What was your moment that inspired your transition to flyfishing?

A friend that I always hear fished with took a trip to Montana and tried fly fishing. He was all psyched about it and told me I needed to try it, so off to Ernst Hardware I went and bought a rod and reel.
Off to Lenore the next weekend we went. I landed several Lahotan cutts fishing from shore and that was the beginning of fly fishing for me. I rarely fish freshwater anymore. I just enjoy the ease of saltwater beach fishing here locally.
SF
 
I cannot recall ever not fishing. Some of my earliest memories are of fishing with my dad, grandfather and uncles, mostly for trout and panfish with worms. Even though I lived in close to very close proximity to one of the best trout rivers in New England growing up as well as having a brook full of brook trout flowing through the woods behind my parents property, I did not start fly fishing until I moved to MT for college. That was in the late 1990’s and for 20+ years I became fly fishing exclusive. For most of those years mostly dry fly exclusive. Over the last handful of years, I’ve dabbled in gear again for some salmon species though my preference is still to get those on a fly as well. I really enjoy jigging for kings though.

As far as why I made the transition. I just find it to be a more enjoyable way to catch fish. I don’t find it to be a more noble or refined way to do what we are all trying to do in the end, catch a fish. I got just as much enjoyment in being outdoors on the rivers and brooks I fished as a kid throwing a rooster tails or night crawler as I do now chasing fish with a fly.

Fly fishing is fishing in the end. Get out there and do it in whatever manner floats your boat….assuming it’s legal.
 
Selective gear restrictions (no weight) on the Saranac River in Plattsgurgh NY. I was in college. Landlocked salmon enter the river in the fall to spawn and chase smelt in the spring. The males will over winter in the river as well. There is a fall brown trout run too. Once I caught a leaping 4 lb landlock on my dad's old glass 6wt. flyfishing became a dominant activity in my life. I could fish between classes since the river went through campus.

I still fish gear for a bunch of stuff. So I never really transitioned, rather flyfishing was added as a technique in college.
 
Born caesarean with flyrod in hand. No wonder mom was cranky.

Seriously though, my old man and grandfather were flyfishermen. Other than a few toddler years dunkin' worms, and very brief forays into spin gear for bass, flyfishing for trout is all I've done for almost 70 years. Started tying about 60 years ago...at my old man's insistence because he didn't tie and was renowned for losing entire flyboxes while fishing streams...those old Perrine aluminum flyboxes sunk fast.

Despite all that I'm still a pretty shitty flyfisher...maybe because I value time in that environment as far more personally important than catching fish. Folk that get pissy because of a 'non-productive' day on water are not good fishing companions.

True confession...I've never watched A River Runs Through It, but I've read the book as well as the author's son's book Home Waters (John Maclean). I tend to studiously avoid movies based on good books because movie creators generally take outrageous liberties with the narrative. For literary classics movies are often a shitty version of Cliff Notes.
 
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I grew up in Sacramento and we used to take day trips to the mountains to fly fish for trout as a kid. Then it turned into fly fishing the American River for steelhead and shad with an old 6 weight.

One of the things about living near warm water lakes is there’s always bass to catch, and I used bass fish with conventional gear locally after school and on weekends. In 2007 I was fishing from shore and a boater caught an 8lb largemouth right in front of me on a “swim bait” that ruined me. That was an Alice and Wonderland moment for me and my fly rods collected dust until 2017 while I fell into a trophy bass obsession.

In 2017 I went hiking in Mammoth with my now wife and for whatever reason grabbed an old fly rod. I was feeling burnt out from bass fishing and hadn’t fished much that year. We stopped at Hot Creek which has a lot of grass and brown trout. I was using a hopper that spent more time covered in grass than fished well but managed to land a small brown and it was like all the negativity from bass fishing had washed away.

Exactly one week later I had some PTO to burn and googled “best hopper fishing” and an old CA forum post said Fernie, BC west slope cutthroats was where to go. It was triple digits in Sacramento and low 60s with rain in Fernie and the leaves had just started to change…
 
Transition occurred when Dad bought me an Eagle Claw glass fly rod on my 12th birthday in 1965. I thought a lot about it thereafter. All those trout we kept on opening day. I spent an hour cleaning all of them in the kitchen sink . 3 of us each keeping or wanting to keep the legal limit of 16 though I always felt the excess in all of it.
 
