Trick or trout
IN Mark Kurlansky’s excellent book The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing, the author goes through trivia, lore, history and anecdotes of trout fishing history.
He describes the one true species of trout, namely Salmo trutta, the brown trout, asserting every other kind of trout so-called only because they resemble it.
As the empire moved across the globe it wasn’t just the people that settled.
The anglers felt it was only proper that the brown trout follow the course of conquest, which explains why they can now be found in places such as New Zealand, Chile, and South Africa, “to assure that anywhere a colonist went, there would be good game for a fly rod”.
The most famous brown trout that thrive in the rich southern hemisphere waters are kinda expats of Loch Leven, growing to mammoth sizes and appearing on many angler’s bucket lists.
There are tales of perfect trout in crystal clear water and that kind of myth and mystique surrounding fly fishing is one of the endearing and alluring qualities of the sport.
Casting in itself is an art and for some people the perfect cast is more important than catching the quarry.
Of course, it doesn’t compare, otherwise you’d be happy stood in a field just practising. There should always be the hope of accidentally hooking a fish.
Even within fly fishing there’s a move to denounce anything but a particular method.
Certain English chalkstreams go so far as to only allow upstream dry fly from July onwards.
“Cast only to rising trout. Upstream, and only with dry flies” which is grand on a day where there are rising fish and a river that’s not overgrown.
I fish a lot of muddy water with terrible weather and not enough time.
So as long as it’s within the rules there’s a lot more than one way to catch a fish.
While I do prefer to catch on the fly, pretty much any species, there’s an instant connection that isn’t there on other methods,.
If it only counts on fly but you’re going to catch zero then that doesn’t add up to much either! Fishing to the conditions and being a bit of an all-rounder is going to pay off.
Before I had all the gear I started off using the same telescopic rod with bait or spinners for everything.
I was gifted a fly rod for going to fisheries and learning to cast but I loved digging worms and just getting bites. Every fish counted then so why shouldn’t it count now?
There’s no huge barrier of entry when it comes to the sport, pick up or borrow some basic tackle, learn a couple of knots, find some water with fish and there’s every chance.
The technology has come on, I’m more skilled, but it was probably more fun before I learned all the unwritten rules.