I live in upstate NY. Growing up I fished for lake-run trout and salmon but bottom bouncing eggs and night crawlers. I knew what flies where and when i was in basspro I saw these crappie jigs and thought, hey, those like flies. They were 99 cents each. I grabbed a bunch and started catching more trout. This turned me onto tying hair jigs and eventually a fly tying obsession. I would just bottom bounce/drift those cheap crappie jigs or jigged them in slower deep pools. I had not concept of float fishing.