Moving beyond just book reviews

All of my posts to this blog so far relate to reviewing books dedicated to fishing. It's time to branch out and what better way to begin then to start a dialog related to one's own personal fly fishing experiences.

Growing up outside Boston, I spincasted for bass and other fish in my local pond all the time. I joined Bassmasters when I was in grammer school and, although most of the stories and articles in the magazine relate to subjects that were foreign to me, i.e., fishing in Florida, Georgia, Texas and other Southern and mid-Western states, it instilled the importance of catch-and-release. They drill it into your head (similar to the likes of Trout Unlimited) and for good reason, fishing resources need to be conserved and managed to ensure that we and the people after us can enjoy the sport.

Eventually, spincasting in ponds and in the ocean became a little too boring or maybe too methodical. I picked up a fly rod, switched my allegiance and have never really looked back. And, I'm far from alone in this transformation.

Trout, stripers and blues are my favorite targets. If I had my druthers, I'd fish mostly for trout. Being on a stream in the woods with the sound of the water flowing through the riffles is incredibly relaxing. Put the stream in the middle of the mountains with trout aplenty and a couple of your fishing buddies and it's simply nirvana. And, trout are harder to catch than stripers or blues, with many more variables coming into play to actually catch one. Fly presentation, drift, etc. are all factors that rarely or never come into play with stripers or blues.

The reality is that the majority of my fly fishing is for stripers and blues. And, most of it happens on Martha's Vineyard. Not a bad compromise :-)!