Don't Play The Fly-Fishing Game By Someone Else's Rules, with Thi Nguyen
The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast
James Hathaway
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest this week is philosophy professor and fly fisher Thi Nguyen [33:31], who has spent his career studying the psychology and the value of games to our mental well-being. He argues that fly fishing is not one game but an infinite number of games that can be played by rules that we invent to challenge ourselves. And you might even change your rules within a single day of fishing. This podcast and my discussions with him have changed the way I view and teach fly fishing and I hope the interview will be equally fascinating to you.
The Fly Box this week has some interesting tips and questions. Perhaps not as thought-provoking but still interesting, and I hope helpful.
Will a premium rod magnify my casting mistakes?
Will my 4-weight Helios handle brown trout over 20 inches?
Can you elaborate on why someone would want to use two indicators and how to set them up?
Will my nymphs sink better with 12-pound fluorocarbon or with lighter tippet?
I am confused by the differences in hook sizes recommended for various diameters of beads. They don't seem consistent. Can you help?
A tip for using paper key tags to learn to identify various flies
A tip for using parachute cord to eliminate the loss of small items
Why do I see bugs under rocks in one part of a river and not in another?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi and welcome to the Orbis fly fishing podcast. This is your host, Tom Rosenbauer, And I'm so glad you're here listening. |
| 0:21.7 | I was just at the New Jersey fly fishing show and talked to a lot of podcast listeners. |
| 0:29.1 | And it was just so great to hear people telling me how much they enjoy the podcast |
| 0:35.4 | and telling me about their favorite episode |
| 0:38.6 | and asking me why I didn't answer some of their questions, |
| 0:42.1 | but it was great to meet people. |
| 0:43.7 | And I'm so thankful for all you dedicated listeners out there. |
| 0:48.4 | It's very, very flattering. |
| 0:50.0 | So anyway, thanks for listening. |
| 0:52.6 | My guest this week is T. Ngu, and T. is a philosopher, and T. has studied games that we play |
| 1:02.8 | intensively, professionally, and T. considers fly fishing a game. And in T's way of thinking, fly fishing is actually an infinite number of games because |
| 1:17.5 | you can play these games any way you want. |
| 1:21.7 | You make up the rules, right? |
| 1:23.3 | As long as you're doing something that's legal, you decide what's fly fishing and you make up |
| 1:28.0 | the rules. It's sometimes when we get involved in following someone else's rules, the way someone |
| 1:35.3 | else thinks fly fishing should be done, that we get frustrated. So if you're a novice, I can understand, |
| 1:42.4 | you don't really have your own set of rules, but you have to kind of establish them. |
| 1:47.2 | And maybe you want to follow a few of somebody else's rules. |
| 1:50.3 | But if you've been fishing for a while, listen to the podcast. |
| 1:54.2 | This one has really gotten me thinking lately a lot. |
| 1:58.7 | And it's kind of changed the way uh the way i look at some aspects of |
| 2:03.5 | fly fishing so uh it's one that it's one that it's one that i really enjoyed and i hope you enjoy it too |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from James Hathaway, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of James Hathaway and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.