Host Rachel Kramer Bussel didn’t even know what fly fishing was when author and angling educator Nick Parish reached out to proclaim that fly fishing is the ultimate sport for hoarders. Since Finders and Keepers is all about our emotional attachments to our belongings, Rachel felt compelled to learn more. Parish, who’s based in Portland, Oregon, runs what he calls a “fly fishing media empire” online at Current Flow State Fly Fishing (tagline: “Learn to fly fish, change your life”), which includes classes, events, a newsletter, and resources, including an essential gear guide. He gave her an education into what fly fishing is, why people become fly fishers and enjoy the sport, which gear you do and don’t need to get started (and why many people go overboard on buying gear), and the benefits of fly fishing.
Because Nick was so detailed in his pitch, we’re going to share the heart of it here:
“There’s an incredible amount of fiddly equipment, multiple rods (I don’t keep count of mine, because it’s scary), reels, lines, tools, apparel, etc. And that’s not even counting tying your own flies, which entails a mini-Michaels-level commitment to buying threads and fur and feathers and hooks and all sorts of new sets of tools to start a little cottage industry devoted to making more gear for yourself.
The average fly angler spends $1,200 a year on gear, and that’s not even starting to count all the hand-me-downs from parents and aunts and uncles.
If this is at all interesting I’d love to explore this with you. I think the broader themes are:
a) Buying stuff as a fantasy and substitute for actually fishing, e.g. I can buy a $120 fly line today, and get a fantasy of fishing, even if I only ever fish with it once or twice months from now, or even if it never leaves the closet.
b) The notion that limited experience in the sport (i.e. I only go fly fishing for one week a year in Belize) induces a sort of “must have everything to be ready” mentality, which is a kind of weird inverse scarcity mindset, an acquisition pattern that’s fear-based, versus “eh, we’ll figure it out, we don’t need to bring everything”. I’ve heard this described in survivalist circles as “Two is one, one is none.”
c) Competitive aspects tied to being “the best.” When I used to go to Montana every summer growing up with the Michigan Fly Fishing Club, there’d be two informal prizes: Top Rod, for who caught the most fish, and Top Wallet, for who spent the most money. The same sort of acquisitive mindset that drives people toward quantities of fish catching drives them to consume more gear.
d) A “horses for courses” false need for precision tools based on mostly industry hype. Golfers can have one set of golf clubs that work around the world, at every golf course, give or take a few clubs. But I’m told I a different rod / reel / line setup to fish for trout in the Catskills, salmon in Newfoundland, bass in Oregon, musky in Wisconsin, carp in Oregon, etc.
I’m interested in this because a younger generation of anglers are re-evaluating this over-acquisition pattern, fishing the same sorts of spots closer to home rather than going abroad, and there have been subsequent industry moves to think more sustainably about all this.”
We get into all of this and much more in the episode. Whether you’re an experienced fly fisher, curious about finding a new hobby, or just want to hear about a sport where people can spend large amounts of money before they’ve even gotten started, we hope you enjoy this conversation with Nick Parish.
About our guest:
Author, editor, and angling educator, Nick Parish has helped dozens of people to catch their first fish on a fly rod. Born in the Great Lakes state, worked in a series of media jobs at the nexus of the Hudson and East rivers before heading west to the Columbia River drainage and greater Cascadia. He leads fly fishing instruction at Portland Community College and writes a weekly fly fishing newsletter at Current Flow State.
Current Flow State weekly newsletter
Instagram: @currentflowstate
Bluesky: @nickparish.bsky.social
Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Thank you to Sound Off Network and Dan Schroeder for audio production support. If you like the podcast, we’d greatly appreciate if you’d leave a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts and tell your friends about it to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers
For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.
