I have been an angler since age 8, and started flyfishing in 1998. I love the small, fast-flowing mountainstreams and fish them for trout and grayling.I mostly use nymphs and wet flies, and rarely fish dries.
I am not a very good caster, as in the small streams I fish in my region short casts are the norm. Longer casts are not necessary, nor effective. I like to fish bamboo rods, and refurbish old bamboo rods.
I am opposed to the use of barbed hooks!!! When a fish is lost while playing it, this lies with the angler and not with the hook!!
My first flies I tied in 2001 and I was hooked right from the start. After buying a couple books, and watching endless videos, I taught myself to tie. I visited a couple Thomas Dürkop shows, got to know a number of tiers, observed techniques and refined my tying. In materials I prefer CDC and deer hair. These days I like to tie somewhat elaborate flies to fish with and they have produced good results. Of course it is often time consuming, but the larger fish landed compensate for that easily.