There’s a lot of idealistic nonsense flowing through the fly-fishing airwaves these days—maybe it’s always been that way—and one of the most ludicrous pronunciations is that big fish and numbers don’t matter. Come on. On any given day I would much rather land a bevy of 20-inchers versus a pack of foot-long delinquents and I know most of you would, too.

As we enter a fast, deep run, I cast to the bank above a deadfall and begin a short, quick, broken-cadenced strip retrieve. My big streamer responds by sashaying, slashing and darting with sudden side-to-side movements, just about calling to be eaten. No sooner has that dancing fly drifted under the first branch when it disappears in a golden flash. I set the hook and a jumbo, thick-bodied brown trout sporting vivid, black-and-red spots vaults two feet in the air, hanging, or so it seems, in suspended animation. This is no surprise: trout are coming to this fly with its side-swiping, strike-triggering action at every likely spot we pass.

This time of year, we often have remnant snow along the streambank, which makes you wonder if it’s really worth going trout fishing on what will probably be a rather dreary spring day. But the shack-nasties have been an affliction for days and you feel you must stand in frigid water and deal with ice in your guides…or spend the afternoon in a bar. I’ve done both. And dealing with ice in your guides is easier than feeling the residual pain after a few hours in your favorite pub.

I received my 2010 Umpqua Feather Merchants flies and materials catalog a few days ago and went right to the listing of flies to see what’s new. In scanning the “Saltwater” section, I counted nearly 100 bonefish flies. Not many of them resembled the little shrimp I saw when I snorkeled the Bahama’s flats some years ago. Nearly all of these flies contained enough material from which to make two or three patterns and there was way too much flash in both the body and “wing.” In fact, some of the old favorite, sparsely tied flies were missing from the collection.