If you’re a hard core bass tournament angler, or a saltwater bait chunker, or a billfish fiend, then you may believe you have little use for fly fishing. You don’t know the terminology, or the gear, or the technique.

If you’ve given it an honest try, and still don’t like it, I can accept that. But for the many of you who discount it without ever trying it, I’ll tell you why you’re so dismissive: Fear. You’ve staked a large percentage of your identity on fishing, and if you fail on the water in any circumstance – even one where you can’t rightfully expect to be successful – it threatens your sense of self. Fly fishing, like all types of fishing is confusing, and if you’re not a Latin scholar it may seem especially effete or confounding. You can’t imagine any circumstance in which you would be turning over rocks to tie your own flies, or making an 80’ cast to a skittish bonefish with a crosswind.

That’s why you need to look at the fly above.

Do you know what it represents?

A pellet. A hatchery pellet, the type that trout stocked by the state eat. It’s the Chicken McNugget of flies, the functional equivalent of a nightcrawler on a hook, and the fact that I could find some at multiple fly shops tells me that they’re selling on some level.

I’m sure the capital-S-serious fly fishermen look down on these pellet flies. They may even look down on stocked trout, but you should view this as an invitation to get over your fear. Try a fly rod, preferably under the tutelage of someone who can instruct you properly. It will open up your world, just as it did for me on multiple trips to Alaska. I still can’t cast worth a damn, but I’m definitely not afraid to get out there with the long rod.

Indeed, this should serve as an invitation to get out and do something outside of your fishing comfort zone. Going to places like Alaska and Guatemala and Panama have opened my eyes and brought me great joy – all because I was willing to push my fear to the side. I still don’t know how to properly set up a spread for billfish – I don’t even know what most of the lures and teasers are called – but I can enjoy the hell out of a day catching them.

At its best, fishing can be highly technical and complicated, but at heart all types of fishing are more alike than they are different. There’s water and it holds fish who want to do three things – eat, reproduce and evade predators. The rest is just jargon and window dressing. I’ll likely never be an expert at one single type of angling, but I can expertly tell you that fear is the enemy of fun.