Great looking fish! And you are too right. I'd rather 30 years of knowledge and skill over good luck any day. (unless I'm in the casino)

There is a tactic for every condition, and each is easily learned (if you are willing to take the time).

Alternatively, you could persist in listening to those that shoot down every method but the one they've pidgeon-holed themselves into. But be prepared to come up with excuses as to why you didn't catch anything.

"It takes no skill to dangle a worm". Spoken by a person who has no skills when it comes to fishing with bait. No offense intended, I fish it all and there are skills to enhance every technique of fishing.

No offense to the bait fishing set, but on any given Sunday bait significantly skews the balance of power. Maybe the bow and stern scenario wasn't the optimum example, but in the case of dragging ballyhoo around luck certainly is factor #1.

I fish with a guy who pulls bait for reds - he outfishes my fly 99 times out of a hundred. But if we switch rigs, I pummel him just the same. Put flyrods in both of our hands, and experience wins.

As for catching a fat rainbow on 8X...well getting it to eat is difficult enough, as you have to first see the fish, and then get that fly right in his face while dealing with unseeable current down below. An inexperienced angler will then pop that tippet in a heartbeat, while a seasoned fly angler will patiently play.

8x tippet?...8x tippet?!!!! At least the bait guy told the truth.
So what is the diameter of 8x tippet? What's the equation?

There are many in this world that would swear under oath that the fact that I have as many pictures of myself with trout as I do would conclusively prove that sheer dumb luck has EVERYTHING to do with fly fishing!

I'm also on record saying 7X (8X) is for sissies. Small diameter is nothing a nice drift can't compensate for...
but yeah, that's all luck.

Many fishermen refer to "flyfishermen" as snobs(guys who call themselves "flyfishermen" instead of "fishermen")Websters definition of a snob: one who has an offensive air of superiority in matters of knowledge or taste. To pretty much say that flyfishing is superior because there is no luck involved seems to match the description perfectly. At the end of the day every fisherman needs the luck that the fish will decide that what you are offering is what it wants to eat, be it a fly, worm, spinner or powerbait. We all need luck, the denial of it is absurd.

And no one answered the question as to the type of trout in the picture...looks like a Golden Trout to me...found only in high country waters I think.
And there is absolutely no luck to my ability to catch the big ones on the fly. One time I had to snag a branch with my cast, and dangle the fly just inches off the water jiggling the branch to get this lunker to take my fly. When he finally took he broke the branch taking at least 5 minutes for the hole to fill up where he came out of the water.

Sayfu, a 5 minute water displacement where a fish once vacated? Now that's a fish story...

I'm calling this one out. I'm a complete amateur in the world of fly fishing. I can cast, it's ugly, and that's about the end of it.

I usually out-fish myself before I picked up the fly rod or my buddies who don't. River or lake. It's because I get lucky and because fly fishing isn't nearly as difficult or complex as some will paint it...

I don't fly fish yet, but I do know for certain that fishing with other rods requires skill to. Is it easier? Yes. Is luck the only factor for other types of fishing? Absolutely not! In other types of fishing you still need to choose the proper bait,cast accurately, entice the fish without scaring it, and learn to set the hook without yanking the hole shebang out of the fishes mouth!(my brother is especially guilty of this)Deeter makes it sound like any idiot could catch a fish with a cane pole, it's easier than flyfishing I'm sure, but it still requires skill.

Geez guys! There is lots of luck in any type of fishing! I do like fly fishing, and most fly fisherman gravitated to fly fishing having learned to fish as a bait fisherman. The challenge, visible sight of fish taking the fly, need to understand the bugs to get good, adds a new challenge. And many do both. I am right now spending days dunkin a worm on a small jig hook for perch..the best eating of the freshwater fish, and then I let all trout go that I catch..just my deal. But I've caught some of the best fish of the day making a cast! One good sized brown on the SF that had a number of boats watching me play it, and then land it, was hooked when I tried to make a cast. I never saw it come up...took the fly just as I tried to lift the fly off the water to make a cast! And I consider it a real advantage of knowing where trout like to lie in a river having run plugs for steelheaders as a guide. When a rod tip goes down you know exactly where that fish was holding. And the same can be said for drift fishing bait for steelhead as well.
A lot of getting good at anything is doing it over, and over. The person that does something many, many times like fishing a worm, gets a 6th sense on how to get a bite. And we've developed that 6th sense dunking worms for perch. Now if I can get someone else to fillet them for me.

