Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial "fly" is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or "lure" requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting. Fly fishermen use hand tied flies that resemble natural invertebrates or other food organisms, or "lures" to provoke the fish to strike.
Fly fishing can be done in fresh or salt water. North Americans usually distinguish freshwater fishing between cold-water species (trout, salmon, steelhead) and warm-water species, notably bass. In Britain, where natural water temperatures vary less, the distinction is between game fishing for trout or salmon and coarse fishing for other species. Techniques for fly fishing also differ with habitat (lakes and ponds, small streams, large rivers, bays and estuarys, and open ocean.)
Author Izaak Walton called fly fishing "The Contemplative Man's Recreation".
Read more about Fly Fishing: Main Overview, Fish Species, History, Fly Fishing Tackle, Artificial Flies, Fly Fishing Knots
Famous quotes containing the words fly and/or fishing:
“true pleasure
Lives in measure,
Which if men forsake,
Blinded they into folly run and grief for pleasure take.”
—Unknown. Love Winged My Hopes and Taught Me How to Fly (l. 3–6)
“The only sure way of avoiding these evils [vanity and boasting] is never to speak of yourself at all. But when, historically, you are obliged to mention yourself, take care not to drop one single word that can directly or indirectly be construed as fishing for applause.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)