Troubitten - "We don't want easy fishing"

wgmiller

wgmiller

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This is a fairly quick watch and well worth a few minutes of your time. As fly anglers, we don't want easy days on the water. Sure, we're all willing to take those days when it seems like we can do no wrong. Imagine though if it was always like that? We'd get bored fairly quickly. The challenge and trying to "unlock" the day's fishing is what keeps us coming back for more. Serve that up with a good skunking' every now and then and we're assured return trips to the stream.

 
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Bamboozle said:
Easy is fun too... 😉
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Couldn't agree more. I've had some really steller days on some of my favorite wild trout streams that I will never forget. I'm talking days when you got a strike on every other cast, literally. I wouldn't have a problem with that if I experienced it on most trips, because I've also had days when I hiked over a mile just to access a stream and only caught one or two trout for an entire day's effort.

At this stage of my life (68), I'll take easy as often as it can possibly happen. The steller days I mentioned were rarities, and I recognized that when they took place. These days, I'm just thankful to still be able to get on some of these streams. Over all, I've been blessed with great memories. Like catching a wild tiger trout, catching a LOT of really good size natives, one being my PB @ 13.5", catching the wild trout trifecta four times, and my PB wild brown @ 19". I can't complain, but bring on easy! 🙂
 
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I fish new water all the time and am not afraid to get after it even if that means failing but after a few fish-less trips it's so nice when you have a arm tired, grinning like a goofball, fish on ever other cast trip of any species. Thank you small mouth bass for erasing some of those fish-less Batan death march trips .
 
I like when it is easy like during a good caddis hatch in May. But I find it most satisfying to fish a dry to a large trout that is giving me refusals etc. Maybe it is a pressured fish and requires just the right fly and presentation. When you hook (and land) a big one like that it is a great thing.
 
caddisflyer said:
I like when it is easy like during a good caddis hatch in May. But I find it most satisfying to fish a dry to a large trout that is giving me refusals etc. Maybe it is a pressured fish and requires just the right fly and presentation. When you hook (and land) a big one like that it is a great thing.
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That's the spend an hour or two trying to outsmart/catch one specific trout kind of fishing. To each their own, but I prefer to cover a lot of stream, which usually provides more opportunities.
 
I’ve had many good days since I stopped caring about how many fish I catch. The easy days are easy no matter what you throw and the hard days are usually hard no matter what you throw. The going often and fishing new water is what’s most important for me, but that’s just me.
It only becomes too easy if you don’t switch patterns mid glory bite. Next time they are really biting, switch tactics and flies. I find I learn a lot more by making changes when they are biting than I do trying to throw Hail-Mary fly changes at a poor bite with unactive fish.
~5footfenwick
 
This article reads to me as part chest beating on behalf of a cliquey and opinionated group of anglers and part honest assessment of the far greater value of stream bred wild trout fisheries that contain a rich diversity of food forms.

I’ve had plenty of days I’d consider “easy” on the same waterways these guys and many of you all frequent, but the difference is that what’s easy one day rarely holds true the next, or even 3-4 hours later. And that’s the fun part of fly fishing for wild trout- a degree of challenge to numbers ratio you don’t find with really any other fish species. Give me an entire pool of large brown and rainbow trout sipping size 24 BWO’s on the upper Delaware in July, you’ll see hundreds of fish in a mile of water, and unless you’ve got the chops for it you’re going home disappointed. Musky aren’t actually that difficult to catch, there’s just so few of them in a given river that it takes much longer between fish to get one to play ball.

Anyway, I think the true aim of articles like this is to get people to stop glorifying truck chasing and stocked fisheries.
 
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5footfenwick said:
I’ve had many good days since I stopped caring about how many fish I catch. The easy days are easy no matter what you throw and the hard days are usually hard no matter what you throw. The going often and fishing new water is what’s most important for me, but that’s just me.
It only becomes too easy if you don’t switch patterns mid glory bite. Next time they are really biting, switch tactics and flies. I find I learn a lot more by making changes when they are biting than I do trying to throw Hail-Mary fly changes at a poor bite with unactive fish.
~5footfenwick
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This.
 
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