[zibby8]

I agree that fly fishing is beautiful, but disagree that it is an elective way to make things more difficult in the name of beauty. Most fly fishing happens in relatively shallow rivers where flies comprise a large part of the fish diet. There isn't really any other way to catch the fish. What I love about fly fishing, though, is that it often takes place is beautiful mountain streams. The beauty of the environment is hard to beat.

[superkuh]

Yeah, match the hatch matters, but not as much as you think if you give them something else juicy.

I live on a class 1 trout stream. I've talked to plenty of fancily dressed fly fisherman in for tourism struggling to catch large trout. I do better with a worm or grasshopper on a hook. And the funniest of all is that the biggest browns I've caught were using bread by the local hydroelectric dam because people feed the ducks there and the trout adapted.

Fish are fish. Trout are nothing special. The environmental beauty is still there when using a spinning rod.

[zibby8]

In your anecdote, your comparing tourists to a local. Of course a local is going to be more productive regardless of tackle. There are a lot of anecdotes here, with very little data.

[RajT88]

Not really true, about no other way. In such waters an ultralight spinning rig with a small hook and single split shot, with just a worm on the hook, is far more effective.

So effective, fly fisherman consider it "cheating".

[dkn]

In Canadian provinces, bait fishing in streams is often illegal.

[dvh]

And in Britain they don't allow casting downstream.

[zibby8]

I don’t think they consider it cheating. It’s often illegal because it is more likely to harm the fish.

[RajT88]

It really is more likely to harm the fish.

Regarding the "cheating" comment, it is a thing I have heard a few times.

[nataz]

Live bait with the proper rig will pretty much always beat an imitation fly. Same goes for organics (fish eggs) that will have scent/oil/particle trail.