My preference depends on my mood and how my arms are feeling that day... I had my left bicep reattached last year, and my elbows are pretty shot from long ago sports injuries and poor fly casting technique, so whatever works best. I also cast farther with a bait caster as my technique with a cp ain't great (but getting better- I amaze others at everything else...any time I do something on the river, I see people shake their heads in disbelief and leave, presumably because they know they can't compare!
)
But Ian, thanks for the tip in your pictures re: rain gear. You may see me on the river this afternoon with a bright orange rain slicker!
But seriously, I was reminded of great memories of yesteryear by those pictures...thanks for sharing!
They remind me of my days as a child in the 70s who was to fish these places vicariously through people like you, Eric Carlisle, and Lee Strait, who could go to fish in locations unreachable to a 10 year old whose only wheeled mode of transport had a banana seat and cool plastic things in the spokes, and who had no river fishing gear whatsoever.
Makes me smile and ponder the changes in fishing tech. It's a bit like music- sometimes I want satellite radio and mP3, while other times it's vinyl all the way; so it is with fishing methods for me.