How Many Years Of Fly Fishing Experience On This Board?

[birchy]

Just thought of a cool idea..

 

I want everyone to post how many years they've been fly fishing.. and then at the end I'll go through all the posts and do the math and see how many years of fly fishing experience we have combined on this forum! Let's say we'll round to the closest year.. unless you're in your first year, then just say one year.

 

I'm sure it'll be some crazy huge number!

 

 

So 1 year for me.

[Guest bigbadbrent]

11 years

[maxwell]

7

[AdamJ]

13 years

[Dank]

Two for me.

[toolman]

5 down and 790 more to go...I would suggest you just multiply the number of members, 795, times, say an average of 3 years expereience for each member and come up with a good guess...say 2385 years of experience. Or are you looking for something to do for the next 6 weeks?

[Guest guito]

birchy,. I have fly fished for about 28 years. Good luck with your operation tomorrow!

 

Guito

[Pythagoras]

I guess I've been fishing with a fly rod for about 30 yrs....hummm...thats a long time....ok, I guess I'm old.

 

My first trip was with my Dad and I was about 10ish. We took a drive from Saint John (NB) thru St. Martins and on to the mouth of the Salmon river. I remember standing on the walking bridge and watching salmon in their lies. I never saw it but I was told you could stand there when the tide was coming in and watch schools of fish come in. My first solo trips were to there. The fishing was hard and I broke many hoohs off on the rocks behind me. I never caught a fish there. Last I heard the fish count was something like 8 fish counted from the bridge all year ( circa 1997ish).

 

The river has been closed to angling for many years now but still has not rebounded.

 

C&R kids

 

S

[DutchDryfly]

24 years. It all started on a vacation in England. My dad bought the first flyrod in the family and pretty soon it was my turn.

 

Rob

[toolman]

My first experience with a fly rod was in 1975 when I was 14. My buddy, borrowed his dad's flyrod and a few drys for us to fish at a small lake for brookies in the evenings. We did not know much about flyfishing but we would row out 30' off shore and cast to the bank where the risers were feeding. We did pretty good that summer, but we mostly used our spin rods. The next time I picked up a fly rod was in 1987 when I started learning to fish for Atlantics. You needed to know how to cast 60' or more, routinely for this type of fishing, so the first couple of years were all about learning to cast, swinging, mending, deep wading and crossing large rivers, reading water and looking for the Salmon. I started fly fishing for trout on the Bow River, four years ago.

[bigalcal]

I self started in Montreal in the mid "70's. I did a bit when I lived in Banff and then took 20 yrs off. So I will say 8!!

[BlueNorther]

35 years for me.

[admin]

6 years

[MMAX]

20 years for me

[126barnes]

Three Newfoundland Summers, so lets say two weeks by your standards.

[DonAndersen]

God do you pups make me feel old! Heading to my 62 birthday. Been FFing since I was 10 - tying from 12, built first plastic rod 40 years ago and first cane rod 25 years ago. Started FFing on the Sheep River in Alberta. Fished the Bow for the first time when I was in grade 9.

Hell, I got tippet older than most of you guys.

 

catch ya'

 

 

Don

[CDone]

Lets see, 41 years old, cast my first fly at 4 (grandfather was a member of the Issac Walton fly club in Ontario). Started tying flies at 12, built my first 'plastic' rod at 31 (sorry Don no cane for me yet, but soon I hope!). Started Spey casting 5 years ago. So I guess you can put me down for 37 years.

 

Colin

[Lawrence]

spring summer fall winter, for the last 2.5yrs

[Lundvike]

I have been fly-fishing for about 6yrs but I think the issue is more the amount of time spent fishing rather than the number of years past. I see Max saying he has 7yrs and I don't really think you can compare the amount experience. I might get 20ish days per year where as some seem to get 300+. Days on the river would be more accurate but this will be interesting none the less.

[dryfly]

Fishing for 50 years since ten ...

FF for 37 years ...

More or less "exclusively" FF for 20 years.

[reevesr1]

Fishing since I was 6 or 7, so 40 yrs.

Fly fishing for almost 1.

[PeteZahut]

4 years now with the flyrod and haven't touched the spincasters since.

[bigalcal]

God do you pups make me feel old! Heading to my 62 birthday. Been FFing since I was 10 - tying from 12, built first plastic rod 40 years ago and first cane rod 25 years ago. Started FFing on the Sheep River in Alberta. Fished the Bow for the first time when I was in grade 9.

Hell, I got tippet older than most of your guys.

 

catch ya'

Don

Don,

You must have fished the Dead Sea when it was sick!!

[fishfreak]

I'm on my 11th year now, and it seems like I'm enjoying it more every year. My first trout on the fly was caught in the Kananaskis River by fluke. Since then, I was totally hooked. I also credit inspiration from the movie "A River Runs Through It."

[angler]

been fishing since about 3 or 4 years old - Lake Ontario and small lakes in the Napanee/Kingston area as well a couple of small chalk streams.

 

Was convinced by a fellow worker in Turner Valley to try ff'ing on the Sheep near the gas plant. Never looked back and that was 1975.

Really cut my teeth on the lower Bow in '76. Spent many evenings at the 1/4 mile hole.

Started tying in 1977. Built first rod in 1978

 

So fishing for about 55 and ff'ing for 32.