I don't fully remember why, but for my 9th birthday all I wanted was a fly tying kit. Not much fly fishing in my family, but something about fur and feathers and hooks captivated me and still does. Spent several years tying things I couldn't fish before it dawned on me that I should learn to cast a fly rod. My dad had a 6 and 8 wt he had used for drifting roe in Alaska, but he had never learned to cast the line without lobbing weight.

I was probably 14 when I started casting? Basically just tried to remember what people looked like doing it when I'd seen them. We had a pond with an elevated shore, which helped the confidence grow quickly because everyone's a casting god 10 ft above the water.

My fist real fly fishing was chasing summers on the sf stilly starting when I was 15. My friend Ross was a year older than me and equally as sick with the fishy disease as myself. 4am river arrival? Pick me up at 2 Ross!

Never touched steel there, but caught a few cutts and saw Ross catch a 15in bull and that was officially it for me.

Over time I drifted away from it, lost my tying gear and did a decent bit of gear fishing for bass and salmon but my last few years in Pullman I rediscovered the fly. That started becoming mixed in more and more until the pandemic. I suddenly had all the time I needed to really learn to fly fish and tie flies on my own and that's exactly how I spent it. Top 5 all time choice in my life!
 
I would say my 13 y/o year was when I really latched onto it. My dad, uncle, and grandpa strictly flyfished, and I grew up fishing lakes in WA and BC with them, so I was very familiar with flyfishing concepts and strategy...my grandpa would complain about the "hardware merchants" when he saw guys with flashers on the lakes and my family wouldn't allow lures or bait in the boat. For Christmas just before I turned 13, my uncle bought our family a fly-tying kit and a family friend taught us the basics, but I was the only one that stuck with it. Then my dad gifted me his old Sage Graphite II 5wt a few months later and got me casting lessons (I still have that rod).

That summer we moved to Alaska and everything took off from there. There was a combat fishing spot on the Knik River that first summer and the very first fish I caught on a fly I tied myself was a bright silver salmon and everyone around me was surprised and excited, because that spot usually only produced chum. My dad got me a float tube a few months after moving up there and we spent a lot of time fishing the lakes north of Wasilla...having to learn to cast from a belly boat low to the water definitely improved my casting quickly. We spent a lot of time fishing in the Susitna and Kenai systems. My dad also bought me all of the fly-tying materials I asked for, and he relied on me to keep the fly boxes stocked. I am lucky to have a dad that loves fly fishing and passed it down to me and my brothers at a young age.
 
When I realized I was a lousy gear fisherman and not catching many fish.

I was working on the Boise National Forest, and living in a broken down trailer behind the bar in Pine, Idaho. The South Fork of the Boise River flowed right next to the trailer and I decided that I was going to learn to fly fish. At that time REI sold fly fishing stuff, and I ordered a Diawa "flyweight" reel, a Cortland rod and floating fly line.

It got delivered on the Rocky Bar Stage route that had been taken over by the US Postal Service.

It was after work and I went out to the river and made a pretty decent cast to the head of the pool. There was a large splash, and I immediately hooked a nice fish. It fought for a bit and then it surrendered. It was a Pike Minnow, but it had a different name in those days.

I caught several more fish in the next hour, but not a trout.

I did learn how to cast and a hook fish thanks to the large number of Pike Minnow's.

Later I drove and fished the Trinity Alps Lake section and did start catching trout in alpine lakes with my fly fishing outfit. I did take along my favorite wood nymph for companionship on the fishing trip.

I still have fond memories of catching trout while gazing up at my "perky wood nymph" in her natural beauty. I was young and so were the "wood nymphs", and for several years while fly fishing I always brought one along.

I think I started getting old when I started fishing alone.

Maybe I will take up image creation with AI and have it create an image of a "perky wood nymph" sunning on a high mountain lake, that is ringed by granite rock, while I fly fished.
 
