I’ll be the first one to celebrate how people are a major part of fly fishing. Almost as much as the distinctive nature of the fly cast, the culture and the community make this particular pursuit of fish special.
That said, it isn’t always rosy. As you aggregate a large enough sample size of interactions the odds of something off increase. Spend enough time at boat launches, fly shops, and fishing events and you’re bound to have an incongruous social moment.
I consider myself relatively pleasant and easy going. But I have had my fair share of awkward fly fishing exchanges. And I’ve recorded a number of them for your enjoyment.
Below, click on the image or title to read each full awkward angling encounter.
An opinionated fellow was trying to say that there was one way to cast a fly. One way. Anything else, he said, might be fishing but it certainly wasn’t fly casting. The whole set up to my finally speaking up for sanity felt like a joke that was being played for too long. There was no punch line. He was serious. He was as earnest as I was incredulous. My disbelief manifested in a stunned “are you… do you mean that?”
What followed was an unfruitful exchange that skipped from semantics to history to preference to mild character assassination.
The “road” dead-ended at a picnic table. To my left there was a single-wide trailer. Albeit, a nice one. To my right was a muddy ditch. No stream was evident. Before I could get out of the car, he came bounding out of the trailer. I’m sure he meant his “you made it!” as a welcoming colloquialism. It could have just as easily expressed his surprise that I a) found the place, b) didn’t get stuck in his driveway, or c) actually showed up at his weird construction site/trout stream.
The muddy ditch, it turns out, was the trout stream.
Music? While Fishing?Have I come across a few guys blasting Alabama or Darius Rucker while sitting on the bank chasing catfish? Yes. But for some reason that is not only tolerable; it seems like a lot of fun. It seems right. It is the exception that proves the rule.
In an industry where envelopes and boundaries are floppy from how often they’re pushed, I’m grateful that none of the upstart fly fishing brands have come out with an angling-aimed Bluetooth speaker. There is no creel/boombox combo out there. Waders have yet to integrate batteries for charging media players. There’s a lot of goofy stuff out there in the fly pages of the outdoor catalog. Blessedly, we’ve not crossed some lines.