Fishing alone

[longbowman58]

This past week I fished Woodcock and Oil Creek. Since the end of April I've seen a grand total of one other person fishing while I've been out. Saturday morning was perfect and I fished Oil Creek right off the Mystic Park road and landed some beautiful trout and only had water and birds to listen to and see. I guess I'm glad in one sense but sad in another that there doesn't seem to be the interest from our next generation and where will that leave our fising future?

 

[BeastBrown]

Haha, you won't be fishin' alone no more, lol. Bring the grill for next weekend. On a more serious note, unless some trilogy of books that depicts a fly fishing wizard kid get made into movies, I don't see much of a future for the outdoors and fishing. These kids are on chemically induced highs from ingesting electronic content, and they aren't coming down anytime soon from what I can see.

 

[ballz]

Surprised Woodcock hasnt had anyone on it when you have gone. I get what you are saying about the younger generations. I am not too old myself,30. I do have 3 boys at home and each one loves to join me. Actually is tough to go without them. They get mad when I say that daddy needs some time on the creek without them. Granted I love having them but sometimes I enjoy not having to untangle lines every 5 minutes.

 

[wildtrout2]

BeastBrown wrote:
Haha, you won't be fishin' alone no more, lol. Bring the grill for next weekend.

This prolly isn't too far off base. You need to watch what streams you mention, unless you REALLY want company on that stream. Me, I LOVE not seeing other fisherman on the streams that I fish. In fact, I go waaay out of my way to make this a reality.

Something I noticed, is that when (on that rare occasion) I do see another angler, it's almost never a really young indididual. Backs up what was mentioned previously.

 

[RCFetter]

I see younger anglers (in their teens) using fly rods on the LL and spin rods on the Pennypack and Neshaminy.

The topic of young fly fishers is somewhat discussed in the 20 year old fly fisherman / guide

For some people, including myself, breaking into fly fishing is not easy without a mentor. I doubt that I would be fly fishing today without this forum and the help I received at those gatherings on the LL.

 

[rrt]

As an old fart who likes to fish alone, I would have enjoyed your day on the creek. Now, before I start something I do not intend to start, I think you are right about the young generation not finding what they want in fly-fishing. However, around here, when I eventually leave the water, there are at least 2, and maybe a 3rd, young lions who are going to watch the trout and the streams -- and are already wonderful fly fishermen.

 

[streamerguy]

I find fishing a LOT more fun than sitting on my butt playing videogames. Fortunately I also have friends that are into the sport, fly and spin. Unfortunately most of the younger kids I see out fishing are the ones just sitting on the bank watching their bobber, and probably only fish a handful of times a year if that, and I don't see many serious ones. There is a little hope though.

 

[grouse11]

Don't have a lot of fly fisherman in my area but do see a lot of kids spin fishing. My friend and I, although we don't consider us kids but some of you might, are 18 and love to flyfish. I find that it is not the kids fault but a lot of times the parents, and not really theirs either. If the parents don't fly fish, the kids most likely won't. In my case, my parents don't fish but my grandfather and uncle do. They ff on penns creek and introduced me to it.

Either way, I feel like any kind of fishing (unless illegal) is better than sitting inside all day.

 

[Kabutt]

wildtrout2 wrote:

I LOVE not seeing other fisherman on the streams that I fish. In fact, I go waaay out of my way to make this a reality.

This.

 

[pcray1231]

Unfortunately most of the younger kids I see out fishing are the ones just sitting on the bank watching their bobber.

Don't have a lot of fly fisherman in my area but do see a lot of kids spin fishing.

The vast majority of fly fishermen grew up with spinning rods in their hands. Just sayin. Some % of these are your future fly fishermen. They may go through stages in between, graduate from the bobber to dead driftin bait, to workin minnies, to spinners, to flies. That's a pretty typical progression.

I'm not sure there were ever that many kids into fly fishing here in PA.

 

[k-bob]

I fished two very small remote brook trout streams this weekend and of course saw no one ... I did see 1 bear before it saw me, which was fun...

then I fished a stream right along a well known trail .. very nice place but to me it seemed almost like a highway of hikers

and now that I think about it, the stream had so many hikers really is not more beautiful than other streams where I have never seen another person

some places you can count on seeing other people ... other places I would be absolutely shocked ... Others in the middle where it's just a higher or lower chance

I don't think that many people fish really small streams

By that I mean jump across or step across type brook Trout streams

I once asked the people who run a rather large nature preserve if I can fish on the tiny rhodo covered stream on the preserve

They didn't know cause no one ever asked before

 

[Swattie87]

Of the small, non-stocked local wild trout streams I regularly fish (There's maybe a dozen of them that I fish more than 1x per year, which I'd consider "regular") I have only seen another angler on any of them twice...ironically it was the same stream both times (but different anglers).

I fish a few ATW's that have wild fish in them regularly too, and it's much more common I run into other guys on them. Outside of April and early May though even that's pretty rare.

