- fishbeer wonders (literately) what effects hotspotting will have on a few fave small streams: http://tinyurl.com/de758j #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
The Trout Underground Fly Fishing Blog
Fly Fishing the Upper Sacramento River : Tom Chandler's Fly Fishing Life : Fly Rods are the Measure of Life
Support Our Sponsors
The Orvis Podcast
Scissor This…
Singlebarbed- One day the grocery lady will fix you with that steely gaze
- The Fusion fly: Where we expose our ample hindquarters to scorn and levity
- Both of us were out of shape and ill prepared for company
- Eat The Fly , a balanced and nutritious tour of the important finned food groups
- It would’ve taken the angling world by storm
- Fly Fish Chick
We’re Reading
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with what you said about specifically defining the laws and regulations by which people need to operate on trout streams. Most native trout waters are relatively fragile eco-systems to begin with. I am a firm believer that any native trout stream in the lower 48 should be a single, barbless fishery with a strict “no live bait policy.” It is truly the only way to ensure that these waters remain pristine and ecologically active. I live in Idaho, and the fish and game department here has done a wonderful job defining laws that regulate fishing techniques and seasons. Hopefully their way of doing things will spread throughout the country.
(Quote)
Hotspotting is a hot topic lots of places. On many message boards folks are convinced that the masses are waiting for any good fishing report to drive out, as a group, to lay waste to any bit of water mentioned. Truth is, here in CA, there are fewer of us plying the waters now than there were in the past and with every lost angler an advocate is lost, a fly shop slides a little more towards oblivion and small, destination towns like Dunsmuir get one less guide booking/dinner out/motel stay.
Sure, there are some places that shouldn’t be talked about… like that place that has all the 26″ wild/native rainbows that eat #10 dry flies all day long without trees to catch on your backcast that is located 5 minutes from downtown LA… but most rivers, most creeks could use more friends, more advocates and more anglers.
Hotspot away!
(Quote)
What I don’t really understand is how giving up personal fishing spots will somehow reverse the declining fortunes of fly fishing, which I’m more likely to attribute to a lot of things wholly unrelated to whether people are told which rock to stand on to catch trout.
In short, I’m not about to start publishing my fishing spots.
(Quote)
Well, that draws the line a little tighter than I really intended. As a new angler, if you walk into a fly shop, green as can be, looking for help, and you ask where to cast a fly… if you get some good hints/advice you might actually go have some success and get hooked. One alternative is that the shop doesn’t give you any advice and you don’t have success and you go try golf instead. I’ve certainly been in both shops… being new to an area I’ve had some people just not give me any advice (either unable or unwilling). I’ve also had people open up, give me some suggestions. No one has to give away the GPS location of that big fish… maybe not hot spotting, maybe luke-warm spotting. You may have some secret little runs on the Upper Sac, but the Upper Sac is basically one big access point. There is a difference in saying “In August, when it’s hot, best to hit the lower river in the AM, before the water warms, and then move higher” and “Fish Financial, past the first big run where the river re-joins past the island where the river comes back together, copper john, #14, 2 BB’s.”
The opinion I’m holding is that folks new to the sport need to be encouraged… not given the gates to the kingdom… just let in the club a bit. That’s all.
(Quote)
I guess offering people a place or an idea on where to go fishing could be considered pimping, but I find not sharing knowledge short sighted. I work in a fly shop as well. People frequently ask about places to go fishing. I’m not giving up my most secret honey holes but I am giving something a lot better than the blatant and obvious. I like it when they come back in the shop and say thanks, I had a great time. I also get a lot more back then I give, sorta the Karma thing. You tell people places, they tell you places. Sometimes you go fishing with them. It makes for a good time. Recently I was in Jackson. I did not have a lot of time for fishing. I went to High Country. The guy in the shop could have told me the obvious but he didn’t. I wasn’t going to be a repeat customer. I wasn’t buying much but a few flies. He could have blown smoke up my ass for all I would know. Instead he told me about nice little spot. It wasn’t far off the road so I didn’t have to spend a lot of precious time hiking in. I caught some real nice cuts, my wife got some nice photos and I got to share some time with her doing something I like to do. I guess if that is pimping and you feel bad about it, try a re think. You may feel better.
(Quote)
I’m not sure telling people which rock to stand on to catch smallmouth will singlehandedly reverse the downward trend, but I think pointing people in the right direction will make it easier for them to catch fish and thus less likely to give it up. You seem to think that it’s the difficulty of fly fishing that makes it unappealing in the current age of convenience, or something like this, so anything that makes it easier should help, right? Or are you saying that people don’t even dip a toe in because it’s too hard, so they’re not even at the store asking for directions?
(Quote)
I’m sure Jerry Brukheimer, Youtube, Play Station 3 and many, many other factors are behind the decline in fishing. I seem to recall that hunting is seeing something similar. People are more disconnected from wilderness, even if they appreciate the concept of it a bit more than before. So many reasons, it’s hard to really know why the general interest has fallen, while those of us who are in the sport see the capacity for exploitation really over filling. So many lodges and guides and magazines and nonprofits and blogs and gear makers of every stripe. Seems like we are all playing on an ever shrinking stage.
(Quote)
I’m all for being helpful on the river; I hand out flies and information (whatever I can spare), and friends who express an interest get taken fishing.
That said, I think a lot of folks decided to try fly fishing because it looked all serene and beautiful on the big screen and in all those commercials. On the river, it’s a different story, with tangles every other cast, fly-eating trees, slippery rocks, and fish that aren’t inclined to reward the newbie.
It’s a beautiful sport, but not necessarily one that rewards the person who does it twice a year, or wants to “master” it in a weekend. It’s hard because there are frustrating technical hurdles and because it involves travel and because fish aren’t wildly stupid and because of a few other reasons.
Thinking back on the struggle, I’m glad there are a lot of classes and instructional materials available.
That said, I’m still not about to start revealing locations. Matt and Woody, you guys work at fly shops so your perspective is doubtless a little different.
I’m happy to point people at the Upper Sac (as Bjorn noted, it’s not hard to find the thing), but my memory’s still fresh about the evening I found six people where I’d been getting nice trout on a late evening spinner fall – two days after I casually mentioned it to a shop owner.
And the backcountry stuff? The little streams? The places where running into another angler or two might actually mean the fishing’s been tweaked? Friends only.
(Quote)