You finally have a day off. 

You’ve been jonesing to get some time on the water and have been planning a full assault on your local trout stream. 

One little problem though… the weather forecast.

It’s cold and raining! 

You really want to go fishing, but it just sounds miserable.

You tell yourself there are flies to tie, beers to consume, and sleep to catch up on – all things a day off is great for accomplishing. So you decide to stay home.

Here are 5 reasons why you’ve just made the best decision of your life:

1. It'll be lonely on the river.

No one else is going to be out in crummy weather, let’s face it.

Nothing makes a day on the river better than getting low-holed or watching that kind fellow you met in the parking lot walk through a pod of rising fish you're working.

Lest we forget, if no one else is on the river who’s going to take a hero shot for you?!

It’s pretty challenging to take a selfie while attempting to hold a large fish at the same time. Which brings us to reason 2...

2. The little fish are trying not to become a meal.

All those little fellas that keep our rods bent all day and we just love to catch – they’re going to be hiding.

They know as soon as the rain starts to fall and the river begins rising that the big brown bullies of the river are going to come out and attempt to rough them up.

Who wants to catch those big browns anyway? They’re scary. They’ve got teeth and Gonzo noses. You don’t want to touch that!

3. Bigger flies and heavier tippet.

Looks like a day for some Big Game Shanks.

As the water starts rising and gets that little bit of stain to it, you need to start fishing bigger flies, and with bigger flies comes heavier tippet.

Where’s the sport in that?

You don’t even have to play the fish, you can reel them straight to the net. There’s no fear of hooks pulling or your 0x tippet breaking.

There’s nothing delicate about it, and that frankly isn’t fly fishing.

4. Your wading jacket.

You know the jacket you wear every time you go fishing?

It holds all your gadgets and gizmos. Could you imagine if you went fishing in the rain and got it wet? Sure, that’s what it’s for but the stench of wet Gore-Tex is just horrendous.

Don’t forget about the mud. You could slip and get your jacket dirty. It wouldn’t look brand new anymore!

5. I’ll be out there.

I enjoy the solitude, seeing no one, watching the rain dimple the water.

Catching a bunch of small fish is fun but catching a handful of large fish is way more enjoyable.

There’s nothing delicate about the way I like to fish. Feeling a big trout crush a streamer is amazing!

A few years ago my wading jacket acquired the nastiest funk ever. I’ve grown to love that stench because it means I’m stepping into a river that looks like a ghost town because there’s a bit of rain falling.

Here’s to you fair-weather fishermen as we will probably never cross paths on the river.

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About Chris Franzen:

Chris is a fly fishing guide at Headwaters Outfitters in Western North Carolina. He found his passion for fly fishing at the age of 3 while running through the aisles of his dad’s fly shop and started guiding at 16 in the foothills of North Carolina. Since then, he's guided in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, and the Patagonia region of Chile. He's excited to be back guiding on his home waters. Chris is experienced and well-versed in a wide variety of fly fishing techniques. He enjoys sharing his knowledge with clients. Nothing makes Chris happier than seeing his clients grasp the same passion that he has for the sport of fly fishing. Book a trip with Chris today!