Troubitten - "We don't want easy fishing"

[jifigz]

I actually love easy days on the water. No, I didn't watch his video. I usually don't watch or digest too much of Troutbitten's information.

I like easy days. I don't like impossible days, but I like challenging days. I like exploration. Exploration is one reason why I fish. Another reason is because I like the embrace of places that are sacred to me. I like to be in places that I know so dear and so well that I have almost holy or reverent experiences in these places. That is why I fish. There are a number of these places that are dear to my heart and soul and my fishing/nature spirituality. One key thing that these places share, however, is that they generally lack people and other anglers. When I am surrounded by too many people, I lose that spirituality and connection.

That's why I fish, but I do love easy days.

 

[Kms]

An honest critique of their podcast in my opinion is that they’re either running out of stuff to talk about or just trying to get blood out of a stone by milking topics over too many episodes while not really presenting anything substantive anymore.

My critique is not related to repetition, but rather a fundamental dearth of content. I have found the Orvis, Ask About Fly Fishing and Hallowed Waters podcasts to be more consistently informative. Even when they cover topics with which I’m familiar (or about which I don’t care), they do a better job of providing information about those topics rather than just blather and banter.

In part, surely, this is because each of those other podcasts are interview centered.

 

[hooker-of-men]

I wish there was a good podcast that was just a group of anglers/guides/industry folks talking smack. As I've mentioned here before, for some reason I really enjoy guide stories, funny/embarrasing stories about clients, funny/embarrasing stories about other industry folks, etc. Overall, though, most of these podcasts are NPR levels of tame. Sometimes that is useful as an instructional tool - I imagine Troutbitten falls into this category - but I occasionally want a change of pace.

Fly Fish Food has a couple episodes that do this well. Maybe Tailer Trash used to be like that a bit? (Now I can't even get through the 1.5 hour mail bag segment that opens the 2 yearly episodes.) Galloup talks a lot of trash sometimes, which can be entertaining, but, after only a year of that podcast, it seems like I've already heard his bag of 6 stories about Michigan many times over. The few episodes Craven has started doing seem to want to present him as a disruptor, but that really hasn't landed for me. I want some better **** talking!

 

[brookiefan]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Dark Skies Flyfishing. I think his blogs are very informative and interesting, but short enough to keep your attention. I like #41 above.

 

[DomR]

I enjoy the Troutbitten content both the podcasts, which entertain me on my commutes, and the instagram posts. I don't fish like them, likely never will. I prefer to fish wets or streamers on a swing, and dries with fly line. I like 8' rods of bamboo or glass as opposed to long graphite. I don't always agree with their takes on things, often I''m meh about them. I don't live in very close proximity to premium wild trout waters so I do the stockie thing, it's better than not fishing at all.

AND I like easy fishing. Nothing beats swinging wets when the fish are keyed in on emerging insects but not committing to full out surface feeding. That's nice rhythmic fishing, why its easy....easy like a Sunday morning.

I do what I do cause that's what I want to do. You do you, I'll do me and be perfectly happy.

 

[The Rodfather]

I don't live in very close proximity to premium wild trout waters so I do the stockie thing, it's better than not fishing at all.

This is absolutly mind-boggling to me and a perfect example of the brain rot around stocking that PFBC propaganda depends on. I do live in very close proximity to premium wild trout waters and before I lived in PA I lived close to trout waters in Michigan. But my guy, just because a stream isn't premium trout stream or isnt stocked doesn't mean it lacks fish. Easy to catch fish at that.

Rodfather
Dauphin County League of Chubsmen

 

[BrookieChaser]

I wish there was a good podcast that was just a group of anglers/guides/industry folks talking smack. As I've mentioned here before, for some reason I really enjoy guide stories, funny/embarrasing stories about clients, funny/embarrasing stories about other industry folks, etc. Overall, though, most of these podcasts are NPR levels of tame. Sometimes that is useful as an instructional tool - I imagine Troutbitten falls into this category - but I occasionally want a change of pace.

Fly Fish Food has a couple episodes that do this well. Maybe Tailer Trash used to be like that a bit? (Now I can't even get through the 1.5 hour mail bag segment that opens the 2 yearly episodes.) Galloup talks a lot of trash sometimes, which can be entertaining, but, after only a year of that podcast, it seems like I've already heard his bag of 6 stories about Michigan many times over. The few episodes Craven has started doing seem to want to present him as a disruptor, but that really hasn't landed for me. I want some better **** talking!

I hate the "npr type" podcasts you mention. That type of podcast, on euro-nymphing no less, sounds like a good way to torture enemy combatants.

As you mentioned, Tailer Trash is the closest fly fishing podcast I know of to a group of buddies just bullshitting. The show changed a lot since Larry is not around, and lost a lot of what "made it", but it's hard for any show to continue when the leader is lost. I give the crew credit for trying to keep the show going. They haven't really dug into current industry events because that was usually Larry's forte.

I've seen that the original Tailer Trash Fly Fishing, Fly Fishing After Dark, has been brought back within the past year. I've not listened to the reboot episodes.

 

[CRB]

Hallowed Waters, is a very good podcast for traveling. April V has some very good stuff too.

