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.