I read this recently on a different fly fishing forum site:

fly fishing ... angling with a line to which only
an artificial fly is attached (floats, sinkers, or attracting devices may not be attached to the line when fishing is restricted to "fly fishing only”).

Hank Patterson's video on the subject is quite comical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m0Q...ature=youtu.be

Maybe it's more appropriate to use the terms "indicator fishing" or "nymping" instead of "fly fishing" when we talk about the fishing we're doing? I post this only to communicate/share this, not to spark a debate etc.

Although I agree with their version of "fly fishing defined" - when I first picked up a fly rod I used an indicator myself. I ended up finding more pleasure in fishing without one. And hopefully that is why we are fishing the way we decide to fish, because we find the most pleasure in that way.

(Moderator(s) - if you want to move this to Fly Fishing General that's fine.)