As some of you may know, I lost, found, and then broke my old flyrod as I was retrieving it from the pond. I got a new one.
As I was preparing my old reel for the new rod by thoroughly cleaning/lubricating it, and by replacing the backing, I realized I'd forgotten how to tie effective line-to-line knots.
I searched the Web and found a lot of fly fishing sites. I got to reading some of them. Wow. What an eye opening experience. I'm sure glad we have Pond Boss.
I got to reading some of the fly fishing websites and found that what I have been doing for over 50 years is considered sacrilegious. Worms or live bait on a fly rod! Egads! A spinning real on a flyrod -- even worse!
On one site, member after member just beat the heck out of a 15 year old kid who proudly displayed a photo of a 16 inch brook trout he caught in a stream behind his house using a fly rod with a worm -- and, even worse, the kid had the audacity to admitting to eating the fish! These guys were ruthless, and nothing the kid posted did anything by further inflame this crowd.
When I was a pre-teen I couldn't afford a flyrod, but I was given an old fly reel with some floating line. I got a cheap (maybe $0.10, $0.25, $0.50 -- I don't remember) bamboo pole and a cheap set of tin "eyes" for mounting on bamboo poles.
I had a fly rod!
I used it to put crickets, grasshoppers, and even worms in difficult places where I knew bluegill and perch loved to hide. Sometimes I replaced the fly reel with an old open face reel when jigging for crappie.
I guess I better not tell anybody that I was using a fly rod this evening with a worm on a floating jighead. I caught at least a dozen feisty bluegill, two bass, and one 14 inch catfish. It was fun. Most of them jumped out of the water to grab the worm/jig rig. I doubt I would have caught these fish with an artificial fly. Because of the way I've dumped stumps in my pond as cover, there is no way I could drop bait where I needed to, with a spinning rig, without losing dozens of hooks.
Last night I did something similar with grasshoppers and crickets on a #6 bait hook. It was a blast! The fish were just smashing it.
So, how do others feel about using live bait on a fly rod? Is this something that no one should ever admit? I gather it is actually illegal in some places! Sheesh!
