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Eureka moments - Scotty's page
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Eureka moments - Scotty's page
Nice page Scotty!
I'm not sure my biggest Eureka moment, there have been a few, but possibly catching my first trout on a buzzer and not a streamer would have to be up there - especially because it was the biggest trout I'd had up to then by a long way. Consistently catching stillwater trout on dry flies when no one else was doing it (or at least not writing about it) must come close behind. But perhaps the biggest Eureka moment of all was my first fish on fly.
I'm searching for Eureka moments right now.
Cheers, Paul
I'm not sure my biggest Eureka moment, there have been a few, but possibly catching my first trout on a buzzer and not a streamer would have to be up there - especially because it was the biggest trout I'd had up to then by a long way. Consistently catching stillwater trout on dry flies when no one else was doing it (or at least not writing about it) must come close behind. But perhaps the biggest Eureka moment of all was my first fish on fly.
I'm searching for Eureka moments right now.
Cheers, Paul
Eureka moments - Scotty's page
My moment was when I started to concentrate on what the fly is doing. I know it sounds very obvious but when I started fly fishing the cast, drift, line management was more important.
These days it is all down to where is the fly? How deep? How is it moving? Is this right?
The other was learning positive mental attitude. If i see the fish then he's mine.
That gives you the confidence to put the fly in the right place.
I learned that from an old Floridian.
These days it is all down to where is the fly? How deep? How is it moving? Is this right?
The other was learning positive mental attitude. If i see the fish then he's mine.
That gives you the confidence to put the fly in the right place.
I learned that from an old Floridian.
IANACI
Eureka moments - Scotty's page
Fishing in Italy, Switzerland and Spain and learning the importance of leader design, backed up by Bob Wyatts "What trout want "
Eureka moments - Scotty's page
For me, I'd say it was when Paul suggested I place the fighting butt against my forearm on the back-cast. Everything got so much easier when my back-cast became as good (or better) than my front-cast. The options for fishing in wind opened right up, and wind is all we have here ... 
Cheers,
Graeme

Cheers,
Graeme
FFi CCI
Eureka moments - Scotty's page
I'm trying hard to remember any major breakthroughs but it's difficult. For me it's mostly about small revelations or confirmations that come along fairly often. Something I've read, I try and it works. That goes for flytying, fishing and casting. In casting, however, there is one and it's about the power application. I've struggled for many years not to owerpower the cast, especially the delivery, and last year or the year before I finally cracked it. I still make mistakes when less often than before. That has taken my casting to a new level, both in distance as well as in efficiency.
Peter Hayes' book Flyfishing Outside the Box has given me much insight but I haven't had the chance to try everything yet. One thing I getting more and more convinced of is that overdressed dry flies look like cripples, stillborns and emergers to the fish, and that explains why traditionally they must be fished with an absolutely dead drift.
Cheers, Massew
Peter Hayes' book Flyfishing Outside the Box has given me much insight but I haven't had the chance to try everything yet. One thing I getting more and more convinced of is that overdressed dry flies look like cripples, stillborns and emergers to the fish, and that explains why traditionally they must be fished with an absolutely dead drift.
Cheers, Massew
IFFF CCI
"The motives of fishermen are dreadfully obscure" - David Eddings
"The motives of fishermen are dreadfully obscure" - David Eddings
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Eureka moments - Scotty's page
I think my beard is a revelation. For a while I fancied I was quite good looking but it turns out I'm an ugly barstool 

