Friday, March 16, 2018

ONE TIP to Help You CATCH MORE TROUT


I admit, that is one catchy title, and based on it alone I'm sure this post is going to be a readership bombardment. However, this post isn't really going to be about fishing tactics. It's going to be about three very important things: fly fishing media, conservation, and dedication. If you came here expecting to read about nymphing tactics, gear, fly patterns... you aren't going to get any of that. But I encourage you to read on, because this post is about being a better angler. Of course, with pictures of pretty trout interspersed.



Social Media.
This is the tool for both the advancement and the destruction of fly fishing. The title of this piece is a parody of YouTube fishing video titles. Spend a few hours on YouTube and you will find video tutorials that incorrectly tell you how to perform a tuck cast, videos that show you how to tie a a magic fly that catches all, and videos that make average anglers look as though they catch trout on every other cast. There is also a tremendous amount of good stuff on YouTube. But if the title looks like the title of this post, it is for entertainment value only.

Instagram makes it look like every angler other than you is catching big ass fish all the time. Some of them are. But social media has allowed a lot of anglers to perform a fancy little trick. It has made the novices look average and the average look exceptional, and this is a problem. It has created a need for instant gratification and glorified catching lots of fish and huge fish above the level those facets should be held. The people who get the greatest popularity in the fishing faction of social media very simply live, work, or can afford to go to the right places. Many are able to catch great fish and lots of fish with fairly typical skills, and with a little bit of artificial photographic prowess they can broadcast their success to the world. They may be good anglers, but they aren't designing anything new or special, they aren't pioneering techniques, they aren't actually teaching anyone anything. But because they post up the most photos of themselves holding good sized trout, they get pro-staff positions, more advertising, a bigger following. And their followers see these fish every day, and want to catch more fish more often.



Is there anything inherently wrong with wanting to catch more trout?
Actually, there can be. The more trout you catch the more trout you kill, whether or not you keep any fish to bring home. Like it or not, this is scientifically demonstrable.
And, in the time of hashtags like "#torethemup", "#slayedthem", "#50fishday", the more trout you catch in a day the more attention you get. It is very possible on a river like the Farmington to Euro or Suspension nymph up 40-60 fish in a day on the water. Yes, it takes skill to do this, but it doesn't take the kind of skill and patience it takes to catch just a handful of 22-26 inch wild browns on a marginal trout river, sight fishing with a dry dropper.

How many of those 40 or 50 trout are you going to remember in a year? In 10 years? How many of those trout will be the subject of campfire stories with a great group of friends? How many will you tell your grand-kids about? I've had a few really good days nymphing on local water, 30 fish, 40 fish, maybe more. Sometimes I just want to catch a bunch of fish, and I know there are times, places, and techniques that will allow that. But I feel that glorifying high numbers of fish is doing damage both to our skills as fly fisherman and the trout themselves. There are very few techniques that are capable of producing the kind of outcome many of today's anglers want to see. We are breeding a lot of one-trick ponies and creating an environment where a trout with completely missing maxillery from countless jig-hook penetrations is not all that unusual.

Missing right maxillery
Is it possible to show restraint? It should be. Generally, and this is specifically on larger trout rivers where an 18 inch fish is nice but not big, I'll catch a handful of fish, maybe even just one, using suspension or tight-line nymphing before changing to a method that allows me to pick my fish. That could be sight nymphing, dry fly fishing, or fishing large streamers. I know I can almost always catch trout nymphing, and it is very possible to catch the trout of a lifetime doing so. But in the process I may very well kill some nice average trout that I won't even remember in a year.

There should be no glory in being the guy that catches every trout in the river. The glory should be in being the person that has mastered every facet of the sport of fly fishing. In being the person that can catch big trout in any river that holds them in even the most difficult of conditions. In being the person that figured out a new way to do something old even better. In being the person who doesn't only fish where the trout are most plentiful.



In every watershed where trout live there is a handful of anglers who have forgotten more than the bro-staff crew will ever learn. But because they don't care for social media, or don't want to flaunt anything, they get little to no attention. They may teach people they meet on the water, maybe take on a novice and mentor them, but they will come and go as not even a blip in the convoluted mess that has become of the fly fishing community. Those guys and gals deserve the glory that is bestowed upon many others less knowledgeable than them. I've known a few fly fisherman that are so skilled, so focused, and so dialed in that they make even extremely experienced trout fisherman look like bumbling idiots. But you will not find any evidence the ever existed in the fishing world when they are gone. Instead of looking for a mentor like them, many of today's young anglers are looking up to the social media trout elite.

I find this very hard to stomach, and frankly it is damaging the sport.



I've caught a lot of trout in my short lifespan. The fish you see above are some of the wonderful memorable fish I've caught. These fish all presented challenges. Some came from extremely marginal, low yield rivers, some came from heavily pressured water. Some came when nuances in presentation made the capture difficult, others when the water conditions made other anglers turn around and go back home.

I don't deserve any glorification at all, but if I am worthy of respect it is not because I caught the biggest or the most. It is because in many cases I strive to do what is most difficult.

