Fly fishing is considered the quiet sport for many reasons. There is no crowd cheering. There is no team mate to rely on or to disappoi nt. There are no rule book or playbook, only unspoken rules that most abide by simply out of the goodness of their heart. There are no television cameras and no score. It is only the fisherman, the water and the pursuit of the prize. Fly fishing is hard work, mentally and physically. There is much wading and casting to be done. As well, the fisherman is constantly strategizing on the next move up or down the river, the best place to place the most natural-looking fly with the most deadly cast. Fly fishing will challenge a fisherman in a multitude of ways; he must be a decent fly-caster, he must have knowledge on how to read the water to know where the fish will be holding and he must know what the fish will be eating at that time of the day. These reasons are the driving factors most fly fisherman practice this art. Fly fishing is more art than sport and requires much skill and patience.

According to William Radcliffe the Macedonians were the first to invent fly fishing around 200 A.D. They noticed trout from the rivers would hunt after a specific type of fly that is “not like the flies found elsewhere, nor does it resemble a wasp in appearance, nor in shape would one justly describe it as a midge or a bee, yet it has something of each of these. In boldness it is like a fly, in size you might call it a midge, it imitates the colour of a wasp, and it hums like a bee. The natives generally call it the Hippouros”. From this passage we...

...can see that even during ancient Macedonian times fisherman were inventing new ways to cleverly fool a trout. By nature trout are smart, they have the ability to outwit fisherman and over time will learn what a ‘real’ fly looks like. When trout become quick to the ways of a cunning fisherman, they undoubtedly become harder to catch. One could deduct that is why the Macedonians decided to try to imitate their natural food source, a technique that is still in practice today and is one of the main themes found in the art of fly fishing. Radcliffe goes on to describe how the Macedonians fooled their local trout by tying the first flies with bright crimson red wool and two wax-colored cock feathers to imitate the wings, no doubt a crude but effective pattern. He describes the fly rod they would use as being six feet in length and “their line is the same length” (Radcliffe). An interesting note about the length of the line is that today most fly lines measure approximately 100 feet. In fact, a person would be hard pressed to find one less than that. A typical fly rod will be anywhere from seven feet to fourteen feet long, depending on the application. The early fly rod was not used to cast, but merely place the fly in a position where the fish was thought to be hiding. The end result is the same, however the application is much different. Fly fishing may have had it’s origins in ancient Macedonia, however it has evolved drastically over the thousands of years it has been in existence into a word wide practiced sport that most consider an art.

Any fly fisherman will agree that trout and salmon are the most sought after fish with a fly. Fly fishing came into existence with the purpose of pursing these species and today they are still the main targets for the sport. However, according to the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia; fly fishing is used to chase “a wide variety of species including, pike, bass, panfish, and carp, as well as marine species, such as redfish, snook, tarpon, bonefish and striped bass. There are many reports of fly fisherman taking quite unintended species such as chub, bream and rudd while fishing for ‘main target’ species such as trout”. A fly fisherman traveling the world would be hard pressed to find a place he couldn’t cast a fly and expect to catch something. This is one example of a benefit to the sport. Almost any place a person lives, travels or works there is most likely a body of water with some species of fish in it that will attack the right fly. From mountain rivers and streams that hold fat trout and salmon to any body of saltwater to the city parks and golf courses with small ponds full of bream and bass to full sized lakes with multiple species available for pursuit, there are not many places a fly fisherman will feel out of place. There are many overseas destinations that are popular tourist spots that house great fly fishing opportunities. Hawaii is known for it’s saltwater flats and bonefish, as are the Bahamas and Caribbean. Argentina and Chile have excellent brown trout in the region known as Patagonia. Alaska is stocked full of almost every species, saltwater and fresh, that an angler could ask for. There are even opportunities to land a fish on a fly in Europe and Asia, however not for the most common species. Anywhere a fly fisherman goes, he will be able to find a place to cast a fly into a decent looking body of water in pursuit of his quiet sport.

With the ever expansion of the human ’footprint’ on the world, native trout and the associated subspecies are becoming more and more endangered. According to estimates from the American Fisheries Society and The Nature Conservancy, nearly 37% of freshwater fishes in North America are greatly reduced in range or qualify for threatened or endangered status. This is quite a frightening statistic given the fact that in the U.S., trout anglers spend $6.4 billion annually on fishing. Not to mention the impact on the economy that recreation fishing has, taking into account that in California alone, recreation angling accounts for nearly $3 billion in annual revenue and more than 92,000 jobs. Recreational angling has quite an impact on our economy and our communities. To lose this valuable asset due to poor stewardship of our natural resources would be not only a crime against nature but a crime against our well being as a human race. To arrest the degradation of these valuable assets, as stewards we are responsible for maintaining what we’ve been given. As noted in A Guide To Native Trout Restoration; “Historically, overfishing and habitat degradation were the principal causes of decline for many trout and salmon species. For most species, overfishing is no longer a problem, but loss of habitat and degradation of remaining habitat remains the primary cause of decline”. This means that destruction of fishes habitat in building roads, bridges, dams and levees along with logging and clearing land for new developments all play a part in the destruction of these wild gem's habitat. We can not stop civilization, however we can expand responsibly. It’s up to us to protect the resources we have by protecting the habitat these fish thrive in so future generations can enjoy what we as a nation do today.

Fly fishing is a sport most recognized for its complexity and singularity. It’s a quiet sport, more associated with art that requires skill, patience and above all else the ability to spend time with one’s self on a river or lake and be at peace. It is a sport that only you and the fish you are pursuing are aware of, it is without spectators and cheerleaders and scoreboards. A fly angler only has himself to blame for a missed strike or a faulty cast. The majority of fly fisherman begin their obsession with the pursuit of trout and salmon, then tend to move on to other species as they progress. An angler can find suitable water that will hold fly worthy fish just about anywhere in the world, even in the big city. Fly fishing today is an ever growing sport with more and more new anglers joining the ranks. It is up to the present participants to do their part to conserve the waters they frequent for future generations to enjoy. Fly fishing is an ancient yet treasured world-wide past time that will continue to live on through time and be enjoyed by many as the quiet sport.