Notice how close fishing is done

Rod companies are eager to sell their latest and the greatest rod to the discriminating angler.

I've been wondering more and more why we judge the performance and quality of a fly rod by taking it to the parking lot and start casting 80+ feet of line?

Don't get me wrong. I love casting an 80+ feet tight looped line. However, most of my fishing is done between 15 to about 40 feet. Sight fishing with nymphs is my favorite way of fishing. This is sometimes done as close as 10 - 15 feet.

This type of fishing means minimal false casting (generally only one or at the most two back casts), stealth approach and positioning yourself for that one chance delivery of the fly.

You've probably seen those amazing DVDs and YouTube clips of trophy trout fishing in New Zealand. Generally acknowledged as the highest difficulty level in fly fishing for trout. A trophy fish is spotted first and the fisherman carefully cast to that one fish.

Notice how close the fisherman is to the fish they are after.