After reading Joey's story, deciding whether fly fishing is a sport or not seems trivial. This is simply a great story.

Fly fishing means something different to everyone. Some guys use it to relax, some guys want to catch more fish than the next guy, some guys do not care how many fish they catch (me). Some guys know the Latin names for each bug and other guys use terms like "big green bug". All are drawn to the same place but for different reasons.

What I truly love about this story is the bond between father and son. My father passed last month and I would give anything for another moment on the water with him. I appreciate the second chance these two have to share.

So, is it a sport? Not sure but I do know it is something special.

Like Hunting,it's a Blood Sport. It's harvesting or releasing in a sporting fashion. Like many sports, it can require some endurance.
If you don't believe me, try taking a Women's Tennis Jock Ice Fishing, a Sea Sick Line Backer Offshore, a cart golfer hunting for Mountain Goats or watch a hockey star try and lead a bonefish on the flats or a grouse through the trees.
It requires skills, like any other sport, only you compete against nature..instead of another team. Can you do it without an athlete's body, sure..but you can also golf, play softball, fat boy tennis, etc...without an athletes body.
So I say it's a "blood" sport you can play on many different levels of strength and endurance. You can make it as hard or as easy as you like. Hitting a ruffed grouse can be as difficult as hitting a baseball, just like the skill required to place a midge right where you need it to be is no different than putting.

Buckhunter nailed it. No disrespect, but who gives a s*** what we call it, if it's important and meaningful to the individual (as it so obviously is to the Maxims) leave it to others to waste time attempting to categorize.

Sorry about your Dad, Buck. Obviously I don't know you but you add a lot to the community or whatever it is we have here with your posts. I've been down the road you're on and if I recall, you're also a baseball guy. There's something about the father-son connection that is especially enhanced through both fishing and baseball. Good memories, tough time. Hang with 'em.

All's good Buck, but you present way too much emotion to the sport of fishing for me to handle, and then all the gushy reactions. Over the years I guided way too many folks that said they didn't care if they caught anything, and then threw a tantrum when they lost one. Reminds me of my ol fishin buddies comment, "Talks cheap, whiskey costs money." And let's accurately say, you were flyfishing, just to a much lesser degree.

Here's one of the most Liberal of interpretations regarding flyfishing I have heard of in my many years of pursuing fly fishing. At the Railroad Ranch, Haramann's Ranch on the Henry's Fork of the Snake at Island Park, ID., dedicated, very proficient Spring Creek Anglers will only cast over rising fish...no blind casting. So they will rest on the river bank observing the water until they spot a rising fish to fly fish for. A novice can enter, see the person resting the water, and waiting for a rising fish, and think the angler is not fly fishing, and walk in and cast. This has led to some heated confrontations. IN that case the sitting angler is fly fishing.

i think this essay is onto something really important, and buckhunter as well. a while ago, i realized how pointless many of my hobbies are. rock climbing, fly fishing, skateboarding, riding dirt bikes, all of them really are trivial pursuits. in the grand scheme of the planet or human race, i'm really not accomplishing anything, but having fun. and i think that's the point. i do all these things because they make me happy. they give my life a sort of purpose. i don't think it's ever about numbers or competitions or anything like that, it's about the experience. some people need the numbers and the competition to give them that 'experience,' but others may want just the opposite. To each their own, but for me it's a primal, spiritual, and almost enlightening matter to fly fish. I love it and couldn't give two farts in the wind's worth of care as to whether or not it is a "sport".

But the out of body experience folks want to say they were flyfishing when they never made a cast, and sat on a log all day meditating. It is not flyfishing. There was an article in an East Coast Flyfishing Magazine a few years back that described just what I described took place. This business Executive hiked far back into the mountains with his flyrod, and was sitting on a log having an out of body experience when another angler came along. The rest of the article described how it totally ruined this guy's outting. I called up the editor, and told him why I was cancelling my subscription.

Clinchknot makes some valid points.

Fishing, any type, is a LOT more fun when you're catching fish.

If you can have fun even when you're not catching fish but from the mere fact you're out there, the technical achievements or whom you're with, so much the better.

If you're not on the water, line in, you're not fishing, you're watching. If someone else comes and actively fishes, butch up buttercup and deal with it.

As for canceling a subscription because of an article they published. The phrase, Nancy-boy, comes to mind.

For the guys that say they don't care if they catch any fish....up goes the red flag.