When I Fish Alone, I Prefer to be by Myself

greywolf said:
Same here. I have a stressful job that requires long hours every day and working weekends, that includes a lot of time dealing with customer and employee issues. So when I get time to trout fish I like to get out by myself and relax with nature. I do fish with others occasionally but I avoid the people who want to make it a competition.
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Reminds me of a guy I introduced to the sport years ago.

After casting lessons on the lawn at home, we went to the Little J.
Took him to my favorite sections of river, and put him into the spots where the most fish were rising.
Gave him the proper fly , and coached him how to get good presentations.
He did pretty well, and I enjoyed seeing him catch fish his first time out.

Then, as we were leaving the stream at the end of the day, he says to me "I beat you"
I said "What?"
He said "I caught more fish than you did"
I just rolled my eyes, and said OK......
 
Don't have much to add that others havent. My strong preference is to hike in and fish alone most of the time. I like the solitude and being able to dictate my own pace without worrying about how I may be impacting a fishing partner - if I decide to pause long enough to set up a waterfall photo or do a little off-stream exploring of a flagstone foundation or take a late lunch on the water or whatever.

That said, I think there are one or two streams it makes sense to fish with a partner and in those cases I'm leap frogging mostly, especially if there's enough room to step out and walk up to the next beat in the woods.

Although I value my alone time and seek out streams that nimimize cell service while maximizing my chances of seeing no one else, on the occassions that I do - on the water or in the parking lot - I'm always willing to chat it up, share flies, trade stories, offer feedback on the day's fishing, and then continue on my way. I'm not one for pretending like you're invisible if we actually cross paths. Just me.
 
I've made silly life decisions that prioritized family and work, so I'm now a good 5 hours from even my closest buddies who fish. I take 10 or so trips a year either to visit or meet those folks somewhere, but, locally, I fish 3-4 times a week year round (except usually a dip in February) almost exclusively alone. I don't prefer it, but that's the way she goes, boys.

Drinking alone? See above.
 
troutbert said:
Are you leap-frogging or taking turns? You mentioned both.

In my experience, taking turns works well. But leap-frogging creates a lot of problems. If your buddy goes up around and fishes the next pool directly above you, he will often spook the water you are fishing.

If he goes further up around to give you a longer stretch to fish, then you won't be able to see where he started. Unless he marks where he started. We have tried that, using a handkerchief tied on a branch over the stream. That can work. But then you are no longer fishing together. You can't see the other guy fishing and what he catches, or discuss things. So it would be easier to just fish different stretches.

Going up around means you are walking much further to fish the same length of stream. And on many streams walking on the land adjacent to the stream is tough because of thick vegetation. It's easier to just fish right up the stream. The whole leap-frogging process just gets too frenetic.
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By the definitions you present in your post, we are "taking turns."
 
dryflyguy said:
Reminds me of a guy I introduced to the sport years ago.

After casting lessons on the lawn at home, we went to the Little J.
Took him to my favorite sections of river, and put him into the spots where the most fish were rising.
Gave him the proper fly , and coached him how to get good presentations.
He did pretty well, and I enjoyed seeing him catch fish his first time out.

Then, as we were leaving the stream at the end of the day, he says to me "I beat you"
I said "What?"
He said "I caught more fish than you did"
I just rolled my eyes, and said OK......
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Dryfly, did you even have a rod in your hand on that trip?
 
6xAdams(Jones) said:
Dryfly, did you even have a rod in your hand on that trip?
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Yeah - we had hiked up into the gorge that day.
After finally getting him to start catching some, I did get to fish a bit
But he was serious.

I fished with that guy some another year or two.
Then we drifted apart.......
 
jifigz said:
By the definitions you present in your post, we are "taking turns."
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That approach works the best, in my experience.

What people call leap-frogging or hopscotching is when the first guy starts fishing, and the second guy walks up and around him, and starts fishing upstream of him. Then when the first guy reaches where the second guy started fishing, he walks up past him and starts fishing. And so on up the creek. This seems to be the most common approach. But there are lots of problems with it.

