How to write fly fishing posts

Has this ever happened to you? You're looking at a post on social media from someone who was just out fly fishing. There's some nice pictures of fish. As you're reading the caption the language starts getting weird. Usually there's a sentence near the beginning that is along the lines of "...was so humbled to catch this fish" or "so blessed to get to experience this". Seems a little weird, it sounds almost modest but kind of not. Moving on, next there'll be something about how beautiful and serene the location was, generally followed (at least in BC) with a comparison to Roderick Haig-Brown that compares the OP to a legendary fly fisherman/environmentalist/author. It'll usually wrap up with a call for others to do better, "we need to be better stewards" or something to that effect.

It seems strange to take these fishing experiences and turn it into a humble-brag, self-aggrandizing post. It's gotten to the point where I can expect certain buzzwords and can make a game out of reading them:

Humbled
Fortunate
Blessed
Truly
Beautiful
Lucky
Pleasure
Fabulous
Roderick Haig-Brown (substitute a local fisherman/environmentalist/author)

Anyways, just wondering if this is something others have noticed. I realize it could be different Stateside. If you too notice this happening, maybe we can make a master list of words and phrases. Could be turned into a fun drinking game eventually.

Not surprising in todays age of “hey everyone look at me” ,hell you can’t look up some simple instructions on the internet with out ever YouTube boob posting a long winded self promotional video ,when you only needed 2 sentences and I pic to get an answer.

… all that, followed by frustration, embarrassment and disappointment over breaking my rod and losing a pile of lures in trees…

At least on a kayak I can avoid the trees if I like.

I do a lot of fly fishing.  Looks like I need to step up my game on the flowery descriptions or people are not going to know I was having fun.

Pretty funny observation.

There are other clichés for other styles of fishing as well. As a long time reader of Salmon Trout Steelheader, I would say you can't get through an article without "rod buries", "thumb burning runs", "chrome", "dime bright ", "violent head shakes", etc.

Regarding the "dime bright chromers", don't forget to take a pic of the sea lice on the fish's tail. Zoom in real close so we can all see the lice. The lice tells your audience that your fish is superior to the other fish. 

Don't forget the fly rod behind the neck or the rod grip in the mouth in the classic fish picture too!

Don't forget the fly rod behind the neck or the rod grip in the mouth in the classic fish picture too!

Geez I don't know how I missed that!! Thanks for including those, very important to remember.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds the flowery language over the top.

Fly fishing, what I have learned:

Water temperature can not be too warm or too cold
Wind can not be too high or too low
There has to be a hatch
The hatch quantity can not be too large or too small
You have to be at the right place on the lake to see the hatch
You have to identify the type, the size and the color of the hatch
You have to have a fly that matches the hatch in type, in size and in color
You have to know how to cast said fly
There has to be fish, trout specifically or none of this works
The trout have to be fooled by your fly enough to strike
You have to know how to set the hook
Congratulations you have caught a fish!
Now release it.

Don't be a Tinker and over-complicate it.

- Ninety-nine percent of what a trout eats is brown and 3/16th of an inch in size.*

- If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough, it will sooner or later become the right fly.**

- Fish the early morning or the late evening hours when the predatory birds are less active and you'll find trout near the surface and in the shallows.

That's all you need to know.

You can't fault people who fish with fly rods for over-the-top literary flourishes.  That's how we talk up here on Mt. Olympus and unlike me and that guy I used to fish with, many of us don't bother translating it for mere mortals.



*   Lefty Kreh
** John Gierach

I was wondering when you were going to contribute to this thread Tinker!

Wise words and good advice!

Hoping you are doing well!

Generic PNW summer steelhead blog post formula - utilize the following phrases and features and you're set:

"Savage take"
"Toilet bowl flush" / "Skaters at dusk"
"Keep 'em wet"
"Tight loops!"
"Hoot owl closure"
"Epic"
*Photo of water spraying on a snap-T cast
*Generic spot nuke photo, preferably taken on the Deschutes River, potentially a newer truck with a rod rack on the front with no less than 6 two-handed rods per fisherperson. No bobbers/indicators.
*Generic beer in $15-25 coozie photo, water in background
*A person wearing a trucker hat and/or buff
*Golden doodle dog

Don't be ridiculous: Beer is for gear-tossers.  We carry Dom Pérignon (1961) in our tackle packs.  (You overlooked the mandatory photos of the 30-liter sling packs we use to carry our gear and champagne).

We wouldn't be caught dead wearing a "trucker's" cap.  Those, too, are for gear-tossers.  Look closely and you'll see the newbie fly-flingers are wearing hats with "SAGE" or "SIMMS" or "LOOMIS" embroidered on them, and those of us who know only the finest will do, wear caps with "WINSTON" or "BURKIE" hand-embroidered into the front panel.  And the cap must have a soft front panel so it slouches on our head; none of those common, everyday, standy-uppy rigid panel trucker's caps for us, by golly.

You also missed the requisite $280 Costa del Mar Fantail sunglasses (with iridium coated glass lenses) or the less desirable $200 Smith Guide's Choice sunglasses (with ChromaPop glass lenses).  After all, if we're standing up to our waist in a river wearing $1,000 waders and $500 wading boots, carrying a $1,200 fly rod mated to a $900 fly reel spooled with a $120 fly line, with $300 line nippers on a $120 gear retractor pinned onto our $350 sling pack - with our $1,000 bottle of Dom Pérignon inside - we absolutely must have exceptional sunglasses to complete the look lest we be ejected from the club.

And when you've done all of that and own all the right gear just to catch an eight-inch trout, you have to take pictures of your gear and wax on about the day poetically because the fish are midgets and if you don't carry on about your stuff, you end up looking like an even bigger idiot than you are.

No one needs to remind us of how silly we fly-fishing idiots can be.  We know.

I just go fishing with the budget stuff I already have...