What makes a truly great fly fisher? A pretty casting motion? The latest and most expensive gear? Instagram pics with your mouth wide open screaming obscenities?? Not really. It boils down to catching fish. How good are you? How do you stack up? I have been fortunate to fish with some really top anglers. I have watched them in action from the bow of my skiff or from the drift boat or wading the water. The greats have one thing in common: they can do it all…they are versatile…they have tried many different fly fishing challenges and mostly succeeded, and they are still searching for more. To my mind, before you can call yourself a truly great fly fisher, you have to achieve the following:

* Catch the American Trout Career Slam on fly: Rainbow, Brown, Brook Trout, Cutthroat and Golden Trout.

* Land a tarpon of over 100 lbs. on fly

* Join the 20/20 Club: catch a twenty inch trout on a size 20 fly.

* Catch a permit on a fly.

* Catch a 20 pound steelhead on a fly.

* Catch a billfish on fly.

* Be able to handle both left hand retrieve and right hand retrieve fly reel with ease.

* Catch five redfish in a day on fly.

* Catch an Atlantic salmon on fly.

* Catch a largemouth bass of over five pounds and a smallmouth bass of over three pounds on the fly.

* Catch a muskellunge on a fly.

* Catch a bonefish of over ten pounds on a fly.

What are you waiting for?