Troutnut.com User Red_green_h (Ryan Norris )

Ryan Norris

New Mexico

I started fly fishing as a way to quit smoking. Every time I felt like smoking I would go outside and practice casting. I actually didn't start fishing with a fly rod until about 5 years after I quit smoking. The first fish I caught was an 18 inch Rainbow on a 4wt 8 foot Redington combo using a Royal Wulff. I've been hooked (pun intended) ever since. As an avid fisher growing up in Iowa I've caught some decent large mouth in and around the ponds and old gravel pits I lived around. But living in New Mexico I've come addicted to backpacking or hiking up to small mountain streams and lakes and fishing for small native cutthroats or browns. What I've come to appreciate about fly fishing is the strategy involved and having to think things through if I want to catch anything. This is especially true on small streams which one needs to employ stealth to be able to catch the spooked ones. I love how I have had to adapt and evolve fishing techniques in order to catch fish and I feel more as if I am part of nature as opposed to something that is invading it.