Alright Brookie, if you are sight casting for a trout; you match the hatch, size, pattern and everything. Make a perfect cast to present it perfectly, everything is perfect. You are saying that there is 100% chance you will hook and land that fish, 1,000,000 out of 1,000,000 times in that one cast. If true, you are amazing and full of crap. If it is not 100% sucess from that one cast, you rely on luck, congratulations you are the same as a any other fisherman.

I agree that fly fishing is not as difficult as people think. It's like riding a bike. You look back after learning and can't imagine not being able to do it.

7x is for sissies?? I am very glad that spool I own is gathering dust.

When it comes to luck I like the old saying, "I'd rather be lucky than good." I'll take luck over skill any day.

I use spinning tackle 9 days out of 10. On the tenth day I'm often in the mood for the change of pace and trying something that is still relatively novel to me. On that day I use my 5-6 weight rod, with some diameter of flaoting line and some transparent piece on the end (that I hear is called a tippet, which sounds like a drunken racing dog) and throw some bits of fuzz stuck to a hook out there and catch fish. You highly skilled gentlemen almost certainly catch bigger fish, and those more consistently than I will. However, as my fly-casting ability can be lauded only for the fact that I've yet to hook myself and my knowledge of entomology tops out at realizing that giant mosquito is really a crane fly I'm going to say that luck has a lot to do with it. Even with tackle and methods I'm very familiar with, with presentations I know are consistent winners, that big fish being at the right spot with his attention focused on the right thing and being in a mood for a snack at the time I'm on the water and deliver said presentation is entirely outside of my control. I therefore consider myself lucky at that point too. All of our knowledge and experience increase our chances, but events outside of our control lining up to make us successful still matters. Call it luck, fortune, divine benevolence, or whatever you choose, but call me grateful it happens.

Hard for me to understand that someone can take a float in my boat, lay out a nice cast, a dry fly, and see a fish surface and take it, land the fish, and then go back to spin tackle. Must be because I am so visual having played sports all my life, but that is a flat out adrenalin rush that I do not get cranking in a spinning lure. Casting the fly is much more enjoyable IMO. The fly goes along for the ride, you cast the line that is balanced with the flex of the rod, and it is an art form. I just luv watching good casters on the water, the flow of line, and the laying down of the fly to a target is magic. In spinning, the wt. of the lure pulls the line off the reel..far less enjoyable IMO...but I think you have to move from the notion of which method catches more fish for you, otherwise you focus on just that, and not the other pleasures of fly fishing. When I guide fly guys, they are far more in tune to their surroundings, and the pleasures of what they see that they don't see in their everyday lives..the spin guy?..much more into just catching fish. And that is OK, and can be just as fun for them in their fishing world. And that is why flyfishermen only make up less than 10% of the angling fraternity...most want to keep it that way as well.

if fishing takes luck i only have bad luck me my brother and two of his friends were fishing an acre and a half pond and a 20 inch bass was swimming around it had to be the biggest in the pond and we tried everything to catch it but it wouldnt bite i dont think we could have caught it on a fly either

I'm not bashing the appeal of flyfishing. I'm in awe of a group of fisherman who actually believe they have it down to such a fine art that they are entirely the master of the pursuit and the whims of neither universe nor fish factor into your day. Frankly, I'm not great at it, but at the same time it's not as difficult as all the jargon makes it out to be. The fish doesn't know the name of the fly and although it may be keyed in to a particular hatch, is not necessarily going to ignore my all purpose woolly bugger any more than a lion is going to watch a zebra limp by becuase it's been eating antelope all week. The key is to know the fish and be able to read the water, however you pursue it. (I'm mildly amused at the idea that catching fish you can see are sitting in 2' of water is considered the epitome of skill. knowing where the fish are being 90% of the battle in most fishing pursuits.)
If you'd listen to yourselves, you'd realize why often people grumble while they're doing it.

jcarlin... terrific posts! I think that there is a lot of truth to what L. Dahlberg says about fly fisherman having the tendency to view the world of angling through a drinking straw. I am 42. In my 20’s & 30’s I fished 80-90% fly fishing only. The last couple of years it has been 50-50 and I am having a lot more fun! For example, I live in OR and in the past month I have caught a steelhead on the swing with my fly rod and sucker fish w/nightcrawlers spin fishing. It’s all just fishing. I am grateful for EVERY fish I have the good FORTUNE to catch. If fishing doesn’t teach a person humility, I don’t know what will!

