I recieve a lot of emails.
Most of them are telling me that they used to fish the river and now moved on and some people mail me to tell me how well they have been fairing fishing the river. Ive got to admit I meet and speak to a lot of Anglers on the bank but seldom do I tell them about this site. The site was and is mostly for myself and a way of keeping a “high tech” fishing diary. If other people like it and enjoy it so much the better 🙂
Today I recieved a mail that made me think, it was entitled “your narrow minded outlook!”
I have just read your comment regarding (bait fishermen), dated 26,05,2004. There is no place in our sport for such snobbery. As for not knowing what to do, I have landed more & by far bigger trout than you could ever dream of.
yours,
one of the (bait fishing), underclass.
I couldnt mind of the post but I sent this reply back saying
I meet many good bait fisherman in my travels and yes they do catch
good fish. What I am against is people that static line ie sit with a
bait rod and a worm on the end letting it sit until a fish comes along
and takes it…usually half way down its throat thus killing the fish
no matter what the size. THAT is the kind of bait fisherman that i
detest. Bait fishermen that I admire however and am continually
impressed by their skill is the bait fisherman who fish worms down
pools letting them drift and striking when appropriate. Using worms on
the Kelvin for Salmon I think is the only way to go…..never been in
contact with one on the fly and personally don’t fish for them.
and then I realised that the post in question was talking about me wondering how people managed to get fish up a 10 foot high wall once caught.
Anyway I thought I would share some of my experiances with people fishing bait. last season I ran into lots of anglers fishing with static lines with wormd and maggots. While I was talking to them their rod tip was waggling away. I eventually pointed this out and they eventually picked up the rod and struck. It was a trout maybe about a quarter of a pound. The fish had taken the bait down into their throat. They said they had caught around 10 like this. Of course the fish was leaking blood everywhere and took about 5 mins to get the hook out. The fish was then dropped back into the water.
That was a perfectly nice trout…..killed.
I got talking to a guy who fishes wasp grubs. What the guy was doing was using a tiny bubble float trotting it down between the weeds, holding his rod and striking anytime he felt a fish. He caught a fair few…nice ones too…..played them unhooked them and put them back quickly.
Its not the same is it?
What I obviously dont like is people who sit with a static line. Ive done it. When I was younger. As time went on I moved on to spinning and using worms and maggots but fishing them upstream and trotting them down feeling for takes. You killed fewer fish that way. If I ever get to the river and the water is dirty and I think a worm will help I would probably grub one up and stisk it on a hook and use the fly rod and line to work it. Not had the chance yet though.
Some people dont fish with a fly rod and line I accept that…….dont understand it…but I still accept it. I dont think its elitist these days when you can walk into a fishing shp and pick up a fly rod combo for less than 70 bucks. Its open to anyone.
Alistair,
I don’t necessarily think it elitist to be disgusted with the tactics of some fisherman, both bait and fly. It’s a shame when I see any fisherman land a trout and hold it up with their fingers jammed halfway down the gills. Another practice that amazes me is the one where a fish is landed, photographed, and inspected for what seems like minutes, while the trout dies. And just for the record. I don’t believe that catching large fish necessarily makes one a better fisherman.
As for that comment about catching larger fish using bait than you could ever dream of when using the fly is utter rubbish. Two days ago I was fishing one of my favourite pools on the kelvin and caught four trout on the fly. They averaged just over a pound. If you have any tales of bait fishers on the kelvin catching fish averaging more than that I would be interested to know. Personally, I have nothing against bait fishers, but would like to say that fishing the fly is more fun, more versatile, more effective than bait and you can fish the fly anywhere. Alastair you may remember I emailed you some months back about what flies to use. Cheers for the advice! I have caught many fish on the clyde style flies (the snype and purple is very effective)and have had much success with dry flies and various nymphs. Great fun!