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Falsecast

Monday: Paul Arden
Tuesday: Harps
Wednesday: Bernd Ziesche
Thursday: Mr T.
Friday: Ray
Saturday: Viking Lars
Sunday: Bruce Richards

Ronan's report

Last week Paul started a thread asking "Who are the great fly fishing women?" I asked Paul: "What makes someone (man or woman) being one of our a great fly fisherman?" He then came up with four categories regarding great fly fishing women: a) looking good in boots, b) catching a lot of fish, c) being famous for their fishing exploits and d) contribute to the knowledge base. No need to tell a) hit highest priority.

Pete offered a different point of view: "PR. You must tell the world that you are great. Write a book or get articles published in the magazines." And Ray summarized it to be: a) great casting, b) great fishing, c) great tying, d) having lots of tackle and e) being very respected in the fishing club. All those answers made me think about something again, that I have been thinking about for a while.

It seems to me as if many fly fishermen want to become recognized today. Some want to become famous and far less want to become (what I would call) a great fly fisherman in the first place. Personally I see no difference between men and women here expect women need to look good in boots, which I fully agree about!

Wanting to be recognized seems to be the motor forcing many people to share their (same) fly fishing pictures in many places in the www for example. Some want to be recognized as a superb fly fisherman, some as a superb fly caster and others as a superb fly tier.

Maybe having a much stronger motor inside some people seem to seek becoming famous in one of these fields or all of them. Well, mostly it seems to be just one of the fly fishing fields. A good example maybe those spending a hell lot of time in publishing their super realistic flies. Flies, which often weren't even made to be presented to any fish at all. Which may be astonshing, but to me doesn't mean anything bad at all. Don't get me wrong here, please. Others develop fly casts, that seem to be great in order to impress humans, but almost none (if any) effective in GENTLY presenting the fly to the fish. The vodoo cast is just one example. Again nothing bad in here. What really makes me think, that for some fly fishermen it is not about enjoying their passion in the first place, but becoming famous, is to see the incredible amount of effort those people spent on publishing their stuff. We will find their (same) stuff in many places!

Now a great fly fisherman to me is one who is an excellent fly caster, an excellent fly tier and an excellent fisherman in the first place. He will be able to catch fish where others don't catch them. He will know how and which fly to present (TO THE FISH) in most situations. He also will have caught many fish and some big ones inbetween. Oh, and he doesn't have to be recognized or famous at all. Fair to say, those being great in all these main fields of fly fishing often will be recognized or famous anyway! But there are also some famous fly fishermen who I personally don't feel to be anywhere close to be a great fly fisherman but just world champions in self promotion.

All in all I can't find anything bad in wanting to become 1. recognized, 2. famous, 3. great or all of them.

What I personally don't like are fly casting instructor organisation (leading) committees trying to make me believe their only goal would be increasing the level of education in fly casting far away from any of those three targets above. Especially when every step they go seems to be targeted in becoming further recognized.

Also I don't like it, when some people in order to become famous have to shoot 50 (very different) pictures of the same fish before releasing it. A few days ago I saw (on facebook) two fly fishermen posing (one after the other) with one and the same Brown trout, which was caught by one of them.

And I don't like it, when people make things up, which are simply not true! You know like having caught more than 5000 salmons. Mostly simple math is enough to identify such numbers as not nearly true.

I think it's fair to say, that the multi media and multi social networking world as it is today seems to lead many fly fishermen straight into the desire of becoming at least recognized.

Back to Paul's initial question, but not tight to good looking females (sorry Paul ;) ) - some names come to (my) mind:

Paul Arden (Hungary), Uwe Rieder (Austria), Peter Morse (Australia), Göran Andersson (Sweden), Lee Wulff (USA), Joan Wulff (USA), Roman Moser (Austria), Thomas Dürkop (Germany), Chico Fernandez (USA), Sandy Moret (USA), Joe Brooks (USA), Frederic Michael Halford (England), George Edward MacKenzie Skues (England)

Ok, I don't know how Joan Wulff looks in boots, but she is a hell of a fly fisherman(woman) for sure!

Yes, there are many more great fly fishermen out there! How about you!? All you have to do now, is entering Paul's thread and you'll soon become recognized. And who knows one day you might even become famous!? ;)

All my best

Bernd

p.s.: No need to tell I want to become recognized, famous, great and simply the best fly fisherman of all times. That is because otherwise it might happen to be Paul! ;b

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