My earliest memory of an interest in fishing was at age 5. I didn't fish then, but saw a bunch of old fishing tackle in the garage, but I don't know that my dad ever used it. In my early teens I happened to see a couple men fly fishing in "my" creek that ran through our rural stump ranch. I don't know if they caught anything, but I thought it was interesting seeing them wading and casting, unlike me sitting on the bank or on a bridge and drowning worms. I subscribed to Outdoor Life and Sports Afield magazines, and hunted and fished vicariously by reading them. I think I was 15 when Outdoor Life had an article titled, "Learn to Fly Cast in 20 Minutes." For unknown reasons my step brother had a glass fly rod in the closet, and I came up with a reel and enameled level fly line. I spent many 20 minute sessions in the back yard with that contraption and still couldn't cast worth a damn. Semi related, I later acquired an 8 1/2' Eagle Claw fly rod and Pflueger Sal-Trout fly reel loaded with 6# mono for fishing Mike's cheese eggs in a couple nearby lakes in the spring. Worked pretty well.

Fast forward a few years to 1971 and while a student at UW in Seattle, the Washington Fly Fishing Club sponsored a fly casting class at Green Lake. Well that's what I had long wanted to do, so I went. Bamboo rod maker Dawn Holbrook instructed the class. I took my Eagle Claw rod and cheap fly reel, and bought a decent Scientific Anglers tapered fly line and by the second class I found my purpose in life. Apparently I was born to fly fish, not spin fish, but I didn't know it because I didn't know how to fly cast. Because I attended that fly casting class I never felt an interest in spin fishing for trout again. A side effect was that fishing with flies was far more productive for me than drowning worms or salmon eggs had ever been, so that likely aided my interest.

Learning to fly cast no doubt ruined an otherwise potentially productive and useful (to society) life. In addition to going fishing more often, because I learned that one could fly fish in WA year around, I devoted practically all my leisure time to reading about fly fishing, learning to tie and then tying flies, building fly rods, bamboo and fiberglass, and then graphite. I discovered that learning about fly fishing was a bottomless pit into which I happily fell. And there I remain. I'm not a fly fishing purist. I had co-workers who encouraged me to return to the dark side of conventional gear fishing for salmon, so I do a little bit of that as well. I've tried to become a more well rounded angler, or Complete Angler in the words of Isaac Walton, but I have yet to fish for capr.
 
There are soccer dads or baseball dads, I had a fishing dad. My dad got me a fishing license the day I was born. I grew up in Ballard and for the most part fishing meant mooching for salmon. We would make trips to lakes in the spring for trout and Kokanee but most of the time was in the sound. We didn't fly fish at all back then. That was for people elbow patches not Levis cover in herring scales. My dad was serious about fishing, more serious than a grade schooler. Somewhere around 8-10 I stopped going except for the occasional trip. The long days were too much for me. As salmon fishing became more and more restricted my dad eventually just gave it up. He switched his interest over to fly fishing for trout, both searun and lakes. In high school one of my friends whose family didn't fish asked me to take him out. That trip resulted in me spending countless hours fishing with my dad. Fishing became my thing. Through my 20's I was probably fishing at least 3 times a week. At the time you think it's about the fishing but looking back you realize it was more about spending time with people you care about. Now I have a 6 year old and I'm trying to avoid the mistake my dad made by burning me out at a young age. I'll try to keep it as something he looks forward to without much pressure on it.
 
Grew up in Southern California, in a Scout troop that did a 9-day Sierra hike every summer. We all had what would now be called ultralight spinning rods to entertain ourselves when we weren't on the move, and to supplement the freeze-dried meals. We'd throw rooster tails or salmon eggs in the streams and lakes, and used flies behind a casting bubble. Fast forward 25 years. I'm living next to a lake in northern Virginia, using that same rod to chase bass and bluegill. Visited friends in Bend and looked down to the Deschutes from the golf course I was playing and thought that looked like good fly fishing. Bought a cheap outfit, taught myself to cast on the lake, and started going up to the Gunpowder in Maryland whenever I could. I had meetings frequently at Medicare headquarters in Baltimore, and would fake an emergency back at the office to get a few hours on the Gunpowder. Anyway, parlayed that into a move to Oregon partly for better fishing, made friends though Westfly and then this place, and here we are.
 
