know lots of gear guys that are as, if not more hardcore than any flyguys I know. They are just as concerned with all the issues we are and they are a great bunch of guys. They dont think twice about getting up at 4am ditching work and hiking 5 miles in the pitch black to pursue their passion. They are very familiar with their gear and how to use it and are possibly as effective at releasing unharmed than us fly guys.

Are we smarter? I think thats our problem, I think many of us think we are and that creates the tension between us.

Who catches more? That is a very broad question that can only be answered in individual situations.

Both camps boasts its population of idiots, just like anything else.


Jay

[Hairstacker]

Just like fly fishing, I think conventional gear fishing can be as complicated as you want to make it -- just look at a catalogue that has a good selection of all the different types of high-end conventional rods made for very specific purposes and all the different types of lures available. For example, there are rods made specifically for tossing frogs versus Senkos versus spinnerbaits versus crankbaits, etc. Spend some time on a hardcore bass board and you come to realize there can be a lot to it. The wonderful thing, though, is that you can get your two-year old out there with conventional gear.

I agree with Jay -- many conventional gear fishers are totally hardcore and live, breathe and dream fishing.

Who catches the most fish? I think it comes down to the individual, fish species, and circumstances. For example, by the time I get to the Delta, some of the gear guys where I usually go have already caught half a dozen good-sized catfish. I couldn't duplicate their feat with my fly rod and flies if my life depended on it.

If I competed against myself in a section of pocket water holding rainbows, brookies and browns using nightcrawlers against flies, I'd win with the nightcrawlers hands-down. If I competed against myself for Delta bass . . . hard to say.

[Darian]

Meaning no disrespect to Carl, this type of question is what might give gear guys the idea that fly fishers are elitists.... :confused: I agree with Jbird and would add that the problems faced by each type of fisherman are the same. Get a bait, lure or fly in front of fish and entice them to bite. The rest is a choice of delivery systems and effort.... :cool:

[mems]

Aloha Carl, I think all fishermen try and be smarter than the fish. Fly fishing can be a challenge when you try and understand what the fish are keying in on. If you can crack that then you will catch more fish. Here in hawaii most guys use a couple of different tactics, and when that fails they give up. I try different techniques and work to discover a pattern either with conventional or fly gear. Sometimes top water works, sometimes they are down deeper. I think the really successful fishermen try and understand their quarry.
I think most flyfishermen have developed into flyfishermen. I started with spin and conventional gear. I still use those techniques when they work. I like the challenge of flyfishing, and for pure sport and challenge it is the most fun for me. I really like tackle that is matched to the fish you will catch, and I like it when they have a chance of breaking you off. Then the skill aspect of fishing comes into play. I don't think their is really an elitist approach to flyfishing, maybe more of a purist attitude. Some lure guys look down on bait guys, and some bait guys think those who troll lures don't really know how to fish because they can't catch the bait. To me all techniques work and have their place. Over here we still yell "Hanapaa" fish on when we get hoked up. It doesn't matter how we do it. Mems.

[Fats]

Depends who I'm talking to...

;)

[bigtj]

No, I don't.

If I was smart enough to figure out a way to make enough money to retire at 25 and flyfish full time because I wanted to...then maybe.

[David Lee]

Anyone trying to fool an Animal less evolved than a Rat (read it - ANY fish you wanna name) into eating something fake is a dummy .

Don't think so ?? How many here have EVER been skunked ? How's THAT for smart ?!?

I rest my case .

David , running for the position of HEAD dummy .

[Dustin Revel]

I don't like gear fisherman. some of them are young and some even cary guns...
just kidding. hell i just got a 9' spinning rod for steelhead that i'll use when i feel the situation calls for it.

[Ed Wahl]

Of course we're smarter than them, that's why we fly fish. Fly fishing gives us all a very good and rational reason to look down our noses at everyone else.

We can even look down our noses at fellow fly fishers who don't spend as much as WE do on fly fishing.

Just the act of picking up a fly rod increases our intellectual and cultural standing by at least double what is was before.

Only retards and neanderthals would willingly use spinning gear or bait to catch such a noble adversary as a fish.

I used to drink Budweiser beer and Jack Daniel's whiskey. Once I took up fly fishing I started drinking micro-brew beer and single malt Scotch.

I could feel the superiority coming on immediately.

Any redneck can fish with spinning gear, but only a well refined redneck can fish with a fly rod.

Did you all get that?

That's what is called tongue in cheek.

Humor.

For you spin fishermen I'll spell it out slower, T O N G U E IN CHEEK.

Carl, I think you might have a bad case of the wintertime shack nasties. Either that or your sense of humor is a bit more twisted than I had thought.

That's the kind of thread title that I would use just to stir up the hornets nest. I like it. Ed

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Ed......you are so funny.

I feel all who fish have something in common.......getting skunked, as David mentioned.

Is is a fact that people who fly fish are better educated than most other anglers (economic studies) but I don't know if that makes any of them smarter.

Once I saw a little women sitting on a bucket fishing under a bridge where the water goes in and out of the big lagoon in Cancun. I fully believe she could out fish all of us with a handline, which is some mono wrapped around a tin can. Dozens of people were fishing there one evening and she was the one catching all the fish........one deadly angler.

[caltagm]

To paraphrase Bob Newhart:

I don't like bait fishing but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who do like bait fishing, denigrate means to "put down".

[Mike R]

What was the question?????

[Dabalone]

I never gave that much thought and if I did it was a fleeting one. I use both conventional and fly gear, but generally I don't think it makes me any smarter than someone who only uses one or the other, maybe I am, never gave it much thought.

[bigtj]

If we were really smart we could figure out a way to fish dynamite and not get caught.

[mr. 3 wt.]

Who's smarter? The guys who do it all are the smartest. They don't limit themselves to any one kind of fishing. Has an open mind to do it all. The fly angler purists are NOT even close.

[Scott V]

I think the real question is which is smarter than a 5th grader?

[mr. 3 wt.]

I think the real question is which is smarter than a 5th grader?


A 6th grader of course!