Sometimes though, we might feel like we're getting stuck in a rut. Same runs, pools, rocks, & riffles; same insects in the same order; same trout in that same eddy. Don't we want more variety in our fly fishing? Well maybe, but it's hard some days to turn down a good & reliable chance to catch fish in a sport where a sure thing doesn't exist - just for a change of scenery.
There's plenty of justifiable reasons for going back to the same fishing haunt all the time. Through repetition you learn every aspect of the stream. You know every rock & sunken log in that entire stretch of water. You know every nuance of the water current & how to cast your line just right so that brown trout can see your fly from behind that big rock where it lives. You know every drop-off & exactly where to put your feet in every run. You even have a quiet, private chuckle to yourself when you see an unfamiliar angler fishing that pool all wrong: "Poor fellow. He'll never get a good drift putting his line there."
All this familiarity & repetition gives you a place to hone the skills of fly fishing. You get better at casting to certain types of places. You learn how to read the water more accurately. You even begin to learn the names of certain plants & birds.
But another angler has given you a hot tip about the action on another stream, farther away, that you've never fished before. Be careful here friend. Take these "hot tips" with a grain of salt & strongly consider the source. Make sure your b.s. meter is in perfect working order when another angler tells you how good the fishing is someplace else - especially if they owe you money & definitely if they're not going with you there.
For example, one hot summer day during a long heat wave I chanced to encounter an angling acquaintance who told me of a "sure thing". Sure it would be a long drive there & it's been hot enough to melt glass, but he managed to land 21 of 'em before he decided to call it a day. I couldn't miss!!!
All I had to do to find this magical place was to turn left at the Dew Drop Inn. Then make another left past the old junk yard. Now I follow that road until I come the field with the Holstein cows & hang a right. At the top of the next hill turn left onto the old logging road. Take the turn to the right off the logging road & then park the truck by the abandoned rail road bridge. Sorry, but he couldn't go with me. He wouldn't be up that way again until the Fall of the year.
As luck would have it another angling friend (who didn't owe me anything) had just been out to the stream in question - right before the heatwave had set in. When I asked him about the "sure thing" he replied, "Bunk, total bunk!! The water temp was way too high 2 1/2 weeks ago. Sounds like a goose chase to me." I never mentioned to either of them that I know for a fact that the old junkyard isn't anywhere near The Dew Drop Inn, or that it isn't Holsteins in that field but Jersey cows......
So the next time you consider going to another stream just remember that you know a place where you're familiar with every nook & cranny of the stream. But still, remember where that "hot tip" was at, just in case.