{"id":135781,"date":"2021-05-05T09:49:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T14:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=135781"},"modified":"2026-09-13T20:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T01:17:49","slug":"podcast-706-the-non-cliche-life-lessons-of-fly-fishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoors\/podcast-706-the-non-cliche-life-lessons-of-fly-fishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #706: The (Non-Cliche) Life Lessons of Fly Fishing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fishing has long lent itself to imparting philosophical&nbsp;parallels and metaphorical life lessons. But&nbsp;these homespun platitudes can, to be honest, tend to get a little timeworn and cliche.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My guest today breathes new life into what fishing, specifically&nbsp;fly fishing, has to teach anglers and non-anglers alike, while also giving us a look inside the skill, fun, and sensibilities&nbsp;of this sport. His name is <a href=\"http:\/\/thecontender.substack.com\">David Coggins<\/a>, and he&#8217;s a travel and style writer, as well as the author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1982152508\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1982152508&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>The Optimist: A Case for the Fly Fishing Life<\/em><\/a>. David and I discuss the different types of fly fishing that exist, and what they say about your&nbsp;personality, stage in life, and how we all choose the way we&#8217;re going to do something. We then discuss the way that pursuits like fly fishing are not just about their mechanics, but the experience as a whole, which includes things like eating hash browns&nbsp;at a diner in Montana. We talk about the importance of mentors, and David&#8217;s experience with two old guys who showed him the fly fishing ropes. We then get into why men love getting ready for something&nbsp;as much as actually doing it, before delving&nbsp;into the tension between wanting to nab a fish, and being okay when you don&#8217;t, and how part of growing up is learning how to care, but not care. We end our conversation with the best&nbsp;route for getting into the fly fishing life, and how you can get started in a way that&#8217;s both affordable and close to home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fishing has long lent itself to imparting philosophical&nbsp;parallels and metaphorical life lessons. But&nbsp;these homespun platitudes can, to be honest, tend to get a little timeworn and cliche.&nbsp; My guest today breathes new life into what fishing, specifically&nbsp;fly fishing, has to teach anglers and non-anglers alike, while also giving us a look inside the skill, fun, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":195100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42392,156,42259],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoors","category-podcast","category-skills"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/706-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/706-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/706-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/706-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/706-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The (Non-Cliche) Life Lessons of Fly Fishing | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoors\/podcast-706-the-non-cliche-life-lessons-of-fly-fishing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #706: The (Non-Cliche) Life Lessons of Fly Fishing | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fishing has long lent itself to imparting philosophical&nbsp;parallels and metaphorical life lessons. But&nbsp;these homespun platitudes can, to be honest, tend to get a little timeworn and cliche.&nbsp; My guest today breathes new life into what fishing, specifically&nbsp;fly fishing, has to teach anglers and non-anglers alike, while also giving us a look inside the skill, fun, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoors\/podcast-706-the-non-cliche-life-lessons-of-fly-fishing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-05T14:49:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-14T01:17:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/706.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" 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