Larry Dahlberg? Interesting dude. He was a guide on the Upper Mississipi I believe, and then teamed with Dave Whitlock, a famous fly fisherman, and developed a series of Dahlberg diver flies that were unique, and very popular. Dahlberg then got into tv. being identified as a guy going after huge fish of any sorts...toothy critters in Africa, you name it, and on conventional tackle I will call it. The guy found his nitch and good for him..he has been good at different types of angling. But the thing to remember, and it has been my experience over a long, long time...it is the bait guy that initiates the snob thing about fly anglers, and the fact the fly angler thinks his method is superior. That hasn't been my experience...the fly angler could care less, and just does his own thing. He's promoted catch and release in certain waters where native species can sustain themselves without a govt. subsidized planting program. Maybe that is what angers some bait fishermen.

Gotcha. It is just my experience, and I believe this to be true, that flyfisherman evolve from fishing in conventional ways, and there becomes that point where catching fish is not the only goal. They can alter that good day, bad day routine by fly fishing and focusing more on other things than catching fish.
One experience as an example. I guided a young fellow and his son on the Yakima River, and fishing was exceptional, one of those rare days. By noon we had caught lots of fish. I'd pull over in the boat, help his young son out, and walk him along the bank while he played a nice sized trout. After lunch we still had a long way to go to get to the takeout. The guy says, "Lets just row down river, we've had a great day fishing." The guy was done!! I didn't want to stop fishing! One of those rare days, and the guy is done! I can't imagine a lure guy having the same mindset. And that is not a rare case. Many times, when fishing gets hot, an fly angler will put the rod up, and sit and observe..sign your gettin old I guess.
Anyway, one of those trips I will never forget.

Sayfu,
I certainly agree with you on one thing, but I think it applies to a larger group. Maturity and respect for the surroundings will eventually outweigh success in mind for all but the emotionally challenged. When I get out, it's just to get out and be on the water most times. I fished the creek out back and through the woods last night for 45 minutes just to enjoy such a nice evening. It wasn't unproductive, but was nothing special other than being peaceful and alone while the world went dark. I don't like to fish with people who feel they've had or are possibly about to have a bad day fishing. I've never been out with someone who got seriously hurt, so I don't think I've even had one. Tackle issues can be a bit frustrating, but are certainly avoidable. Difficult terrain, water, and boating conditions? Part of the adventure and challenge. If I wanted a controlled environment I'd never leave my office. Enjoy your pursuits whatever they are.

BABS, who's to say what a perfect cast is? You? the fish? If the fish takes it then, yea that was a perfect cast...and that one cast is 100% success rate. But unfortunatly there is no guide in FFing that says whats perfect and whats not (sure everyone likes to see Pitt false cast for hours). Again, the beauty of the sport. My point is that there are so many different variables in Fly Fishing that once you get to the level of a Rene Harrop or even our very own Kirk Deeter..luck plays a very little if not non-existent part. It becomes problems solving. If a fish doesn't take, he knows exactly why, or has some idea of what went wrong. Trout pretty much only have a few purposes on this earth. One of which is to eat...and I really highly doubt that they have much if any decision making skills to say, "oh I dont want to eat that because I dont feel like it". There is no room for thought..they either eat, or are spooked by an irregularity...such as bad cast, drift, fly, etc. That doesn't sound like luck to me!!!

That is a golden trout, no doubt about it a beautiful fish native only to California but planted elsewhere, they live only in high country, so catching them is a real treat and challenge. And I do all type of fishing and as many guys have said skill, experience, and luck come in to play in all type of fishing. No method is better than the other, they all have their applications.

Shadbuster..Thanks!!! I went to bed the other nite thinking I had been wrong!..first time since '89 !! I thought it was a Golden, because of the coloration on the upper 4/5ths of the body, but wasn't sure about the spotting on the back portion. The other aspect is the small size. Golden's only get about that big. The record is bigger as they always are, but most are that sized.

But Deeter!..A Golden is a type of rainbow, I think, and that fish has the rainbow stripe on it. Don't do it to me Deeter!!

Golden? Cuttie? I know I fished for a week last year in the Sierras and still do not know what many of the fish I caught were.

Jeez Walt... I'm sorry I reused a cool image of a wild, native fish. Considering the hundreds of images we post yearly, and the hundreds of thousands of words we print here (and in the magazine)... also considering the multitude of comments this post (and photo) instigated, I figured I might get a pass. My bad.

I confess to using 7X tippet - when the trout only eyeball midges and tricos (now). It keeps the water around me clear of other fishermen and canoes. They can hear me screaming bloody murder several bends away. Canoes portage around me. Kayaks turn back upstream. Flyfishermen nod in kind understanding and wish me well.

Gudbrod GX2 bead cord is .002" in diameter. That scales to a 9x AND it's 8lb test and is 7.5 times smaller than the average 8lb test mono. It's white which is hard to see. It makes a heck of a tippet.

Wow! Such Arrogance! Not what I expected from Field and Steam. Disappointing!