As a child with "a short attention span" I never caught any fish when my Dad took my brothers and I out fishing with worms and salmon eggs; sometimes lures, and I didn't acquire much interest in it. Fast forward to 1972 at my first permanent station in the USAF, EVERYbody in my avionics shop was an outdoorsman; fishing, hunting, shooting sports, camping... I took up spin fishing along with the other stuff and began to have some success.

But here in the NW I gravitated to backpacking, snowshoeing, and mountaineering which virtually none of my colleagues did. Then in 1976 as a Staff Sergeant, an A1C trainee from upstate NY in a group of replacements showed up. He was a bushcrafter and an accomplished fly angler from a young age who XC skied all winter near his home when snow was on the ground. Our interests began to merge and he taught me how to backcountry ski that I found was way better than snowshoeing. Although I did OK with spinning gear on our fishing trips, I became fascinated with all of the aspects of fly fishing for trout and soon only rarely used my spinning gear even for backcounty lakes. I do still carry a spinning reel and a small box of lures in my kit if I don't bring a float tube. My buddy was always a better angler than I and also excelled far beyond my ability as a climber. He became a "Steelheader" but with my "short attention span" it didn't catch on with me. I fished lowland lakes for bass and stocker trout along with fishing SS and HC beaches but my buddy and I continued to fish streams for trout together over 45 years.

In 2015 as I was about to retire, I picked up a nice 7' 4 wt bamboo rod that is wonderful for fishing blue lines and small rivers. The 1st trip in July 2017 with my buddy where I used that rod was a week of fishing eastslope Cascades streams. My buddy showed up with only a Tenkara rod. I had never seen one before and was rather bemused-amused when I saw it. I did OK on that and subsequent trips but my amusement turned into an active interest as he vacuumed up fish behind me in sections where I had not encountered any fish. Over the winter of 2017 - 2018 I "studied" traditional Tenkara tactics and made up my mind to give Tenkara a serious try in 2018. After just a few trips to my favorite small rivers and creeks, tightline fishing traditional "kebari" (wet flies), along with unweighted and weighted nymphs using a feather light Tenkara rod proved so effective that I cannot recall using a rod & reel since on small blue lines to medium-sized rivers when wading conditions are good.
 
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I grew up in MN spin-fishing for sunfish, walleye, bass, northern like almost everyone there did back in the 70s. Fish density was so high most places it was hard NOT to catch fish!
When I moved to Seattle thirtyish years ago I tried spinfishing here, but spinfishing for the much lower number of fish in the lakes here - mostly stocked trout - was frankly kind of boring.
I honestly don't remember what made me think fly fishing would be more interesting. In fact I don't remember even ever seeing it done! But like Cabezon, I got a cheap Cabela's setup and gave it a go.

I DO distinctly remember standing in my backyard, rod in hand, reading from a propped-open copy of Flyfishing for Dummies (paraphrasing from memory): pull about 20 feet of line out through the rod tip and let it pile on the ground in front of you. Bring the rod sharply up from horizontal to vertical and flip the line into the air
I also remember thinking WTH does that mean? Then the whole 20 ft aerializing behind me... and boom.
Hooked for life!
 
Flyfishing was always a passion in my family. My father and his two brothers grew up Flyfishing in Montana and Oregon in the late 1940's and were blessed with the opportunities those places and times offered. When my cousins and I were old enough they would take us on a two week trip every summer to some western stream chasing grasshoppers and throwing them in the river while they walked the banks enjoying their passion.

Around 8 or so I was given my own cheap setup and a box of Royal Wolfs and Renegades to find my way. A memory that sticks out as a cathartic moment of when I fell in love with fishing with a fly took place on the forks of the Bitterroot River, one of those summers. It was late evening and I was getting scolded for refusing to leave because the river was boiling with rising trout. Standing diffidently casting and casting to a rising hog in a back eddy that was refusing my dragging presentations time and time again. In my own “UNIVERSE GIVE ME A FISH” moment, near total darkness, my no longer dry Renegade that could barely be seen slipped subsurface and was inhaled by a monster brook trout. The images of fighting and landing my first true trophy will stick with me forever and ignited a fire that could never go out.

