"Trout aren't naturally as selective as they've become in crowded tailwaters - they've been trained to be like that by too much fishing pressure. I've seen tailwater fish that are so hysterical they'll refuse naturals. You wonder how they get enough to eat." - John Gierach
Let's face it. If you have a 6 fish outing it can be considered a good outing. A 12 fish day can mean a round of applause. But a 20 fish outing most likely means the hatchery truck beat you there!! This is a condition that seems to exist in the Carolinas and in northern Georgia where THOUSANDS of trout are stocked EVERY WEEK in select tailwaters. I guess there is a subspecies of flyfisher who finds this to be sporting and also FUN but all it does is raise the level of expectations to the unreasonable and dare I say, the unnatural!!! Most monster numbers are because of timing, such as hitting a Great Lakes spawning run on the nose or something like that!
Edward Ringwood Hewitt, a great American Flyfisher, mentioned the three stages of flyfishing:
1. Catch as many trout as you can
2. Catch the biggest trout that you can
3. CATCH THE MOST DIFFICULT TROUT THAT YOU CAN
Number 3 is the most important. It will stay in your mind forever. You should know the one. It refuses EVERYTHING you offer except for that ONE last cast that gets it done. This is not euro euronymphing.
Ken
9 comments:
Dear Ken,
Difficult trout are memorable, but these also are products of the "too much fishing pressure" which Gierach abhors. Aside from stocking trucks and Great Lakes spawning runs, there's a third option which may produce 'monster numbers' of fish: wilderness angling for wild trout. Two excerpts from my fishing logs illustrate:
Branch River, Katmai National Park, AK - "Upriver run in skiff to bluff on north shore of Kukaklek mouth, where we wade into current and connect to fish which go immediately airborne; wading is made tricky by current, burgeoning wind off Kukaklek, and boulder-studded bottom, but worth the risk given giant lake rainbows which hammer black crystal buggers and chartreuse rabbit-strip leeches; my final tally for the day is 21 rainbows landed and released, with more subject to 'long-distance release'"
Copper River, Lake Iliamna drainage, AK - "Bordered by volcanic rock outcrop, the 'cliff pool' starts as riffle which widens into deep water studded with boulders; I fish first in riffle and work downstream through pool along left bank, catching 18 rainbows with #6 black crystal buggers; further downstream we fish deep run where visible trout hold amid bottom rubble and fresh bear tracks spatter gravel shoreline; I take 10 additional rainbows in this stretch for day’s total of 28 rainbows caught and released (many more hooked and lost)"
One exhausts all superlatives to describe fishing in Alaska - the best kind of angling for 'monster numbers' of trout.
-Mike
Well said Ken. It's the challenge that we are after.
PT
Jim/Westfield,
Same here.
Mike,
That's not exactly what I was thinking. Lots of big fish from exotic places was not my point. Read Hewitt's 3 phases 0f flyfishing to get the point.
Ken
Caught my first trout on a fly rod (and eleven more--state limit) using a Sears Ted Williams outfit in the early 1970s on the East Branch of the Chattooga River in northwestern South Carolina. My brother and I did beat the hatchery truck to the pool but were standing there when it pulled up and dumped hundreds of fish in. Fortunately, I have matured both in age and in how I approach fly fishing over the past 50+ years. And what I do now is much more enjoyable.
Charles
Hi Ken, I think you would agree that the trout in the Swift are probably the best educated in the state. When I was new a fly shop owner told me “you can go the Swift in a blizzard and someone will already be there fishing”, and as you know it’s worse now. I have a small, stocked river near my home and in 15 years of fishing it, other than around the stocking date I never ran into another angler let alone someone with a fly rod. One nice day I remember saying to myself, “I can’t believe there aren’t kids here with worms and bobbers”. But then Covid hit. The lock down seemed to turn everyone with the least bit of interest in fishing to fly fishers. I have mixed feelings about it. Yes it’s good for the sport but I miss the days of having a decent river to myself. So for me there’s the blue lines, solitude and the occasional small Brookie or Brown are just fine with me.
Dear Ken,
The point of my prior comment was threefold: 1) that wilderness fishing often produces remarkable catches; 2) that in their undisturbed state, wild trout are opportunistic and aggressive feeders, the antithesis of 'difficult' trout; and 3) that 'difficult' trout are products of relentless fishing pressure.
I understand the premise that a fly angler should progress from "catch many trout!" to "catch big trout!" to "catch difficult trout!", but this is an oversimplification - we wade back and forth between stages according to preference and circumstance. Casting pattern after pattern to disinterested fish is more about endurance than sport from my perspective; others no doubt will disagree. To each their own ...
The 2024 season will mark my sixty-first year of fly fishing. Whether it's 8-inch brook trout in the Catskills or 28-inch rainbows in the Katmai, I'll choose to catch an abundance of wild trout in lieu of 'difficult' trout each and every time.
-Mike
Dean,
During the early covid days outdoor activities were considered fairly safe. I remember going
hiking on trails that never saw a soul but then had a 100 hikers on them. Same with the rivers. I did notice that nobody wears a mask anymore. I guess the "scare" is over with.
Ken
Mike,
I don't agree at all. Wild brookies in a beaver drainage are as wild as you can get but are a pushover and boring after a while. I have spent a summer chasing a single trout who made his
home in a corner of the Millers River. It was a difficult chase that lasted into October but after 30 years it remains my favorite fish. "Casting pattern after pattern to disinterested fish" is usually a beginners game where you have to blame the fisher's technique and not the fish.
Ken
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