NY Times says we are all hipsters

[yikes]

"Step aside, goat yoga. The chic way to unwind now is fly fishing."

Fly Fishing Is the New Bird-Watching - It’s the latest “old timey” hobby to gain a dedicated new following - NY Times

 

[jayr]

Bargains to be had on used high end gear in about a year?

 

[Bigfly]

Now I'm worried.
We can line every stream elbow to elbow and tweet about how much fun we are having.
I'm going to start a rumor that fishing causes cancer........just doing my part.

Jim

 

[flafly14]

"Step aside, goat yoga. The chic way to unwind now is fly fishing."

Fly Fishing Is the New Bird-Watching - It’s the latest “old timey” hobby to gain a dedicated new following - NY Times

Fake news. Please let this be fake news!

 

[darkshadow]

Can't they take up wood whittling or knitting instead?

First IPAs, and now this.

 

[okaloosa]

our streams are going to look like a burning man festival or Coachella soon...
yuk!

 

[sweetandsalt]

I did read the piece in the Times and...not to worry. A few rich folks buying homes up in socialite Livingstone Manor near the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum will have little effect on the rest of us. And regrettably, it wasn't always this way, the Willowemoc has deteriorated into a hatchery stocked stream.

 

[joshw]

River runs through it round II ... Will we see another round of fly shops opening only to close after a few years?

 

[rusty 54]

I'm probably not "hip". I think I was "groovy" at one time.

 

[yikes]

Bargains to be had on used high end gear in about a year?

Sorry, I missed that thread in the Lodge Den.

 

[0bie]

Folks in this sport have been spending small fortunes on skins and pelts, debating the merits of bamboo from different parts of the world, the correct shade of urine-burned fox fur for for a sub-imago Ephermella subvaria, making up rules about fishing upstream vs. downstream, flies vs. nymphs, weighted or unweighted...for generations. Fly anglers are the prototypical, quintessential hipsters. Before there were hipsters, there were hipster fly anglers.

One of the most insufferable aspects of hipsters is the constant one-upsmanship about who's had the More Authentic Experience. It's not a whizzing contest. In that spirit, I'm not worried whether someone developed an interest in fly fishing through an NYT article, or a Robert Redford movie, or a Hemingway story.

When so few new/young anglers are getting outside or taking up the sport, I see no sense in complaining when they do. The folks in the article aren't approaching fly fishing the way I do, but the value of this sport is you choose your own adventure. Some folks' idea of fun is gonna be different than yours- that's always been the case, and it's always been fine.

I'd be the first to admit I haven't exactly been knocking down doors teaching the sport to younger generations. It's an afterthought for a lot of folks. I guess it makes sense someone would step in and fill that information vacuum. Maybe in this instance, it's high-end boutiques and "influencers."

I dunno. If this is a monster, maybe it's partly of our own making.

 

[ia_trouter]

Interesting article but nothing that concerns me. I like entrepreneurs. Sounds like somebody is taking a chance on their "million dollar idea". I don't see this as the second coming of Brad Pitt. I'm not sure I know any hipsters, but I may have met a few on the Driftless near Viroqua. Do they look anything like fly shop mannequins?

 

[cooutlaw]

I agree, it's always been "something" that folks get called to...perhaps the natural spirit of man's desire to connect to nature. As a young man and guide back in the day....I saw plenty of folks who "approached" all kinds of sporting, afield and astream, wing shooting and fly fishing as a more "noble" and "upscale" pastime and "higher" way to connect to nature. I'm not sure they ever really knew reality from the fantasy but it allowed them to enjoy the sport in "their way" and that was a good thing, as every person is entitled to, and should, enjoy their lives to the fullest....after all, life is a gift and time is short, if it makes one happy...eat desert first. Seeing masses of folks looking like they fell out of an Orvis or LL Bean catalog became the norm, again fine, perhaps part of the enjoyment and escape for them back then. Everything seems to move at a faster pace at both the eastern and western shores of our country, and culturally, there are differences of what folks prioritize as important parts of their pursuits....entrepreneurs have long been opportunists at fixing or providing venues and solutions to needs, desires, and problems....again, good for them for being visionary and seeing a desire that needs to be met with perhaps a different kind of "solution". I do understand, that for everyone there is their own unique satisfaction, for some it's being frugal, perhaps others it's accumulation of savings and stock portfolios, for others it's extravagance, travel, finest of products, for others yet it's career or business success, for some it's just their faith or search for higher enlightenments, for a great number of millennial's, according to surveys, it's life experiences by which they gauge their satisfaction....it's the generation of seeing and doing...they may drive a fifteen year old car, they may have a dead end job, they may own no home or have little in assets, but they figure a way to travel the world and experience and participate in events beyond any previous generation prior...with everything they own fitting in their 15 year old car with their dog...then once they have seen and done and become satisfied with their experience they settle in putting the highest education levels to work in the history of our country...more masters degrees, doctorate degrees, than we have ever seen in our workforce. Perhaps these catering entrepreneurs are merely providing a "greater" and "new" experience for the now settled and lucratively engaged millennial generation, similarly feeding their cultural desire for more "seeing" and "doing"...and if it's located nearer one of the faster paced shores, it must be hip. Kind of brilliant of you think about it. Timing is everything and history has a way of repeating itself.

 

[patrick62]

I talked with one of the Esopus guides streamside a few years back, who alerted me to this trend. He said that since there is very limited cell phone service in the Catskills the newcomers get antsy.

On the one hand, a glowing article in the NY Times usually means instant hordes. But this was published toward the end of the season, so many will forget about it by next April.

It's certainly nice to have an actual fly shop in Phoenicia again. Been a long time since the Folkert Bros. hung it up. Kenco just west of Kingston has one of those in-store Orvis things, which was helpful when I left my boots by Woodland Valley Creek one night and somebody nicked them.

