No other activity settles my mind quite like fly fishing. Contrary to popular belief, fly fishing’s primary objective is to catch fish, but I have to admit that perfecting the cast sometimes takes most of my focus. If I’m catching fish, great! If not, no matter, I’ll be enthralled with trying to gracefully land a caddis imitation 40 feet away over and over and over again. Once I picked up a fly rod I never looked back. The casting is pure poetry.

Fellow HN reader/fly fisher here. I tie my own flies as well. As a friend once said - you get to work on these flies through the year as a way to do something fishing related when you don't have time to fish, then when you catch a fish on a fly you tied you can tell it "I started catching you months ago."

You should try building your own rod as well. You can do it pretty cheap and it's a he'll of a good feeling when you get that fish on your own rod and fly.

If you'd like to take it to the next level, try tenkara fly fishing. Not only is your 40ft span reduced to ~15ft, but casting is even more challenging (quite a few techniques!) and you now have to account for a lot more concealment (of yourself), and fighting/landing fish is quite a challenge when you have no reel. It's extremely rewarding to lang even the smallest fish!