Bead fishing is incredibly controntational, even among fly fishers. On other fly fishing sites, they go on for pages and pages, trying to explain and justify their preferred fishing methods.

I spent a week this past fall fishing BC and the guys I was with refuse to nymph fish or bobber fish as they don't consider it fly fishing. But they will add lead to their leader to get down and cast upstream to achieve a dead drift and pick line as that is considered fly fishing from a traditional sense.

I think Sg's comparison between gear fishing, fly fishing, and gill netting are pretty extreme as the latter is much further away than the former two. I think part of it is the angler's intent; whether for sport or food. At some point in their lives, most ethical anglers arrive to a point that their are comfortable with, fishing wise. Their methods are defined and they accept the terms with which they set for themselves. Often times that is by conceding to the fact that they will acceptingly chose a method more difficult and less productive, usually fly fishing (which can have its own levels of fishing (nymphing, swinging, floating line, dry fly only etc.) knowing they could catch more fish using different methods but would prefer to catch a fish on their own terms. Unfortunatley as fish become more scarce, this practice may well go the way of the dinosaur.