I spend quite a lot of time working with newbie fly anglers, and one factor nearly all of them share in frequent is a little bit of “paralysis by evaluation.” That’s, they let the quantity of choices and selections in fly fishing (how ought to I rig this fly? What’s the easiest way to cowl this run?) paralyze them into inaction.
I ponder if that very same downside doesn’t afflict us extra skilled anglers, no less than once we open our fly containers. When you’ve been doing this for any size of time, you in all probability have a pleasant assortment of flies that price greater than you’d like to recollect. However how usually are you lugging round flies—whole containers, maybe—that you just by no means use?
Years in the past, I used to be on the Decrease Provo River with my buddy Mike, and he was catching fish left and proper. I couldn’t get a lot as a have a look at my flies, so I naturally requested what he was utilizing. Mike confirmed me this little two-toned midge sample, and I had nothing prefer it within the eight fly containers stuffed in my vest. I borrowed a number of from him, promptly caught a bunch of fish, and spent the remainder of the afternoon questioning how Mike had the good fly in one in every of his two small containers.
Mike has caught extra fish in his life than I ever will, and I’ve by no means seen him with greater than two fly containers in his vest. That day on the Decrease Provo impressed me to wash out my containers and slim my fly choice down to only the fundamentals. It took some time, however I presently have 26 patterns I depend on, and that’s about it. Clearly if I’m touring or fishing a “vacation spot” location, I decide up native flies or patterns, however for the overwhelming majority of my very own trout fishing within the Rockies, these 26 patterns are all I would like.
Since cleansing out the flies I by no means used, I’ve not as soon as felt paralyzed on the considered choosing a fly (one thing I actually felt in my earlier years on this sport). Only a few days in the past I used to be on an area tailwater, early sufficient to see the remnants of a fall blue-wing hatch that had the fish up and consuming spent-wings. I took a minute to watch the rise kinds and have a look at the water’s floor earlier than I tied on a mayfly spinner adopted by a sparkle dun. In previous years, I might’ve agonized over the fly selection till properly after the fish had completed feeding on high.
A part of that progress may be my expertise, however I attribute quite a lot of it to conserving issues easy. Fly fishing will be as advanced as we wish it to be, however sufficient issues in life are more durable than they need to be (paying a mortgage in 2024, as an example). Holding it easy retains the pleasure within the sport.
