Question:
was looking at the video River Runs Through It. It seems to show a fair
amount of finess(sp) to fly fishing. I perceive there is a fair amount of snob
appeal to fly fishing.
Perhaps maybe to a lesser extent there is finess to bass fishing. I was
thinking of the various casting techniques and analyzing patterns etc. The pros
on tv seem to show it.
Answer:
I'm a fly fisherman and a bait caster and to me fly fishing is actually
easier than baitcasting. The thing is that most fly anglers fish for trout and
most bait casters fish for bass. Trout -- at least the smaller ones --
generally feed on tiny insects. Our beloved bass will eat anything they can
get in their mouths. So the lures (flies) that you use to catch trout are
smaller, lighter, more delicate, and some would say more beautiful, than the
hunks of plastic, metal, rubber, and wood that we use to fool black beauties.
I'm a southern boy, so perhaps what I say next shows my southern prejudice, but
I think that one reason fly fishing seems chic and high class is that the
earlier American fishing writers were mostly from the north. They were educated
men and they wrote about their sport in the language of Hawthorne, Melville,
Thoreau, and Emerson. When they spoke on the subject, their accents betrayed
their Ivy League backgrounds. Bass fishing writers came later on the scene
(Dr. Henshall excepted) and many of them chose to write in a more folksy style
ala Mark Twain. When they spoke orally they dropped their "g"s as in "castin'
" or "fishin' " and they used words like "y'all".
So I think the reasons that trout/fly fishing today seems educated, upper
class, and more skillful, and bass/bait casting seems redneck, working class,
and less skillful, are (1) trout flies are delicate and look like beautiful
works of art, while bass lures are simply hunks of stuff with hooks sticking
out. and (2) to the northern ear, many prominent bass anglers sound like they
didn't finish high school -- that is, they sound like they come from Tennessee,
Arkansas, or Texas. I, of course, come from Texas.
So take it from someone who loves fly fishing and bait casting. They both
require skill and finesse. I'd hate to have to give up either type of fishing.
