The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

I see nothing wrong with centerpinning, baitfishing, lure fishers, trollers, or flyfishing. But centerpinning with a fly is just that, centerpinning with a fly. You can't call it flyfishing. I don't think you should call bobicating "flyfishing" either,since most bobicators never get the flyline taper out past the rod guides, and bobicating with a jig is just a bastardization of that perversion. If you're going to float/jig fish, at least use the proper tool for the job. You can build a house using a frying pan as a hammer, but it would be better to use a hammer or a nailgun. It is the same reason they make framing hammers, roofing hammers, finishing hammers,...

I think it is a mistake to assume that centerpinners just want to catch mass quanities of fish. Most of the CP anglers I know have adopted the technique to be able to properly fish spots that they could not fish using other techniques. It is the same reason that spey rods have become so popular. Speyrods don't need the backcast space that a single handed flyrods need, so it opens much more water to fish that was previously unavailable. The same holds true for CP angling, Hotshoting, Spin-Glo and bait...

CP angling takes MUCH more skill than flycasting. ANYONE can learn to flycast, I estimate only 2 in 7 people have the coordination to CP fish.

The "guides" who invented bobicating should be, as my hero Eric Cartman would say, "kicked in the nuts" for introducing that perversion. Their laziness and failure to teach their "sports"(clients)how to flyfish and flycast properly has ruined many anglers. Same hold true with the Fall River guides who "invented" the "Fall River Twitch." Rather than teach a client to cast a fly properly, they taught them how to troll while anchored, which keeps the fly in the water and not hooking the guide, boat, gear,... and sends the poor casting client home with the idea that they are a great angler and the guide is great. Now, the client needs NO SKILL, and learns nothing except a poor excuse for a "technique".

Might as well hand them a stick of lit Dynamite!

This must be the best post on this board in years.

I believe fishawk just figured that out and pretty quick! But hey... to each his own.

"Most of the CP anglers I know have adopted the technique to be able to properly fish spots that they could not fish using other techniques."

Some of us use bobicating for the same reasons. When I went fishing with Fishhawk, he didn't want to fish the water I chose because he was swinging and I was indicator fishing. He couldn't effectively "swing" in my water.

The water that he liked to fish didn't work for my kind of fishing. That was then. Now, I've learned enough to take the freaking bobicator off of my line and loop in a sink tip.

But the lesson was plain. Different techniques for different waters. As I've often written, LET THE RIVER TELL YOU WHAT TECHNIQUE TO USE.

I know you enjoy ribbing good old AB about his unique technique, but in reality, it's just another weapon in my arsenal. AND, skill is involved. Many of the fly fishers I've tried to teach haven't been able to duplicate the casting style.

Different strokes...

"If you're going to float/jig fish, at least use the proper tool for the job."

Why? I'm having a good time! Isn't that the point of the sport? It's not about catching fish, it's about enjoyability. I'm not saying there isn't a link there, but it ain't just about hooking up. The only thing I've ever hooked that I didn't enjoy in some manner was my right ear in a powerful wind on the American River.

BTW, I've seen CP fishermen "give up" fly fishing for their new style of fishing. Better numbers. A lot better.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Like I said, different strokes...

How is giving up proper fly fishing methods such as swinging, fishing dries and/or nymphs for a bobber and lead (or a jig, whatever) NOT giving up the sport to get better numbers?

Well, isn't this an interesting question.

The answer (as in a LOT of questions) is : It all depends.

As I recall on the Test and the Itchen you are allowed to fish only upstream with a floating fly to a sighted rising fish.

In the fly fishing section of the Trinity it is apparently legal to use a bubble and fly on a spinning rod. Given that, a CP rig with a FLY would probably be legal there. I am dubious about a jig qualifying as a fly, although my Clousers are not much if any lighter.

So, I don't know, and it all depends.

I know I am unlikely to take up Center Pin fishing until I get to where I feel as though I can fly fish well enough to take on something new. Besides, I HAVE a bunch of fly rods and reels...

Dries wrote:
I believe fishawk just figured that out and pretty quick! But hey... to each his own.

fishhawk wrote:
neither are flyfishing.



Paul

Better numbers...um...yeah. That's important to me. It's FUN hooking up.

"Giving up the sport"? Hmmm, I don't feel like I'm giving anything up. It's a lot easier to cast a dry or nymph than my honkin' big indicators. We don't have to call it fly fishing, though. I'm not stuck on adjectives.

Cricket became baseball, rugby became football. They're still sports.

I call it fishing with fly tackle. It's still more difficult than using spinning gear. And, like I said, I will switch to another method if I see fish rising or if I move to swinging water. By using fly tackle, I'm more versatile.

But whatever you call it, we all love the fish, the environment and the experience. We spend our money to preserve our fisheries. We agonize over lost habitat.

We have a lot more in common than out of common.

Some folks just love to "discuss" definitions (No slight toward you, Dries. I enjoy your posts.) Hey that's fine, since we can't go fishing right now.

CP angling takes MUCH more skill than flycasting. ANYONE can learn to flycast, I estimate only 2 in 7 people have the coordination to CP fish.


Where does that leave you in the equation. I must be the coordinated one. My reel was never the same after you borrowed it.

It is NOT fly fishing! It is the way homosexuals fish!

Berry! Where ya been? Is this your own personal research?

troutnut wrote:
CP angling takes MUCH more skill than flycasting. ANYONE can learn to flycast, I estimate only 2 in 7 people have the coordination to CP fish.