And anything that brings some economic activity to this region can't be all bad. Might even be good.

As an Esopus veteran, I fearlessly predict we might see a few more anglers, probably in groups of two or three, for a little while. Then it will fade.

 

[knotjoe]

Now I'm worried.

Don't be. If you check-out the authors to articles like this, they're usually the type who churn pages out for living and rarely have much familiarity with the subject matter. Not uncommon for them to take a very shallow angle to near everything they approach.

I doubt it'll move many from the street to the stream anywhere they are. Ironically, Alexandra Marvar seems a bit amused (pleased?) at reactions of "purists and millennial trend haters" to her article. That right there doubles the appeal of her work to some of the outlets she appears in. Some of it might be a calculated angle, sometimes they just have some relation to folks who could use a bit of advertising to bump the bottom line. Never know, but it's probably of little effect either way.

 

[sweetandsalt]

I was thinking momentarily over the weekend while surrounded by too many boats at one brief point, 2/3 fly fishers and 1/3 spin fishers, that there is going fishing to catch fish and going fly fishing. I have first hand over the decades witnessed the tremendous growth in saltwater fly fishing...once a radical anomaly and now commonplace. Except for the overly aggressive run-and-gun attitude of some, for the most part it has engendered more positive conservation and catch and release behavior. We need that in an era of serious over harvesting.

Sure, from the East End of Long Island to western rivers the numbers of fly anglers has significantly expanded and sometimes I have to move on as the spot I'd intended to fish is "taken", I can handle it and the newcomer has the same rights I have as an old timer. For the most part growth in fly fishing has enhanced habitat protection.

Two years ago now I got new Simms waders and new Patagonia boots...clean and unpatched (despite differing brands) I looked like a newly minted fly fisher, at least my outfit did, I would not pass as a magazine model. Most of the young men and women I have meet fly fishing seem like fine and enthusiastic folks and I welcome them into the fold. And they assist in helping support our specialty fly fishing manufacturers and, if not already, obtaining fly casting and fishing lessons. Actually, most of the anglers I observed on the water off the end of Long Island cast very well; they have to what with wind, requisite distance and the up-and-down speed of the breaking fish beneath the birds.

 

[knotjoe]

I have first hand over the decades witnessed the tremendous growth in saltwater fly fishing...once a radical anomaly and now commonplace.

Think that has something to do with the communication technology and internet in general?

I do and wonder if in many cases it serves as a nice counterbalance to the type of "appeal" Marvar is trying to examine in her article. Although some criticize video and FFing promotion on the web, there's quite a bit of good stuff out there which is well done, appealing, and made by anglers guided by responsibility and ethic.

Hard to imagine anyone at the NYT, WAPO, or other outlets carrying anything but a pop culture or hipster take on our pastime. But then again, that audience is probably least likely to get their feet wet more than once or twice. I like to think Marvar's work can get folks to punch a few keywords into a search engine and let the experience of investigative curiosity weed-out the real participants from the wannabe hip samplers.

We tend to grow our numbers and get a better quality of folk that way.:thumbsupu

 

[karstopo]

The attractions of the natural world never go out of style. I guess people come along from time to time and find new ways to market, package, monetize or otherwise make it all very sexy. Fly fishing is enchanting on its own and a great reason to be in a beautiful wild place, no glowing write ups in the NY Times about it are necessary for most of us to get it. If someone is on the outside looking in, an article like this might open their eyes to some undiscovered life long pastime or to the latest hipster fad, like goat yoga or forest bathing, to come and go in a season or two. My bet is that most of the recent and upcoming initiates will fall into latter category.

 

[ikankecil]

The author isn't as far off the mark as many here think. A number of well-to-do housewives in my neighborhood have recently all decided to take up fly fishing and they take weekly lessons as well as guided trips with regularity now. If simply judging by what I see on the streets, you'd think that Toyota 4Runners come from the factory with rod vaults on the roof as standard equipment. Maybe Colorado is an anomaly but I've seen a huge uptick in fly fishing here in the past few years, not just the visible rod racks on all the cars but the parking situation and crowding on most streams and rivers.

And, it's not just the increased number of people, but the handling of fish and the resultant mortality. I'm seeing people hold fish out of the water for dozens of angles hoping presumably for that image that gets the most 'likes' on their Instagram account. And, the number of dead fish on river bottoms is vastly more than it used to be, which I have attributed to these lengthy photo sessions for the social media accounts of the people who caught the fish.

I'm happy that some of you live in unaffected areas, but the Front Range of Colorado is not on that list.

Instagram kills fish.

 

[knotjoe]

If someone is on the outside looking in, an article like this might open their eyes to some undiscovered life long pastime or to the latest hipster fad, like goat yoga or forest bathing, to come and go in a season or two. My bet is that most of the recent and upcoming initiates will fall into latter category.

I dunno know, man…the goat yoga looks pretty enduring as a lifelong passion for some.

Saw it in print enough times so had to watch a video on it, it’s apparently real and folks are diggin’ it for reasons I can’t quite understand. Can’t see anything meditational working well when there’s a goat climbing about on me, but for others it’s all the rage. Of course, they’re also playing with cell phones amidst their asana practice so that might be a clue as to what demographic is most enthralled by such ideas.

Do we wish to see badger yoga? Now there’s an exercise in pratyahara and may even make for an interesting spectator sport.

Instagram kills fish.

True, but novice fish handling is also a big culprit. Even with good intentions and concerted efforts, the mortality will increase a bit along with higher participation. Start taking pictures of dead fish and posting them to instagram with a bit of speculation as to how they got so dead.