Another thing that happens pretty often is that second guy goes up around the first guy and then is not seen again until the end of the day. He goes up around then fishes really fast to leave the first guy in the dust, so that he has no choice but to fish water that's already been fished.

Then the first guy decides that in the future he'll fish alone!
 
dryflyguy said:
Yeah - we had hiked up into the gorge that day.
After finally getting him to start catching some, I did get to fish a bit
But he was serious.

I fished with that guy some another year or two.
Then we drifted apart.......
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I had similar experiences/comments when starting out my boys. They were only 10-12 years old at the time, so they didn't realize I was actually not fishing the whole time I was helping them.
 
afishinado said:
Fishing together and taking turns works well and can make for an enjoyable day fishing with your buddy.
But if both guys want to fish, "leap-frogging" also works well if you have a system.

I usually have an orange hat in my pack for fishing during hunting season, but anything bright piece of clothing will work.

I begin fishing and my buddy walks on the bank upstream a ways leaving good water for me to fish. He hangs the orange hat along the bank where he starts fishing upstream and I fish up to that point and grab the hat. I then work my way upstream to find my buddy. I ask him something like "didjaketchany?" and he usually says "cottafew" or something like that.

After we BS for a while I move upstream along the bank, leaving my buddy some good water to fish, and plant the hat where I start fishing upstream. Rinse and repeat.

Both of us have a good day fishing and no one ends up fishing in the others wake. Plus we get to stay in touch all day and also have a good time.
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What if some jerk like me moves or swipes the hat? 😉
 
I fished a small WT stream in the ANF last summer with an old fishing buddy

We did hop scotch a little in several sections that were open enough for one of us to make a wide berth, without spooking the fish
But mostly, just hung together and took turns on each pool.

I had no problem having him hit most of the better looking water.
And enjoyed watching him have at it
He still works, and doesn't get out near as much as I do.

But I still certainly get out many times alone. And have the whole stream to myself.
I'm fine either way
 
dryflyguy said:
Then, as we were leaving the stream at the end of the day, he says to me "I beat you"
I said "What?"
He said "I caught more fish than you did"
I just rolled my eyes, and said OK......
Click to expand...
In this situation that man is wrong. You helped him get into fish and supplied him with the proper flies. You were essentially babysitting him. I would have had a similar response to him and would have followed it up by stating I'm not going to baby sit him next time.

A real competition among anglers is just heading to whatever body of water the show-down pertains to and simply slugging it out on the water and maybe actually slugging it out afterwards. Ultimately it's hard to quantify angler skill outside of what can be measured such as how far and how accurately can a certain individual cast a fly rod. With catch rates we can measure how many fish an angler catches over a given time and see what their cyclic rate is, but even still all of the variables such as water body location and how technical that body of water is, stocking, and environmental factors play a large part.
 
Most alone. I enjoy fishing and or driving with others much more now than in years past.

Going alone, has always been more that I go in the spur of the moment in the middle of the week when conditions are favorable , which doesn’t produce too many takers with responsibilities. That, and a lot of my time now is fly fishing far-flung native trout waters, which some cases require weeks of travel.
 
Mostly fish with one or two others (majority of my fishing is out of a boat). Wading is usually also with one or two others. I’m competitive in many aspects but out fishing, I am not at all.

Fishing a small WT stream is sometimes solo or with one other. With one other we called it “baseball” as it’s basically taking turns and if you fish too much good water without a fish (determined by the fisherman), catch a fish, or miss/lose 3, it’s the other guys turn. But even that’s a loose framework as the guys I fish with are all real relaxed about these rules and are good at sharing. There are guys I fish with that don’t like that setup so I just don’t do that type of fishing with them.
 
I have the same philosophy for fishing…

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The older you get you will miss having someone to fish with. GG
 
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