The 5 Stages of Fly Fishing

The Five Stages of Fly Fishing is something all fly fishermen will go through at one point or another.
It’s a process that takes time, through failures and successes, and countless hours spent waving a stick in the air.
And there’s no right stage you have to be in… it’s a natural progress from one stage to the next.

The first stage, pretty obvious one, is as a novice angler you are striving to catch fish. And of course, being on top of the world once this happens. At this point, you don’t care what kind of fish you catch, how big it is, or anything else. All you want is to catch it and look at it and love it for a few brief moments.
Spending time with someone who is still in the first will give you the opportunity to go back in time for a moment and remember how much fun it was to catch just one fish.
With time, however, novice’s eyes and ears begin to understand what’s happening on the surface of a lake and beneath it. And with understanding comes more consistent rewards and you are in a phase two.

In stage two, catching as many fish as possible is what matters the most. Numbers become the game, because a bunch of fish are better than a few, or one, or especially none.
The problem with stage two is that, sometimes, you won’t catch a lot of fish and that might raise stress level. But what could be more satisfying than dozens of fish marking a success? Let me tell you what. Big fishes.

So stage three is the quality over quantity stage. Size. Lots of fish was an improvement on where we started out but big fish trump little ones.
Fisherman in this stage figuring out what works and you get rewarded with large fish once you do it. Most likely, you will get lots of photos of the monster, and tell everyone how long it was.
With time, the pursuit of big fish fades as well, and, you reach level four – chasing the one that play hard to get.

In stage four you are in search for the most difficult-to-catch fish that you can find. At this stage you will write down in your memory a lot of fun fishing stories. No one cares when you talk about 20 fish you caught. But everyone wants to listen about flooding your waders, floating downstream, because you were trying something really dumb.
Once the ultimate challenges of fly fishing lose the shine, you head in a completely non-goal-oriented direction and you just want to go fishing.

Stage five is bringing you to what might be the last stage of fishing career and, perhaps, the most meaningful of them all – quality experiences. In this stage, you appreciate how the river sounds, color of the wildflowers, enjoying time with close friends while standing in the water, immersing yourself in the rhythm of your cast.
Sometimes you will find it was quality fishing even when the fish were in short supply. You might even say that the level five is an equivalent of the wise man on the mountain who finally figured out that it’s never been about reaching a particular goal but it was always been the journey.

One of the great things about fishing is that you could stay in previous stages, even when you graduate to the next. You can go fishing and get excited when you hook a fish. But then, equally excited about catching 10 or more fish and if you catch a monster. And finally, none of that happened, but it was a nice day out. The quality of fishing can’t always be
measured in numbers, hours on the water or fish you caught. Sometimes, more means counting less. 

Nice read about various methods, from dry fly fishing to Euro nymphing but also stories encourage your fishing adventure.