Well, that's quite a list of injuries. Sorry to hear of it. But it doesn't sound like you are immobile, and you can cast, so, good for you.

But that does create some questions for me. As an avid bait caster, fly caster, and golfer, I have a bit of knowledge of what it takes to fish and use the arms. And I find it a little hard to believe that you can cast a spinning rod, but can't cast a fly rod. Just doesn't make sense to me. It uses the same muscles. Maybe there's something I don't get here, or maybe you have to make a cast and then writhe in agony for ten minutes before you retrieve. Probably something I don't get here.

Maybe you don't cast the same way I do. But when I was hit with problems early this year, I simply couldn't fish with my right arm. Bait, fly, spin, golf, it was all out. Life sucked. I could troll. Period.

Then, after several month of physical therapy and rest, I became able to cast again. For me, all forms of casting became possible as I healed. Spey casting, in particular was easy, as a simple body sway is the largest part of the cast. So at least one person can fly cast when injured. Maybe you can't, in which case I'm sorry. But the unspoken message in your question reads to me like this: "Hey, guys, I can get around the fly fishing only rule and gear fish in the fly waters. Where should I go to be a jerk first?"

Heck, I don't care how you fish the waters. I fish them both ways myself. As appropriate by the laws and rules in place at the time that I fish. I just don't know why you'd want to fish waters that are easily fishable with a fly with other gear. If you are fit enough to fish with gear, I suspect you are fit enough to fish with a fly. Frankly, I can't imagine how you wouldn't be. If you are not so abled, my sympathies. But as I read the description of your injuries, it seems likely to me that you could fly cast. I have had my own bout of injuries that I worked through this past year, and I learned to spey cast in part to deal with these issues. I suspect that you could do the same. If you wanted to.

Implicit in your question is the belief that these waters are somehow brimming with fish that the gear anglers are unable to have a chance to catch. They're not. The reason steelhead fly anglers ask to have a few rivers managed for fly fishing only is because fly anglers need to attack the water differently than gear anglers. Fly anglers commonly enter a run at the top, make a cast, take a step down, make a cast, take a step down, and so on through the run. If everyone knows the drill, 10 guys can fish a drift at the same time, each moving through as they fish.

Gear guys pick a rock, stand on it, and cast for a while. If one gear guy jams himself into the middle of a line of fly guys, all the fly guys are screwed, and the gear guy is just fat, dumb and happy. He may not even know how many people he is pissing off.

Fly guys need more room between each other than gear guys. If two fly guys are fishing 30 feet apart, they have barely enough room to cast safely, whereas two gear guys can make do fishing 10 feet apart.

The two styles of fishing are incompatible if there are a lot of guys on the river. This is why the fly guys want a river that they can fish themselves.

The Skykomish has a lot more fish than the Stilly. The statistics prove it. If you want to gear fish, I suggest you go there. Access is easy and there are plenty of fish.

It sounds like you think you have the way to get permission to fish the fly rivers. Go to it. I hope you will be sensitive as to how the other fisherfolk are moving through the run, and fit yourself to the rhythym. If you do, you will have proved that it was appropriate to give you the permit.

It is your own moral choice as to what you do here. Are you the type of person who views the vagaries of legal language as an opportunity to deal yourself a favored hand, or do you think you should be treated as equal to the others around you?

I don't really care what your answer to my question is. I have had to answer the question, what do I do when I can't fly fish due to injuries, and I have spent a lot of time on the Skykomish as a result. Don't expect me to be particularly sympathetic to your approach.