On 6 Aug 2004 07:55:07 -0700, (Peter Charles)
wrote:

SNIP

Enter the minimalist angler as a highly effective angler. I've always
loaded myself up with bulging vest, stuffed pockets, spare spools,
spare rods in the car, all precautions against not having the right
thing to satisfy picky trout. But this load of gear is really a
recognition that I haven't taken the time, haven't made the effort to
know what I'm doing. I have burdened myself physically with armloads
of gear to avoid having to take on the mental burden of selecting just
what is necessary and no more –- to avoid having to know what I'm
doing.

So here I am on Whitemans, wet wading, one small fly box, one spool of
tippet, one rod, one reel, and thinking about what I am actually doing
instead of just chucking the contents of multiple flyboxes at
unimpressed fish. Before I left the house, I had decided where I
would fish using the right bug for that water, time of day, and at
that point in the season. Bingo, epiphany time. By forcing a
minimalist approach, I have to really know what I'm doing as there's
no margin for error. I've stripped away the excuses, the multiple
flybox crutches, and faced the fish armed with a handful of flies and
my wits. Stripped of the superfluous gear, I'm reading water,
examining bugs, search bankside bushes, catching fish, and in the
process, discover that there's an amazing mental clarity to the
minimalist approach.

Is it more fun? You betchya.

Funny you mention this...I've just returned from Colorado, and on
several days of fishing, all wading wet, I never had more fishing gear
with me than one rod and reel, a single spool of tippet, a coupla-few
flies (usually tied right before the day's fishing - I was losing a
couple a day to the willows in the SMALL streams), a Victorinox knife,
and hemostats (which got sole use in an on-stream lighter repair).

Perhaps the most telling thing about it was going into town(s) for lunch
or other breaks, and seeing guides loading up sports, all wadered- and
vested-up, with the sports looking at us like we were crazy and us
looking at them similarly.

I did notice that many of those wasting their time casting to the hogs
at the public area below the Taylor Reservoir Dam were geared/kitted to
the nines, including a couple in a convertible Porsche. It occurred to
me that gear, knowledge, and ability had nothing to do with one another.
When I waded out once (again, wet, and sans gear) to take a picture of
some of the fish, they looked at me pretty harshly G.

As usual, I had a blast, and it appeared the sports were, too, so I
guess it is a to-each-their-own type of thing...

TC,
R