Martyn White | Thursday, 13 June 2024
Today we are migrating servers to a newer faster server and the Board will be closed for about 6hrs.
I've had some family visiting Japan this week so haven't fished, although we're still getting so much rain that I'm not missing anything in the rivers. Chuck had a decent day on the float tube on Monday and it would have been nice to get out, instead I was indulging in all the food and drinks my system could handle.
After my page last week and chatting with Andy about his on Tuesday, I've continued to think a lot about what we could be learning from each other and the obstacles to it. Obviously the limitations of the tackle we uses is the main issue, there are things that can be done with a spinning or casting rod that we just can't do and vice versa; punching hyacinth mats with an ounce of tungsten is beyond us, but equally, conventional carp anglers struggle to fish buoyant flies(zig bugs) their long leader ledger rigs in a satisfactory way. For a lot of it there are work arounds that let us get somewhere similar, for the rest we probably just need to accept the reality.
The second and more problematic issue is the unfounded sense of superiority that I see in a lot of fly anglers' attitudes towards gear guys. Self imposed difficulty is one thing, but a lot of people would really benefit from acknowledging that some people who choose to use gear are some of the best and most knowledgeable anglers around. They just use a different delivery method... I mean we even still see people saying European styles of nymphing aren't really fly fishing! Coincidentally this morning I just saw Kelly Galloup on a video describing a Carolina rig he uses while fishing old school bucktails for trout. I've seen and read other things he's put out praising bass pros as some of the best anglers in the world, and he's right. He's recognised it and he's used his knowledge of their techniques to add to his armoury. I wonder how ling it'll be till he comes round to euro techniques...