The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Grevel, It's great that you have been able to work hard and turn what you love to do into a career. I fly for a living, so I can indentify. But I've never been big into techie equipment stuff for fly fishing. I have no idea how far I can cast. I've been fly fishing for about 25 years (I'm 36 now), and I've been really good at for about 8 years now. I fish with a couple of Powell rods that are 14 or 15 years old and I have a Pfleuger reel from the 1960's I bought on ebay for $20. I have one spool of SA 4wt WF-F and one of Wulff TT 5wt WF-F that are both 3-4 years old. I fish all kinds of flies with those (dries and nymphs). But I always catch fish. I even catch big fish if I want to - depends on where I am. More often than not I'll put on a little PMD or similar dry and catch 6 to 14 inch trout all day and be quite happy. But very rarely do I not catch fish and whenever I fish with others I usually at least double the number of fish caught by the next most successfull person - often times the guys or gals with a rig that cost 3 or 4 times what mine did. Not that this is a numbers game, but I am illustrating a point. We all love fly fishing. For some it's all about the gadgets and the next new thing. For me it's catching and releasing fish and fishing with friends and just being out in the wild. Understanding the scientific/technical/equipment parts of fly fishing is important, but the 'art' or feel aspect is so much more important (if you want to catch fish that is). There are those out there who are skilled enough to take the equipment to those corners of the performance envelope most of us can't/don't want/don't need to reach. It seems you may be one of those gifted casters. I'd just rather spend my time on the water instead of making my own leaders or worrying about whether or not rod could be a few ounces lighter. But I don't give anyone a hard time or think less of them for whatever aspect of the sport draws them in and feeds them. The fact that your youth bothers people is just human nature. I would encourage you to focus on the potential to learn and improve you position offers you, rather than trumpeting your accomplishments thus far. And just generally enjoy the hell out of life (as it appears you are), I know I have.