What are you good at in fly fishing?
Any sampling of fly fishing media will inevitably yield a majority of articles, videos, and posts telling you “how to.” (Casting Across is certainly not above that, to be fair.) And it makes sense. We all want to get better. We want to cast better. We want to know how to pick the right fly. We want to go to the right spot. We want to catch more fish. There’s nothing wrong with that, so such media scratches a particular, valuable itch.
But when was the last time you focused on an area in which you are already good?
I suppose that there aren’t a lot of fly fishing articles praising your technique because that would be awfully hard to pull off. I can’t tell you how good you are at casting. I can’t tell you that you’re patient. I can’t write 500+ words about the way you tie that special little nymph rig that you use to catch all those trout.
But I bet there is something you’re good at doing in fly fishing.
For me, it is casting. I’ve got an awful lot of room to improve in a lot of areas, but I feel like I can usually put a fly where I want it to go. It’s taken time, energy, effort, and some hard-to-hear criticism. Yet here I am: 20 years in and relatively comfortable in my ability to put a dry fly in front of a rising trout or a streamer in the path of a feeding striper.
For all the fly fishing facets I need to improve on, I know that my casting isn’t a 911 situation. My fly tying, nymphing, and ability to read saltwater shorelines need a lot of work. And my patience? Well, that area of emphasis deserves an article of its own.
I can cast, though.
It doesn’t make me better than anyone, and it doesn’t mean I can catch anything close all the fish I want to catch. It does mean that I’m growing and achieving as an angler. Enough fish snub my best attempts to keep me humble, so I don’t feel pompous in flagging one of my few achievements.
So what are you good at in fly fishing? With all of the tips-n-tricks out there that tell you how to be a better fly fisher, how are you already a better fly fisher? What have your worked on, focused on, and labored over in order to sharpen your skill and hone your craft? I’m not asking you to say that you’ve arrived; but how have you evolved? Asking (and answering) that question is something we don’t do enough. Give yourself some credit. You’re doing pretty good. You’ve got miles to go, but who doesn’t?
It is okay to toot your own horn a little bit. After all, the foundation of fly fishing is pretty humbling: fish often outwit us and what we are good at.
What do you fell that you are good at as a fly fisher? Let me know in the comments section below.