As far back as I can remember I've heard the phrase, "Never say never" and nowhere is that more accurate than in the world of fly fishing. How many times have you caught yourself saying, "I'd never do this "or "You should never do that". I sometimes catch myself doing that while teaching fly fishing to a new student and then have to explain that there are exceptions to every rule. The look I get back can range from somewhere between confusion to ineptitude.

For years I've fished a small trout stream deep in the Rockies and over the years I've gotten pretty intimate with that little stream. I know every run, hole and slide like my own back yard. But there is on section of river, maybe a couple of hundred yards long that I never fish anymore. It's not that I've never fished it; it's just that when I did I never managed to catch any trout there. So it was just a matter of time before I no longer took the effort to work that water.

Last year while on that little stream fishing with a good friend, I drove past the section that I never fish anymore and he looked up at me and asked why I passed up all that good water. I said I never fish that section because I've never caught fish there before. He looked up at me like I was crazy and said, "How can you pass up one of the best sections of water on the stream". The fact that I never fished there because the fishing has always been slow for me made no sense to someone who always caught fish on the same body of water.

The other day I was watching a video on streamer fishing by Kelly Galloup. Kelly Galloup in some fly fishing circles is considered an expert on streamer fishing. As I'm watching his video I notice he is using sinking line in one of his segments. I had just finished answering a question on streamer fishing on what type of fly line to use. I had advised never to use sinking line from a drift boat because of the fast sink rate and current induced drag plays havoc on retrieves from a moving boat. Now I'm being told it's OK to use sinking line. Never say never is all I can say.

I think some fly anglers who have been fly fishing for many years are used to their equipment and unique techniques that have become almost like a third hand to them and can't imagine using better equipment or newer technique that's better than what they have been using for years. But the reality is that over the same amount of year's better equipment and newer techniques have evolved to make fly fishing easier and more deadly. I believe I'm one of these guys but I've also managed over the years to embrace some new techniques and equipment and added a few of the newer stuff into my own style of fly fishing that I must say has improved what I love to do.

A few years ago I was camped along the South Fork of the Salmon River with a long time friend who had been fly fishing for only a couple of years. The South Fork of the Salmon River is situated in a deep canyon that is full of rocks, slicks and premium pocket water. This is the perfect place for ambushing native cutthroat trout. I had the advantage of arriving a day early and had the jump on the right flies and techniques that were successful the day before.

When Tom asked me what type of leader to use, I had said that all our fishing will be with dry flies and that he should always fish dry flies with at least a twelve foot leader or more. After discussing what types of flies and the type of fishing I had experienced the day before we were ready to spend the rest on the day on the river hunting cutts. My day began as the previous day ended with short cast to short slicks and tailouts. With a fourteen foot leader my fly rode through the rough water with little or no drag and was deadly to any cutthroats lingering down below. The fishing was fantastic, around every rock or at the end of every tailout there lurked numerous hungry trout ready and willing to slurp my fly.

Tom, on the other hand had worked himself around the bend and out of my eye sight and even though I was concerned about his success, I became zoned in on the wonderful fishing before me. After some time I did get a little worried about how Tom was doing so I reeled in and started working my way up stream to find out. As I rounded an out cropping of rocks I saw Tom frantically fighting a good size cutthroat downstream towards me. It reminded me of the scene right out of "The River Runs Through It".

Tom was slipping, sliding and swimming his way down stream and just when I thought he was going to lose the fish he managed to right himself and beach a beautiful cutthroat trout not more than ten feet away from me. One thing that caught my attention was how short a leader he had tied on to the end of his fly line. It could not have been more than seven or eight feet long. After Tom released the fish we sat down to talk and laugh about the successful battle and I asked him why he was using such a short leader.

He had started out using a longer leader but on his first couple of cast he broke the leader off when it tangled on some willows. Tom's not a knot person so he just tied on the fly to what was left of his leader. It seemed to work out OK for him and by the end of the day he caught just as many trout as I did. Now I would never recommend that you fish dry flies on an eight foot leader but there are exceptions to every rule.

By using the word never you can get yourself into trouble more often than not. I know as a long time fly angler I'm often asked questions about a variety of topics in the sport of fly fishing. To emphasize a certain critical point that should not be forgotten I often use the word never. Such as never use sinking line while streamer fishing or never use a short leader while dry fly fishing. More often than not I quickly get corrected by the student or by some other fly angler who does use sinking line or a short leader.

Just recently while on a road trip to Montana with my friends Ron and Brad we ran into a great Caddis hatch one evening in which the trout where very active in taking Caddis emergers. Three anglers can get kind of crowded on a small section of river most times but it can seem ever worse when there is a good insect hatch going on. After a while we found our spots and worked out the spacing as often happens among friends and began the task of catching fish.

We all started with an Elk Hair Caddis with a Caddis emerger dropper and the action was almost immediate. For every one fish that took the Elk Hair, five took the emerger. As the hatch progressed so did our spacing to the point where I was around the bend and out of sight of the other guys. After I had pretty much played out the section of river I was fishing I decided to check back with the guys. As I got closer to rounding the bend I could hear my buddies before I could see them. Apparently Rod was slamming the trout with a Copper John nymph. I could hear Brad saying that he was going to switch over to a Copper John.

All I could do was giggle and shrug my shoulders. Who would have thought to use a Copper John in the middle of a Caddis hatch. As the story was unfolded to me, Ron had lost his emerger and for kicks and giggles tied on a Copper John and proceeded to slay trout after trout. I looked at Ron and said "I would have never used a Copper John in the middle of a Caddis hatch". Brad immediately responded "Is this one of those exceptions you were talking about"?

Well it was and there are countless other exceptions in fly fishing that probably are too numerous to list. I still use the word never when I'm teaching fly fishing or talking to new anglers about new techniques or fly fishing equipment but at the very end I always say there are exceptions to every rule and if you look or fish hard enough you will see your share.