If you come up on a dude just sitting on the bank or a rock and watching a piece of water, quietly contemplating his move while fish boil all around, he's the real deal.

Most unseasoned fly guys are so overtaken by risers they can't get in the water fast enough and start flailing.

How about a sweat-stained, deet-soaked fishin' hat?
Here in Alaska, its easy to pick out the cabela's models from the real fisherman, due to the fact that the posers all carry those little electronic skeeter repellers!
Yup, nuttin' beats 100% DEET...What was the question again???

Multiple pocket shirts, flies drying in cap visor, suntan after sunburn (wimps and women use sunscreen)

Smells like Deep Woods Off or 100% DEET (sometimes like something died after a couple days without showering too.)

Truck Cab looks like a fly Shop blew up over the interior, rods on dash, behind seats, waders on floor, flies and tippet material all over the interior, fly lines drying wrapped around the sunvisors, along with miscellaneous leaders.

If you see someone nymphing with no indicator and doing well, also if mayflies enter your truck as dunns (drawn to the dome lights as you leave the stream after dark), morph on the dash, and go spinning on their merry way the next evening streamside again.

Sand paper thumb, line cuts, (Small tippet slices wet fingers like a razor... OW!) racoon eyes, lack of sleep look, (Bloodshot eyes) and any hint of fish smell, or a smoke and rotting flesh (Carp) smell. All of these apply to me...

1) The guys that look at and read the water and decide how they want to approach before casting are the guys that have it together. They pick the water over before moving and spook fewer fish, and hook more.

2) Guys that have more gear than they can fit in a couple pockets of their vest have way more than they could possibly use or know how to use. Guys with less gear usually know how to use it better.

3) I proudly rock the raccoon tan all summer.

4) My sleeves always get wet when I land and release fish.

5) I smell like DEET and still have mosquito bites all over any inch of exposed skin.

6) I get small cuts and scratches from pushing through the brush to get to the good spots. If its a really good spot, I get bruises on my knees, elbows and shins from climbing down a rock face, rod in teeth, to get there.

7) I look like hell after a fishing trip: I don't waste time on how I look, because the fish don't care. I worry more about how my fly looks when I present it to them. No shaving, no washing my face, nothing that won't help me catch more fish faster. I barely stop to eat.

8) Because I use nothing but single-handed rods, the muscles of the wrist, forearm and shoulder of my casting arm are bigger, stronger and more defined than those of my left side. I'm not kidding on this one.

Whats sunscreen?

Nothing says "fisherman" like that groove worn into one of your front teeth.