Hang Around A Barbershop …

An old saying goes something like this, “hang around a barbershop long enough and you’re gonna get a hair cut.”  So true.  Where we spend our time and who we talk to influences our lives.  Hang around in a fly shop long enough … 

 

… and you might pick up some tips and ideas for your next time out that you may not have learned otherwise.  I like to think of it as talking with your neighbor over the backyard fence or having a cold beverage on the front porch with your buddy who does landscaping.  It doesn’t have to be some sort of question and answer session about the specifics.  It’s just a matter of talking with folks.

 

I swung by the shop the other day when I was out doing errands.  I wasn’t heading to buy anything.  Basically, I was avoiding doing my own yardwork.  One of Anglers’ guides, Greg Blessing, was there sitting back at the fly tying table.  I sat down next to him as he did some work on his photographs on his iPad.  

 

The conversation got around to high water and long-lasting flows throughout our fisheries.  And it got around to good fishing happening right now at Deckers and Elevenmile.  I mentioned something about my low productivity with using some nymphs and emergers and midges.  

 

“Well, that happens.  I was fishing with some folks and they commented on how often I make motions to set the hook.  For every strike you may feel, there are probably ten more chances when you’re fishing subsurface.”

 

“You set the hook when there’s not a strike?”

 

“There are fish looking and waiting to strike.  So, yeah, I entice them with a set.”

 

Sure enough, the next day, I was fishing Elevenmile and the first fish I netted was a strike that I enticed with a just little set the hook motion.

 

Sometimes you just need to hang around the barbershop.