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Inspiration, trip to Norway, April 2013

Most of us Fly Fishers in the US have heard that the Europeans are very skilled fly fisherman. I now have seen first hand that it is true. Or maybe I was deceived, and I was fishing with Scandinavians 7 best Fly Fisherman… which could be the truth. But watching them cast was amazing. Their casting technique was flawless.

As a Montana guy, I’m a believer in casting as little as possible… I spend my time fishing, not casting. My casting typically consists of a single water load, one back cast.. double haul and shoot the line as far as possible… which is more then enough for most situations in the Rockies. But standing at the edge of the Sea, casting as far as I could amongst this group of Scandinavians.. I felt damn inadequate! I did have three days of practice though, and my cast is looking better now than when I arrived. There were moments though, when the wind seemed to laugh at me as it took my weak attempt at a cast, crumple it up, and throw it back at me. Then as I pulled my line in to untie the resulting wind knot, I would look over at Tom effortlessly throwing 70′ darts, and I would silently curse him.

I asked many Scandinavian Fly Fishers what they fished for. 96% immediately responded “Brown trout on Dry Flies.. only Dries”. They were usually very polite, and said that they never made fun of the elderly or very young children for using nymphs.. but for them it was all about the rise. I must be honest, I am so far from a purest, that I felt a little guilty for my “anything goes” tactics when chasing fish. Then it occurred to me that a trout might be happier being caught on a Joe’s Rubberlegs by me.. and promptly put it back in the water to swim away, then to fall victim to a Scandinavians dry fly, and placed in a zip-lock bag and buried two feet under ground to be consumed later.