Washington, D.C., has plenty of fly fishing purists. Anglers who pack up their Sage rods and Hardy reels to throw tiny, size 16 midges to 6-inch brook trout in the mountain streams of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, or beefy, size 12 March Browns to hulking rainbows in Pennsylvania’s sweeping Pine Creek.

To limit the hurt, they crimp the barbs on their hooks and use Brodin nets with rubber bags that cause less damage to the fish.