I suppose the subject of
this particular blog post was what finally pushed me to start my blog last
month. You see, back on July 3, I read a
post by Kirk Deeter on the Trout Unlimited (TU) blog that was titled: Debate:
Is fly fishing the most “noble” way to catch trout?
A little bit of background
first. Kirk Deeter is the editor of TU’s
quarterly magazine, TROUT. He is also an editor at large for Field & Stream magazine, is a
frequent contributor to various outdoors websites and blogs, and has authored
or co-authored a number of books about fishing.
So if anyone can ask the question, “Why is there an 800-pound gorilla on
the bank of that stream using a spinning rod and live bait to catch trout?” …
well, I think Kirk Deeter has the credibility as an outdoor journalist to ask
that question.
Obviously, I have an
opinion on the question that Kirk posed in his July 3 TU blog post. So, naturally, I added my two cents to the
comments that were beginning to accumulate at the bottom of Kirk’s post. Of the 17 individuals (including myself) who
posted comments on Kirk’s post, the comments unanimously favored not judging an individual’s
preferred method of angling for trout. Great, that question is resolved. Next item on the agenda?
Anyway, when I saw that
the other 16 folks who commented on Kirk’s post felt similarly to me, I
realized that my comment was nothing more than preaching to the choir. The point that others and I were trying to
make in our responses should give Kirk, the TU editor, important
info that I hope he will share with the TU board of directors (because TU is often viewed by outsiders strictly as a fly fishing organization). But other than that, it seemed to me that I
had just wasted my time in adding my comment to the comments of the other 16
folks with like minds. That’s when I
realized that I needed to start my own blog that would, hopefully, reach a more
diverse audience than the TU blog so that my thoughts about fishing and
conservation and intelligent land use would be shared with a more heterogeneous
audience, many of whom might not have otherwise thought about some of the stuff
that I may write. And thus, the Stream
Hugger blog was conceived.
OK,
back to my response to Kirk’s question.
In a nutshell, no. Fly fishing is
not the most noble means of angling for trout, nor is it anything more than a
personal preference. Frankly, sometimes
when I’m trying to make a trout think that little bits of fur wrapped around
a very small hook is a real bug, and the fish are not the least bit fooled, I
feel like fly fishing may be the most masochistic means of angling for
trout. The following two paragraphs are
what I posted in response to Kirk’s question.
There's
a time and a place for any method of fishing. My dad didn't fish, but my
interest in learning how to fish was helped along by a neighbor who taught me
spin casting live bait for channel catfish and the occasional smallmouth bass
in the Schuylkill River near Valley Forge, PA. By the time I was old
enough to need a fishing license, I had graduated to tossing Panther Martins
and Rooster Tails with a spinning rod. Fly fishing always seemed too
esoteric without an adult role model to watch and teach it to me. Besides,
the gear was a lot more expensive. But I always knew that my maternal
grandfather, who died before I was born, was a fly fisherman. So I guess
I was always a little curious about how in the world someone could toss a
feather on a hook exactly where they wanted it 40 feet away.
Fast
forward 30 or so years, and I'm now trying to teach my 9-year-old daughter how
to fish. She has no patience (not the kind needed for tying a tiny fly to
a tippet and standing in one spot for 15 minutes or more), so, by necessity,
I'm teaching her how to fish live bait (or Powerbait) with a spinning
rod. It doesn't seem like there will be any way she'll be ready to try to
fly fish anytime in the next several years. But I am very proud to say
that she has always had a natural knack for casting a spinning rod. The
only problem with me taking her fishing is that she needs me nearby to guide
her, which makes it nearly impossible for me to fly fish if she is on the
stream with me. But the most important thing to me is that she is
interested in fishing and in coldwater conservation, and it's my hope that one
day she'll become curious enough to ask to try to cast my fly rod and follow in
the steps of her dad and her great-grandpop. Whatever kind of gear that
is necessary to keep a kid from getting discouraged while learning how to fish
is the right kind of gear.
Trout
Unlimited’s motto is, “Conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s
coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.”
There is no mandate within TU that says the organization must cater to
fly anglers or that it must necessarily exclude live-bait or gear anglers. The goal of TU is coldwater conservation.
My grandfather, Eli Hendricks, with a bait-casting rod & reel, sometime in the 1940s or early 1950s.
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The reality is that the more anglers there are with an interest in coldwater conservation, the better chance we all have of convincing regulators and elected officials of the need to protect and restore our favorite coldwater fisheries. Fishing a coldwater trout stream can be a meditative and restorative experience for an angler, whether it’s with mealworms, Powerbait, a Mepps Black Fury spinner, or a Sulfur Dun dry fly. It doesn’t matter what kind of gear we use when we get out on the water to try to match wits with the local trout. What matters is that all anglers stick together and ally ourselves with other outdoor enthusiasts to protect and restore our waterways for future generations so that our kids will have the opportunity to follow in our rippling footsteps in the same coldwater streams that we currently call our home waters.
My daughter using a spinning rod & reel with Powerbait to fish for trout in 2012. |
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