Take your time: Ten ways to make fly-fishing a bigger part of your life

Here's the biggest thing a beginner fly angler needs to understand: fly-fishing takes time.

Sure, you can pick up the basics of fly-fishing in a couple days. A guided trip in a drift boat can have you into fish in the first half-hour. And, a day spent with a casting instructor can get you a fishable cast, a roll cast at the very least.

But to develop your skills where you feel confident in going out on your own, and putting it all together takes a commitment. And, we've all got a bevy of other commitments.

Time is the currency you invest in your fly-fishing skills.

And that probably means taking time away from other things.

Time away from your busy schedule of being an employee, a student, a spouse, a parent, or whatever role(s) you're playing on this great stage.

We all know the truth: deep down, you're an angler first and foremost. That novelty T-shirt from a Pigeon Forge, TN gift shop with "Born to fish, forced to work" isn't wrong.

If you're retired, or in a position where you have loads of free time on your hands, congratulations: I'll do my best to fish vicariously through you. For the rest of us, here's a couple ideas for how to take your time. To create time for fly-fishing inside the rest of this so-called life (that doesn't seem to prioritize time spent by the water as much as it should).

1. Go fishing after work

This one is mostly possible seasonally, when the light sticks around until past 7 (unless you're a west-coaster working east-coast hours). Having your kit ready to go after the last job-related task is complete is a sneaky way to get in some time on the water.

This is what led me to do more smallmouth bass fishing here in the Willamette valley in Oregon. There's lots and lots of water to explore close to home. It's easy enough to just take off after work in the summer and be at a spot I want to try in twenty minutes, as opposed to my trout spots, that can be two hours away.