sandy wrote:
daytripper wrote:

Ok, hit some "flyfishing only" water tossing a Mepps spinner with your
flyrod
and see if the Rangers don't get all excited about your definition of
flyfishing.

And tossing a bubble and fly with spinning gear is certainly flyfishing -
albeit in a rather primitive form - at least according to many state F&W
regulations.

/daytripper

Definitions are a problem in general. You mentioned "fly fishing only"
waters. Yellowstone Park has various waters designated that way.
So I stopped in, at the main ranger station in Mammoth Junction, and
said "what is fly fishing? How do I know if I'm not breaking the rules."

The ranger grinned. "We get that question a lot," he said. "After a
while we gave up trying to define it. 'Not bait' is how we define
it now."
I agree. In my part of the world (Alberta) the laws of fishing are
varied. Variations include "artificial lures only", maximum 2 hooks on
a line, and barbless hooks. The point is that the use of legality to
pursue something as vague as the definition of "fly fishing" is bound to
end with no satisfactory resolution. On the other hand, I think that it
is possible to arrive at a basic list of characteristics that contribute
to the sentimental definition of the sport. Another aspect of my
personal definition is based on what kind of fisherman I see when I'm
standing on the shore of a lake/stream/river. I can see the elegance of
a well cast flyline from the guy beside me who is up to his waist in the
water. I can see that he's focused on his retrieve technique. I can
see that he strips the line in when he's playing a fish. I can see him
deliberate over what he should tie on after he's looked for bugs in both
the water and air. What I can't see is what's on the end of his line.
On the other side of me I see a guy with a 5' spinning rod throwing
something heavy a long distance with some underhand cast. I can see
that his only retrieve is a constant retrieval by cranking some handle.
I can see that he sits down on his stool to have a beer between casts.
I can see that he casts the same thing over and over and over. I
don't care what's on the end of his line.
You tell me, which guy is flyfishing?
Steve
BTW I just thought to add this question, how have your shoreside
conversations gone with fellow flyfisherman versus the other kind of
guy? You share flies, you discuss how you made them, you discuss local
hatches, you discuss water and river structure, etc versus "where dya
get those worms?"