Advice for Empty Netters

Recently, I shared an open letter to Texas Fly Fishers on a social media group of which I am a member. It’s really fly anglers everywhere, with the addition of a few Texas-centric topics. When it had been up for a day or so, I received the following comment from a gentleman name Keith: “Well said in general but let me ask this, as a new fisherman and very new to fly fishing, at what point does not catching anything at some public park that is over fished lead to disappointment and giving up?” Great, thoughtful question that really got my wheels turning. Too many thoughts were swirling to put them all down right then and in the format of a comment. So I promised to publish a respond when I had a little more time to think about it, and asked him to sit tight and not give up just yet. This is my reply. Like my last post, there’s also lots here that will apply to beginning fly anglers everywhere.