Eureka moments - Scotty's page
If you act like you are good looking then most people will think that you are. Fake it 'til you make it!Paul Arden wrote:I think my beard is a revelation. For a while I fancied I was quite good looking but it turns out I'm an ugly barstool
IFFF CCI
"The motives of fishermen are dreadfully obscure" - David Eddings
"The motives of fishermen are dreadfully obscure" - David Eddings
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Eureka moments - Scotty's page
Eureka moment in fishing: I can't recall when this moment parted the waters for me - a long time ago, years for sure.
When I found (figured?) out that feeding fish (trout at the time) can happen from ANY angle, not just from behind and slightly to the side < the traditional presentation still taught as law... sigh.
Certainly a fertile area to think about from an instructor/guide standpoint in an effort to help clients move up the ladder.
Craig
When I found (figured?) out that feeding fish (trout at the time) can happen from ANY angle, not just from behind and slightly to the side < the traditional presentation still taught as law... sigh.
Certainly a fertile area to think about from an instructor/guide standpoint in an effort to help clients move up the ladder.
Craig
Eureka moments - Scotty's page
I think more of it like dots on a line - incidents that make sense when you look at them afterwards - I fished with the first instructor I had. The guy ran (i think he still does) a shop and "taught" people. Anyway ---
I was bloody beginner and had not much of an idea about flyfishing. I had caught a trout on a simple deer hair fly. I was astonished and proud as this fly looked different from the stuff he normally sold to me. I relied totally on the guy as he was my only source of information back than. Mind you, that was before internet and youtube. So after a few more casts that fly literally exploded in the air in front of me .... it was such a cheap construction. Shop bought flies you know ... makes no sense at all.
A few month later I had started to tie my own flies -- and my god they were ugly (after having seen Pauls flies I came back to that concept btw.) I was fishing a river in Sweden - without so much luck, but with my own flies - and it worked and they did not brake. And the funny thing is that - in my eyes - most weird fly caught best. Weird because it did not look like what they sold in the shops (mostly bog standard wet flies and front hackled dry flies). So since than I go the other way. If something looks "industrial" - I stay away from it.
Do not believe in catalogues --- believe in your own instincts
Many years later that experience was amplified again in my first long stay in Norway ... I worked as a local tourist office in the middle of nowhere. That "nowhere" was filled with lakes and rivers and literally gazillions of trout. Lucky me. ;-) There I also came across to young chaps - 9 and 11 at the time. They visited me in that tourist office. They had heard I flyfish and that was something they wanted to learn. These two kids were quite something. They spend all their time outdoors doing alls sorts of stuff including lots of fishing. T Their parents had a farm on which they also worked - which included commercial fishing, which they really enjoyed. They were really close to nature but really as remote from fly fishing literature as you can imagine.
They were really eager to look at my flybox - I have very big one I use to store and sell flies off - their eyes glazed and they had red cheeks when they were allowed to dive in and even pick 6 flies each. Proud as hell they started investigating all these constructions of fur and feather. Everything from Oliver Edwards style flies like the mohican Mayfly and other things to very simple flies ... and guess whet they picked - Black Gnat, Red Tag, Hares Ear, Deer Hair Caddis and Partridge & Orange. Really funny. I was astonished. They picked the stuff I fish most but sell the least. WTF. I asked them to explain their choices to me. They were very specially amazed about the North Country Spider, in those they really believed as well as the Deer hair Caddis.
Here you go ... I guess this needs no further comment.
I was bloody beginner and had not much of an idea about flyfishing. I had caught a trout on a simple deer hair fly. I was astonished and proud as this fly looked different from the stuff he normally sold to me. I relied totally on the guy as he was my only source of information back than. Mind you, that was before internet and youtube. So after a few more casts that fly literally exploded in the air in front of me .... it was such a cheap construction. Shop bought flies you know ... makes no sense at all.
A few month later I had started to tie my own flies -- and my god they were ugly (after having seen Pauls flies I came back to that concept btw.) I was fishing a river in Sweden - without so much luck, but with my own flies - and it worked and they did not brake. And the funny thing is that - in my eyes - most weird fly caught best. Weird because it did not look like what they sold in the shops (mostly bog standard wet flies and front hackled dry flies). So since than I go the other way. If something looks "industrial" - I stay away from it.
Do not believe in catalogues --- believe in your own instincts
Many years later that experience was amplified again in my first long stay in Norway ... I worked as a local tourist office in the middle of nowhere. That "nowhere" was filled with lakes and rivers and literally gazillions of trout. Lucky me. ;-) There I also came across to young chaps - 9 and 11 at the time. They visited me in that tourist office. They had heard I flyfish and that was something they wanted to learn. These two kids were quite something. They spend all their time outdoors doing alls sorts of stuff including lots of fishing. T Their parents had a farm on which they also worked - which included commercial fishing, which they really enjoyed. They were really close to nature but really as remote from fly fishing literature as you can imagine.
They were really eager to look at my flybox - I have very big one I use to store and sell flies off - their eyes glazed and they had red cheeks when they were allowed to dive in and even pick 6 flies each. Proud as hell they started investigating all these constructions of fur and feather. Everything from Oliver Edwards style flies like the mohican Mayfly and other things to very simple flies ... and guess whet they picked - Black Gnat, Red Tag, Hares Ear, Deer Hair Caddis and Partridge & Orange. Really funny. I was astonished. They picked the stuff I fish most but sell the least. WTF. I asked them to explain their choices to me. They were very specially amazed about the North Country Spider, in those they really believed as well as the Deer hair Caddis.
Here you go ... I guess this needs no further comment.
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Eureka moments - Scotty's page
Thanks TZ, that reminds me of catching my first fish on one of my flies - that was the biggest Eureka moment of all. For streamer hair - tying Sweeney Todds - I was cutting black hair off one of my sister's dolls
In fact I think that's probably right there what hooked me. Catching fish on flies I tied, simultaneously turning my sisters' dolls into punks. I was very lucky that I started fly tying very shortly after starting fly fishing. Discovering later a) there is flytying thread that is not the same as dressmaking thread and b) - five years later - discovering that the bobbin holder had been invented, were similar thunderstruck moments.
But yes that's the key one is right here: tying a fly and catching a fish on it. That's why we do it - me anyway.
Thanks for putting me on to this; I've been a bit bothered as to why I fly fish - ever since I was asked 5 years ago by an Indonesian film crew and I answered I didn't know
The casting is the icing on the cake.
Cheers, Paul

But yes that's the key one is right here: tying a fly and catching a fish on it. That's why we do it - me anyway.
Thanks for putting me on to this; I've been a bit bothered as to why I fly fish - ever since I was asked 5 years ago by an Indonesian film crew and I answered I didn't know

Cheers, Paul