 

[DomR]

This is absolutly mind-boggling to me and a perfect example of the brain rot around stocking that PFBC propaganda depends on. I do live in very close proximity to premium wild trout waters and before I lived in PA I lived close to trout waters in Michigan. But my guy, just because a stream isn't premium trout stream or isnt stocked doesn't mean it lacks fish. Easy to catch fish at that.

Rodfather
Dauphin County League of Chubsmen

I reiterate…..I do what I do cause that's what I want to do. You do you, I'll do me and be perfectly happy.

Also, brain rot, really. How clever.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Good thing no one here has niche fishing interests or clubs that people have heretofore been respectful towards but certainly could be called out as silly.

 

[wildtrout2]

Good thing no one here has niche fishing interests ...

What, like fishing for native brook trout on small mountain streams with 7' ultralight fly rods? 😉

 

[Bamboozle]

Good thing no one here has niche fishing interests...

I fish for 1" & smaller dace with bait on size 28 hooks, does that count as niche??

BTW - It isn't always easy, but I like it when it is...

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

We get to different places or stages as anglers. All people are different. To each it's own. But , give me some easy fishing. Conditions and other factors can really make it tough so I take the easy days when they come. I even pick the days with what I see as the conditions being most favorable for easy fishing. If you like tough days,have at it too. I'm not judging you.

 

[Mike]

I fish for 1" & smaller dace with bait on size 28 hooks, does that count as niche??

BTW - It isn't always easy, but I like it when it is...

View attachment 1641247229

Sounds like a good way to collect bait in winter for ice fishing. One of my ice fishing friends collects creek chubs using chunks of worms in a Berks stream (don’t want to spot burn the bait hole). They’re great bait for channel cats and bass through the ice at local lakes and have high survival rates when unhooked to be used for bait during the next trip.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

To support the opinion that they are running out of stuff to talk about on these channels and podcasts, I want to add that Larry Dahlberg talked about the stages of an angler over 10 years ago, and he probably got it from someone else 10 years before that. This is the list he talked about on his TV show, Hunt for Big Fish:

Stage 1: You just want to catch one.
Stage 2: You want to catch a limit.
Stage 3: You want to catch a monster.
Stage 4: You want to catch them the way that you want to catch them.

Stage 5 is just to talk about fishing online, I think 😉

 

[DomR]

Sounds like a good way to collect bait in winter for ice fishing. One of my ice fishing friends collects creek chubs using chunks of worms in a Berks stream (don’t want to spot burn the bait hole). They’re great bait for channel cats and bass through the ice at local lakes and have high survival rates when unhooked to be used for bait during the next trip.

Oh no using native species as bait for INVASIVES! The horror. 🙂

 

[wildtrout2]

Conditions and other factors can really make it tough so I take the easy days when they come. I even pick the days with what I see as the conditions being most favorable for easy fishing.

I agree. Since most of the streams I fish are pretty difficult to access, I try to fish them when I believe conditions will give me the best chance at catching as many fish as possible for my efforts.

I'll hike a mile or more to catch wild trout, and the scenery is always beautiful, but I don't need to make that kind of hike just for the scenery. I can find that doing a lot less work. 😉

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

Sounds like a good way to collect bait in winter for ice fishing. One of my ice fishing friends collects creek chubs using chunks of worms in a Berks stream (don’t want to spot burn the bait hole). They’re great bait for channel cats and bass through the ice at local lakes and have high survival rates when unhooked to be used for bait during the next trip.

I always put a tip up by the bank in 4-10' of water baited with a 4-6" chub. Caught some nice pike that way. Maybe suckers work better but harder to catch. I get my bait out of a beaver pond with an axe,bread, and minnow trap. Tried a new spot this year and all that was in the trap was hundreds of salamanders and tadpoles.

 

[Bamboozle]

Sounds like a good way to collect bait in winter for ice fishing. One of my ice fishing friends collects creek chubs using chunks of worms in a Berks stream (don’t want to spot burn the bait hole). They’re great bait for channel cats and bass through the ice at local lakes and have high survival rates when unhooked to be used for bait during the next trip.

Worms although excellent bait, are about impossible to thread on the hooks I use which are size 26 & 28 because the fish are so small.

A good second choice are tiny blobs of Maier's Italian White Bread (for the "paisan" dace) but it is also tricky to get on a tiny hook so I have been using a super sticky paste bait I make from flour & eggs.

While the paste bait requires reapplication after each fish, you just pull the hook through the paste so it is easier to do than baiting a hook with a piece of worm or a ball of bread. I can also get just a VERY little amount, right on the point of the hook so I get instant hook-ups and close to zero deep hooking.

The stuff works so good it has become my panfish bait of choice because it is easier & cheaper than buying and keeping worms and no sticky fingers like I get when using corn.

 

[Kms]

Worms although excellent bait, are about impossible to thread on the hooks I use which are size 26 & 28 because the fish are so small.

I can’t do much of anything with a size 28, but fwiw this and similar stuff is easy to use and holds soft bait on larger hooks.

https://www.cabelas.com/p/atlas-mikes-miracle-thread-bait-wrap