Think of putting on your gear and patting several pockets looking for nippers, a particular fly box, or a certain leader. For beginners, the gear, the casting, the rigging, the wading, and the fishing can become confusing.
Why does fly fishing gear have so many pockets?
Because fly fishers need options. A brief rain stains the water. A different color or size fly might work better. Fish start rising. Changes in conditions or situation open new possibilities and we have to be ready. But we must be vigilant. With all this pocket storage, our gear can become like keeping things in the basement because we might use them one day.
Fly fishing, like life, is a journey. Everyone begins ignorant and anxious, afraid to ask questions because, as grown people, we do not want to look stupid.
In fly fishing, there are no stupid questions because the community of fly fishing people is like a patient grandfather who loves you and wants you to succeed.
Fly fisher people need pockets to carry all the stuff that makes the fly fishing journey fun. Without the pockets, that jumble of things would be in our hands. How would we ever catch a trout?