Is it still techinically fly fishing?

[mike_richardson]

I went brookie fishing the other day for the first time in a while. TO put it this way I love it. Escaping into the wilds, catching fish so bright and colorful. It is really a ball. But to put it in perspecitive, I rarely had more than my leader out. Now I typically use a 10' rod and a longer leader. Say 7'-9', and then about 3' of flouro. and just transferred that reel to a 7'3wt.

The stream is just small and tight no matter what way you look at it you aren't really ever going to get traditional casting on this stream. More or less micro roll casts or even just swinging the nymph where I want it to go.

SO this got me pondering while out in the wilds. Is this really fly fishing. I mean I am using a fly rod and reel, but my casting is in no way shape or form using the weight of the line to present the fly. So then I was pondering if the weight of the fly line casting the fly defines fly fishing, then what about long leader nymph fishing. Where your looking at 18-20 plus' of leader?

Not try to stir the pot but is "fly fishing" itself subjective? Technically I could have just taken a spinning rod and my flies with me and went brookie fishing. So most would look at that and say that's not fly fishing? But in essence the stream dictated that no traditional casting could be done, so I was pretty much casting the same as I would with the spinning rod.

So just curious as to what you guys feel qualifies the term fly fishing. It is just what you use to entice the fish, or is the equipment, or is it how you cast?

ON a side not I had an absolute wonderful time. I landed close to 40 brookies, and all but 2 were on the same fly. They destroyed the fly by the end but I guess Im ok with landing 38 trout on the same fly will do that to one LOL Attached are the brookies I caught and some shots of the stream.

 

[Acristickid]

Isn't 1-2 pictures of a 4 inch fish enough?

 

[mike_richardson]

Just figured id share some pretty fish is all. Im sorry you had to scroll 2 times to comment something that doesn't even pertain to my original questions in the post.

 

[DavidFin]

Wow, it was awesome seeing all those pictures together and seeing the variations in the par marks! Thanks for sharing.

 

[NewSal]

acristickid wrote:
Isn't 1-2 pictures of a 4 inch fish enough?

You sure did succeed at being an ******.

 

[ryansheehan]

NewSal wrote:

acristickid wrote:
Isn't 1-2 pictures of a 4 inch fish enough?

You sure did succeed at being an ******.

True but it also made me laugh pretty hard. Looks like a nice time. Was it fly fishing? As long as you enjoy it who cares.

 

[troutbert]

Where the boundaries are for what is flyfishing and what is not is solely a matter of opinion.

Regarding the brookies, please pm me the name and county of the stream!

There are probably larger brookies in there, the parents of the ones in the photos, which all appear to be juvenile brookies, not adults.

 

[Bruno]

Question - Did ya have fun ? Quit thinkin so much and enjoy !

 

[mike_richardson]

I just got lost in thought on the stream is all.

I don't care what anyone uses, but just made me think. The fly projects have an 18' leader reg. Why? Is it not fly fishing if your leader is the only thing out and no fly line crosses the tip of the rod?

 

[wildtrout2]

Where's the beef? lol

Seriously, if you're having a great time, I wouldn't worry what others think about it.

 

[dc410]

Many of the native brookies I catch are caught the same way - no fly line past the tip.

Many of the 10 lb + carp that I catch are hooked the same way - no fly line past the tip. Notice I said hooked (for the carp), because after the hook set there is usually a whole lot of fly line past the tip in a hurry!

I love catching both of them and everything in between, so to me it's all good and I call it flyfishing. Have fun with it!

 

[allthingsfishing]

Are you pinning? No. Are you throwing live bait? No. Are you throwing lures with treble hooks? No.

Looks to me like you're fly fishing.

 

[moon1284]

I generally don't consider it fishing unless the fish are larger than my hand... that was a joke.

It doesn't really matter what it's called if your having fun. IMO, no it's not fly fishing if you're only casting the leader.

 

[UncleShorty]

Way back about 3/4ths of the way through the last century I knew a couple of guys who used to spool up a fly rod/reel w/ 4 lb mono. They'd pinch on about a pound and a half of split shot and use live bait to "harvest" stockies.

They called it fly fishing. I guess because the bait would "fly" through the air.

I never said a word. But my tongue looked like a screen door from all the bite holes...

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

You are overthinking it.
It is fly fishing.

Get a smaller rod

 

[McSneek]

How did they taste?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Like fish?

 

[fwh14]

Beautiful fish, thanks for sharing.

 

[tomitrout]

Is it still techinically fly fishing?

Was it before?

 

[krayfish2]

Question on photo #38.....wild or stocked?

I've just been gemified into oblivion. Lol