I saw something today that left me dumbfounded.

I was watching a spin fisherman from my window and initially pooh-poohed
him, having watched many unseccesful spin fishermen at that point on the
river I view from my front window. He'd been there for a couple hrs and I
decided to get my binoculars to see if I could see any fish in the water on
a stringer. Before I could retrieve my binocs, I noticed him put something
dark and long in his old style canvas fishing bag and prepare to leave. I
decided to meet him when he crossed the bridge to see how he did.

To my astonishment, as we closed near his truck, I noticed what I thought
had been a rather large spoon spinning lure ...and the basis of my
skepticism as to his certain non-success... was actually a clear oblong
bobber. What the...? We greeted and I asked how he did. He didn't say
anything at first, seemingly waiting to make truck-fall. When he put his
pole and bag down, I asked if he caught anything and he gave me a glance
that obviously meant, "jes wait and I'll show you".

He opened his well-worn bag and pulled out a steel-brass stringer that
looked like it could hold 10lb salmon or bonito and flopped two nice browns
on his open tail-gate, one about 12", the other about 14". "Nice", I said.

But, I was more intrigued by his tackle. He seemed to think it nothing and
casually revealed his rig. It was a clear bobber on the spin line and from
the bobber, a like-sized 4' tippet going to a single fly. ???? I asked what
it was and he told me it was a double renegade fly, about 10-12. Not a
weighted rooster-tail with hackles, just a plain ol fly with the bobber
providing needed weight and flotation. Whoa!

This flew in the face of everything I'd worked so hard to learn about fly
fishing and presentation and.... Well, let's just say I was stunned. I'd
watched his technique from my window. It was pure spin fishing. Cast to
the far side of the river (about 25-30yds) and retrieve accross the current
at a moderate spin lure pace. That means the fly was being dragged across
the water like a freakin motorboat, wake and all. No natural floating
presentation with required mends and twictches and such. Just drag that
sucker across the water, by god! What trout in its right mind would go for
that?

He went on to relate how he'd always used this technique and had actually
caught about 6 fish total, that day, keeping only the two larger. What
could I say? "You can't do it that way!"? I came home and tossed my Cabela
FF catalog in the trash. :\

nb