Echo'ing Afish here. How to is important, and I encourage you to keep chasing that one. But don't forget when-to and where-to.
It's like any idiot can pitch a fly at 6pm in FF only area and catch fish when they're jumping out of the water at twigs.
Pretty much all the time, there is somewhere nearby that is fishing really well like this. And it's reasonably predictable. And when you're at the right place and right time like this, the "how-to" learning curve gets shorter too. Sure, any idiot can catch fish.
But when things aren't well, and you have a score of 0, and you switch, and get 1 or 2. You may or may not have learned much. Heck, you could learn the WRONG thing, as those 1 or 2 may have been dumb luck.
But when you're catching fish routinely at a steady clip, and you switch to another method, you get instant, quality feedback. Even as simple as a change in casting angle, you observe immediately whether it works or not.
Common mistakes for a young fly angler:
1. Going to the same place all the time. - Look at flow rates, water temps, hatches, crowds, etc., try to predict where will fish well and where won't, and do your best to set yourself up for maximum success. Not only is this part of the learning process, it helps other parts of the learning process as well. This applies to time as well. It's very common that one stream fishes best in the daytime and a different stream fishes better in the evening. Or that you know a stream is gonna turn on at 8 p.m., so why get there at 4? Mow the grass so that you can get out tomorrow evening as well, and then show up at 7:30 or something. Maximize your time on the water.
2. Not changing method. Whether having success or not, it's important to constantly experiment. If you were catching fish and you change something and aren't doing as well, so what? You just learned something. Now try something else, too.
3. Not moving. This is different from #1. Ok, you're in a good situation, and there's a pod of risers in front of you. You catch 2 or 3 of them. There's more still rising, but man, they're a lot tougher. It's real easy to get into a trance trying to fool that last fish or two, and waste some time doing so. You might even eventually get him. But this hatch doesn't last long. In that time you spent fooling with this tough fish, you could have moved, found another pod, caught the 2 or 3 easy ones, moved, found another pod, caught the 2 or 3 easy ones, etc. The same applies if subsurface fishing too, except it's not as obvious. Rarely should you stand still and cast to the same lane over and over. Those fish have seen your fly. There are others all over the place that haven't. Keep it in your head that you're looking for the aggressive fish. This also puts you in a situation where you're constantly fishing different types of water, which helps you learn what works in each, and having to make important adjustments more often. That's good!
4. Putting too much stock in regulations. The sign says FFO, so obviously this is the place to throw a fly, right? I like special reg areas and wish we had more. But they're not really that much of an advantage. If the conditions say somewhere else should be prime today, don't be afraid to go there just because it's not a special reg. In fact, most special reg areas are very well known and famous. In my experiences, such places are usually good, as in predictable and not gonna let you down. Rarely will they be great. The "great" fishing is the place that not many people know, and you can put yourself in a good fishing position with noone else around. See #3. All those "new" fish your casting over haven't seen a fly in a week. That just doesn't happen with people around. When you move to a fresh fish, well, it ain't that fresh, as someone casted to it an hour or two ago.
In summary, getting in "ruts", and doing the same thing in the same place at the same time over and over. You don't learn anything this way. Resist this with all your might.