Consider your impact on a fishery. Hold up only those who are worthy. And don't treat trout as though they are merely a toy. Respect them as an adversary, and showcase those that were most difficult to defeat. And if you want to catch more and bigger trout, there is no substitute for dedication, time on the water, and learning as many methods as possible.




16 comments:

  1. No worries about me hurting, or worse, too many trout. Not sure what it is, but I flat out don't catch many. I tie my own flies and they look pretty good and connect once in a while which gratifies me. But I appreciate and release every trout I catch. Most I just leave in the net in the water as I take the barbless hook out with hemostats if need be.

    Broke my heart last spring when a nice brookie took a fly too deep and it was clear it wouldn't make it. That one had to come home with me.

    No, I don't catch many, but that is not what it is about for me. Connecting once in a while on my own flies, being outdoors even during windy winter days, seeking peace of mind is what it is about for me. My most memorable trout are the ones I didn't get to the net. Of course those were the biggest!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Everyone has their day. The more time you have on the river the more debt will be paid and the trout gods will bless you with a true banner day, and because you don't go out of your way to catch 50 trout every time you go out it will he a day you will remember forever.

      Delete
    2. Good call, RM. I had an hour and a half after work tonight and the action was non-stop on an unpopular part of a popular river pretty close to where I live. Granted, they were probably all stocked rainbows, but they were willing and fun to catch, all released gently and easily with barbless hooks sliding right out, some on their own in the net. The worm boys will take more than their share once word gets out, but I had my moment in the sun this evening.
      Best,
      Sam

      Delete
  2. Young man, you are wise beyond your years . . . truer words have never been spoken. I too have grown tired of the ' Pro Staff ' mentality in our sporting world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm young but I've lived what many would consider a lifetime's worth of fishing in the last 8 years. Plenty of time to grow tired of these things.

      Delete
  3. Rowan you have made some very good points.
    If I may...all one has to do is pick up any national FF magazine and you'll find more trout destruction in the first 5 pages, and even a few so called conservation magazines right in the same fold.
    Every trout is a trophy, no matter the size. I learned a long time ago that every trout deserves to be called "special" it's not a word I take lightly.
    My memory is not what it was, in that I forget what was on my list of chores to do. But I remember the trout I caught yesterday and the one I caught in 1992.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Especially in many of the small streams we fish Alan. Every time I cross paths with one I have to think to myself "Wow... You live here, in this harsh, nutrient deficient environment. You are a tough little critter".

      Delete
  4. Rowan
    Well said, well done!!! Every trout is special and worthy of respect!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Pete,
      The old way won't die on my watch.

      Delete
  5. We are never to old to learn new ways of fishing. Thank you Rowan.
    As a youngster I learned about fishing from my Grandfather, enjoy the great outdoors and only keep what you need. This was a lifelong gift to great adventures of enjoyment with my daughters and grandchildren. Now I'm learning more from you.
    Tie, fish, write and photo on...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rowan, I admire not only your fishing ability but the common sense you exhibit. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Howard,
      Common sense needs a name change. Rare sense.

      Delete
  7. Excellent post Rowan. You really touched a nerve with me in a very good way.
    Back in 2013 when I encountered that large wild sea run brown on my home stream, I wrestled with many on these questions.
    Do I go for the fame of catching and keeping a potential state record sea run or do I attempt to catch and release it with I fly I tied and let the fish live it’s days out. Doing right by the fish and the stream it lives in won out.
    After encountering that fish in the late spring and making a few attempts to catch it on a fly, bad casts, non interest in my fly and spooking did me in, I knew that if did catch it in the warming water of summer it would probably die so I let be for the rest of that summer.
    I visited the stream a few times during summer at low tide to see if Walter was there. I never brought my rod. Just sat and watched this behemoth feed. I knew I could run home at anytime, grab my spinning rod with 12lb test, throw on a night crawler from my garden and have a chance to break Ron Merly’s state record sea run, but I never did.
    Like you mentioned above, I wanted to catch the fish on my terms and show it the proper respect.
    Killing it, getting my name in a record book and bringing the attention of the masses to a small river with a very small population of these wild fish was not going to happen.
    Later that fall I managed to hook Walter on a streamer I tied. He took me under the bridge and broke me off on some rusty metal. Looking back I was a bit under gunned in terms of rod size and tippet strength but the rusty metal would have done me in either way. Never saw the fish again but I have a good idea where it went, a deep 20 foot pool under a ledge not conducive to fly fishing. I never went down to fish for it with my spinning rod but rather waited for it to return to the shallow section and get another shot at it with the fly rod. It never returned.
    Looking back I know I did the right thing even though I get a knot in my stomach every time I return to the spot where I lost it. After speaking to a state biologist who believed the fish was a descendant of sea run stockings that occurred in CT back in the 50s and 60s I knew I had done right by the fish. My only regret was not filming the fish that summer feeding with my underwater camera. Totally slipped my mind as I was in a super secretive mode, I wasn’t even telling my family about the fish at that point. :-)
    My point of all this is that you are so right Rowan.
    We need to respect the fish themselves and the water they live in above all else.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wasn't the main character in Fish Are Such Liars, by Roland Pertwee, named Walter?

      Delete
    2. Walter the trout from On Golden Pond.

      Delete