I have NEVER seen another angler while WW fishing local streams and creeks in the Summer. Our WW streams are an extremely untapped resource. I got my start fishing WW streams and transitioned to trout more recently...I think that's backwards of most spin/FFers.

 

[k-bob]

I have been fishing a very small step across stream in a well-known very busy state park

It is away from the attractions and the parking lots of the park... And even on a weekend id be surprised to see someone on that little stream

 

[klingy]

I think a big reason you don't see more people on a lot of the smaller streams is ignorance. So many people, even those who have fished for trout their whole lives, think trout only come from a truck. I was talking to a guy the other day about fishing a tiny little stream in York County and catching some nice browns and he asked, "Who put them there?". He had no idea that there could be trout in a stream that weren't planted there from a bucket.

 

[k-bob]

not sure why people dont fish tiny streams much.. maybe people dont realize there are trout in tiny streams, and tiny streams are a thrash to get to and tough fishing under branches... plus there are no really big fish... come to think of it, it is a bit crazy to do it

heres an unclear image of bear I saw Sat along truly tiny NE brookie stream... a person would have surprised me more out there

I saw the bear before he saw me... and kept fishing... he eventually headed out

 

[troutbert]

longbowman58 wrote:
I guess I'm glad in one sense but sad in another that there doesn't seem to be the interest from our next generation and where will that leave our fising future?

During the height of the season, a lot of streams are crowded. So I don't think there is a lack of trout fisherman.

Getting into the summer season the number of trout fishermen on the streams drops off. And the number of people fishing for bass, and on the lakes, etc. increases. This is the typical pattern and has been that way for decades.

 

[streamerguy]

The vast majority of fly fishermen grew up with spinning rods in their hands. Just sayin. Some % of these are your future fly fishermen. They may go through stages in between, graduate from the bobber to dead driftin bait, to workin minnies, to spinners, to flies. That's a pretty typical progression.

You're right. Although it's not usually the real young ones, but most of the other teenagers I see out are the type that don't seem to fish much. Not neccessarily just watching a bobber, but other lures and watching where they're casting, and overall fishing techniques, whether it's using a float, spinners, plugs, flies, etc. they're just not catching fish no matter what they're using(due to lack of experience probably). I'm sure some will really get into the sport of fishing(fly or spin) and progress. I guess I'm lucky to have gotten into fly fishing at pretty early on.

 

[pcray1231]

Well, for what it's worth, from childhood to my mid teens I fished the first weekend with my family, and, ah, that was about it. Maybe once or twice after that. There were sports to play, girls to chase, friends to hang out with, etc. High school is a busy time and fishing, much less getting real serious about fishing, falls pretty far down the list of priorities.

Sure, a lot of kids/teens fish now and then and enjoy it, and those are the ones that may become serious fishermen someday. But few get very serious about it or do it often at those ages. Even through college

But after college, there's no more organized sports. The friends scatter across the country, you still get together once in a while but it's not an every day or even weekend thing. The bar scene isn't nearly as interesting. You get tied down to a steady job. Life gets routine and boring, you have the money, but need weekend activities. That's when most go looking for a steady hobby.

If they have fished off and on all their lives and enjoyed it, getting serious about fishing is an option. If not, they become golfers.

 

[streamerguy]

Yeah, I definitely understand. I'm in that stage now, but since school is out and no sports are going on right now I have a lot more free time, so I have more time to hang out with friends, fish, heck sometimes even both at the same time. During school is usually a different story though, so I get where you're getting at.

 

[sipe]

pcray1231 wrote:
Well, for what it's worth, from childhood to my mid teens I fished the first weekend with my family, and, ah, that was about it. Maybe once or twice after that. There were sports to play, girls to chase, friends to hang out with, etc. High school is a busy time and fishing, much less getting real serious about fishing, falls pretty far down the list of priorities.

Sure, a lot of kids/teens fish now and then and enjoy it, and those are the ones that may become serious fishermen someday. But few get very serious about it or do it often at those ages. Even through college

But after college, there's no more organized sports. The friends scatter across the country, you still get together once in a while but it's not an every day or even weekend thing. The bar scene isn't nearly as interesting. You get tied down to a steady job. Life gets routine and boring, you have the money, but need weekend activities. That's when most go looking for a steady hobby.

If they have fished off and on all their lives and enjoyed it, getting serious about fishing is an option. If not, they become golfers.

I agree. This is the natural progression. I'm a high school teacher and I gotta say there are a good crop of kids who are pretty aware and involved in the outdoors even considering the high school schedule. A lot of these kids are so much deeper into hunting and fishing than I was at there age, and they are generally not the kids playing organized sports.

Eventually, several of these kids will evolve from hunters to bowhunters...from bait fisherman to fly fisherman....from consumers to conservationists. With maturity comes an evolution...not just from the additional time, but from additional awareness and interest.