"Ken Fortenberry" wrote


In the minority AND fly fishermen, and I for one don't have a problem
with designating certain waters off-limits to Bubba and his bait can.


.... in the minority.... for sure

but, while tackle USED ( years ago) to be a good indicator of ethical
maturity, I no longer believe it is. The last few years I've seen as
high an incidence of truly poor conduct in fly fishermen as in bait guys

MY belief is that this is becoming more the case because Fly Fishing USED to
be a far more difficult to get into, and to actually do. It was also seen
as a bit dorky and "odd," the opposite of "in."

Thus, the vast majority of FFers were outdoorsmen that had already matured
through the "greed years" that seem to afflict most of us fishermen and
hunters early in our development. And, had matured past the need to "fit
in" with their peers.

Like the duck hunter that starts doing anything remotely legal to "get a
limit" and gradually evolves into a guy that insists on only shooting at
perfectly decoying drake birds and sets restrictions on his tools and
methods FAR more stringent than the law, the FF used to be an outdoorsman
that had matured past greed.

They had matured past it and were looking for ways to find a more intimate
relationship with their prey and all of Nature. They started FFing for
that reason, because of the new maturity they found in themselves ... it was
a self imposed restriction born of that maturity ( NEVER to be confused with
just old ... there are lots of very immature old people :-).

In this modern FF age, many, many, people are going directly into FFing,
....without maturing, as outdoorsmen, beforehand. FFing is now very "in"
and thus appeals to those that desire to impress. and to follow the crowd,
( neither are good signs when looking for ethics) and it's now extremely
easy to get into... there is a fly shop on every other corner and 15 videos
at the library.

IME, these new mode FFers are bringing that "me, me, me, more, more, all
mine, all MINE " greed that I USED to associate with PowerBait and corn to
the FFonly waters in great numbers.

They may be religious about C&R but they have NOT really matured past the
PBandC attitudes of greed.

It's not that they are intrinsically less ethical than the beginning
fishermen of years past, they simply are bringing "beginner level"
outdoorsman ethics to a sport, Fly Fishing, that traditionally was NOT a
place beginners hung out, in numbers.

FWIW, I too consider myself an elitist asshole, picky about my outdoors
companions, BUT, I find I have to actually observe individual character and
actions to choose those I care to be associated with ... tackle is no
longer much of a clue
.......... something I find rather sad.