The intension in this short series of articles, is to highlight some fast, easy technology hacks I’ve found/developed, to massively short cut the fly fishing learning curve. Perfect if you don’t get much time to fish!
To kick off here’s a really quick and easy one that only grows in value with time.
Most of us carry a camera of some form with us in our daily lives now. In most cases it’s a standard part of our phone. This makes snapping a good quality photo while fishing easy, right. Capturing moments that help us relive special memories. Sound familiar?
It’s a small step in your thinking then, to add value to each fly fishing trip. How? Every fly you use in a day, you hook onto a fly patch or something similar, to dry out, before putting it back in your box. When you stop fishing, take a picture of the flies used that day.
Ok, by creating an album solely for these images, you build a visual record of flies used, dates are automatically generated, so you know what time of year it was too. This action alone is very helpful in refining your fly selection for future trips and gives you confidence (a vital ingredient).
You can take it a stage further though and create much more value. It’s quick and easy to tag the image with your location, then note conditions, your catch and anything else you may think useful. This final step transforms your record into a digital fly fishing journal, that is always on hand, immensely useful to reflect on, very quick and easy to record (making it much more likely you do it) and an information mine.
Over time this ultimate database only becomes more useful as it builds. You really notice the difference on the tough days. Just stop fishing for a moment, refer to the images. See what worked or indeed did not work under similar conditions previously.
Hey presto, you just made making a change that is likely to help you catch, much more likely!
All this takes much less time and effort than the words written here and their is only upside for your fly fishing. Remember those tough days when you don’t catch? You see the most benefit then. One fish caught when it’s hard, is worth way more than ten when it’s easy!
Enjoy
SJY