Around the summer I graduated HS, I met one of my best friends that had lots of experience fishing for Salmon/Steelhead and wanted to get into flyfishing. So, the next step of this journey began. My buddy took and tying class at Kaufman’s and the next thing I knew we were gobbling up whatever info we could and spent the next few years creating/copying patterns and pounding water all over the west 200 days a year. Man, what a great time the late 80’s and early 90’s was for me and my fishing buddies.

As it does with some, life got in the way of endless free time. Marriage, kids, work. You know the drill. Relegated to weekend guy with all the other working stiffs. Haven’t lost the love, just the time. Started to supplement my needs by peeping at posts here while dreaming of the next time I could load up and get after it. So grateful to the people that donate their time here to provide loving environment for those of us that need someone to talk to about our shared problem. PNW Fly Fishing (and the site birthed it) has allowed me to meet so amazing Flyfishers, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share my love for this sport with you folks.
 
I was in my early 20s and had returned home to New Jersey after living in Texas for about 18 months after graduating from college. I had an appointment with the family doctor and our conversation turned to fishing. He was an avid fly fisher and said he would take me and teach me how to fly fish on one of New Jersey's premier trout streams. He was a cool dude and had a great sense of humor. He had a vanity license plate that said TRUTTA. So I went and bought a reel and rod. Unfortunately, his work schedule and personal schedule did not allow this to happen.

I was working at a NOAA lab (Sandy Hook) and just down the road from the lab was a cove that I was fishing with trout gear for snapper blues (juvenile bluefish). They were a hoot to catch. I thought it might be nice to try fly fishing for them and one day I tried, but failed miserably. I was talking to a co-worker about and one afternoon we went out to the parking lot he watched me cast. He told me what I was doing wrong and showed me how to properly cast. I never got the chance to go after the blues because I soon left for grad school in California. While I was there I took an introduction to fly fishing class and a fly tying class. I still tended to gear fish. I ended up working for Frostbug State University in western Maryland a several years later and met a couple of co-workers that were into fly fishing and did a bunch of fly fishing there. I was in Maryland for two years and did not fly fish again until I arrived in Washington. In the late 90s I met a colleague in the agency (from a different office) that became both a mentor and good friend that led me to increase my interest in fly fishing. About 9 years ago a fellow biologist from a different office introduced me to one of his co-workers that was a big time fly fisher and is also a member of PNWFF (@Paul_ ) and we have become good friends. Fishing with him has led to another increase in my fly fishing endeavors.

Although I learned to ty flies in the mid-80s, I never really did any tying after taking the fly tying class. After hanging out with @Paul_, my interest in fly tying has been renewed. Though, it has been about over 30 years since I took that class, I did remember some things. I still buy flies, but I am also tying some easy patterns. It is quite a joy to catch a fish on fly that I tied versus a store bought one.
 
Was born in WA but we moved east to MD when I was 1. The family fishing vacation when we lived on the east coast was to spend a week or more at a lodge in Ontario trolling/jigging for Walleye and casting big baits for Pike and Muskie. My dad had flyfished when he was younger and started up again when I was 7 or 8.

First I was casting spinners while he flyfished, but once I saw a trout take his dry fly on our first trip to Montana I started bugging him to (1) learn to tie flies and (2) learn to flyfish. A fiberglass Fenwick 8 1/2' 6wt rod and Pflueger reel and I was hooked.

We took a guided trip on the Yellowstone and I still remember over 50 years later that first big Rainbow that took my Bitch Creek Nymph. My first dry fly fish on a fly I tied came the next year - a #14 PMD on the Shields River.

That being said, I make regular trips to the 'dark' side for saltwater Salmon, Bass, and other species. Either because I enjoy the style of fishing or because I want to load the cooler (I have no desire to flyfish for Halibut). Flyfishing is my first love, but I also like variety.
 
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