Don't be ridiculous: Beer is for gear-tossers.  We carry Dom Pérignon (1961) in our tackle packs.  (You overlooked the mandatory photos of the 30-liter sling packs we use to carry our gear and champagne).

We wouldn't be caught dead wearing a "trucker's" cap.  Those, too, are for gear-tossers.  Look closely and you'll see the newbie fly-flingers are wearing hats with "SAGE" or "SIMMS" or "LOOMIS" embroidered on them, and those of us who know only the finest will do, wear caps with "WINSTON" or "BURKIE" hand-embroidered into the front panel.  And the cap must have a soft front panel so it slouches on our head; none of those common, everyday, standy-uppy rigid panel trucker's caps for us, by golly.

You also missed the requisite $280 Costa del Mar Fantail sunglasses (with iridium coated glass lenses) or the less desirable $200 Smith Guide's Choice sunglasses (with ChromaPop glass lenses).  After all, if we're standing up to our waist in a river wearing $1,000 waders and $500 wading boots, carrying a $1,200 fly rod mated to a $900 fly reel spooled with a $120 fly line, with $300 line nippers on a $120 gear retractor pinned onto our $350 sling pack - with our $1,000 bottle of Dom Pérignon inside - we absolutely must have exceptional sunglasses to complete the look lest we be ejected from the club.

And when you've done all of that and own all the right gear just to catch an eight-inch trout, you have to take pictures of your gear and wax on about the day poetically because the fish are midgets and if you don't carry on about your stuff, you end up looking like an even bigger idiot than you are.

No one needs to remind us of how silly we fly-fishing idiots can be.  We know.

Enjoyed every episode. Even my 10 yro was interested.

Generic PNW summer steelhead blog post formula - utilize the following phrases and features and you're set:

"Savage take"
"Toilet bowl flush" / "Skaters at dusk"
"Keep 'em wet"
"Tight loops!"
"Hoot owl closure"
"Epic"
*Photo of water spraying on a snap-T cast
*Generic spot nuke photo, preferably taken on the Deschutes River, potentially a newer truck with a rod rack on the front with no less than 6 two-handed rods per fisherperson. No bobbers/indicators.
*Generic beer in $15-25 coozie photo, water in background
*A person wearing a trucker hat and/or buff
*Golden doodle dog

Don't be a Tinker and over-complicate it.

- Ninety-nine percent of what a trout eats is brown and 3/16th of an inch in size.*

- If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough, it will sooner or later become the right fly.**

- Fish the early morning or the late evening hours when the predatory birds are less active and you'll find trout near the surface and in the shallows.

That's all you need to know.

You can't fault people who fish with fly rods for over-the-top literary flourishes.  That's how we talk up here on Mt. Olympus and unlike me and that guy I used to fish with, many of us don't bother translating it for mere mortals.



*   Lefty Kreh
** John Gierach

I'm sitting in the middle of the pack and glad to see more grey hair (or no hair) on the tupperware fleet!!  Will still try to wear out as much fishing gear as possible!!