I have videos of my wife and son feeding frogs bugs. His Gramma has a little decorative pond with Koi.... He was little at the time and I will never forget the joy he had in "taming" those frogs. Lol, they'd actually follow him around the pond! ..... precious memories.Not a fly fisherman, but frogs will leap at one of these every time they're waved in front of one.
AA
Looks like it might be an old fly holder/dryer. They used to make them out of fluffy wool patches. Kinda hard to make it out.
So wool or natural sponge, and you just hook and carry your flies on it while you're out fishing?
Yep. They didn't always have floatent to keep the flies afloat as well. When they got waterlogged they needed a way to dry them to restore some of the floating abilities. I never was one to use patches. Always used fly boxes haha.
No, its a patch of sheep fur, you hook your flies in to dry them or just to hold them. In the olden days I knew a few old guys they did not use a fly box and just had their flies in the fur patch. I have an old vest that has one too.
After this conversation when @Ponycarman mentioned "patches", I looked them up.
I have my grandfather's fly book. It has real sheep's wool holding the flies he tied over a century ago. I save them and use newer flies. Besides, he was a dry fly man, and I have better luck with nymphs.
So, I went and looked for my oldest fly fishing vest, and I found it!! Took a shot of the patch. It is indeed sheeps wool/fur. Even then, I would say some 45-50 years ago, they already had Velcro to attach the patch to the vest.
I've always assumed I'm too shtoopid to learn to fly fish. Looks to me like a cross between defying the law of gravity and black magic.
Easier than what looks. It is a weird sensation when the air temperature is 80°F and the water in which you are standing is 55°F.
I fish, when I fish, to not really catch fish, cuz then I gotta touch fish. I really always did it just to chill out. But there is a rush in setting the hook.
What you say makes perfect sense. I think of fly fishing chiefly as standing in a beautiful place and waving a sharp hook to keep others away. To me the "take" is the rush. It signals that you have done everything right to convince a trout that you are offering it exactly what Mother Nature has taught it to grab. I am intrigued by the concept of hookless fishing. People will still assume I am waving a sharp hook and stay away, but the fish will be far better off. Even barbless hooks damage fish. Now if you are in a river with large trout and using a very light line, rod, and reel, like 3 or below, actually landing a fish is a whole other kind of rush, but it requires a barbed hook (and equipment and bacon for cleaning and frying). Always drop a can of Danish bacon and a small bag of cornmeal into your pack when backpacking with your fly rod.
Brother, please read the paragraph below, then find a local fly shop, sign up for some lessons & get out there … for me, the only cool thing about fly fishing is wet wading @ 8,000 feet up, in 90-degree temps. Nothing compares…
