Let’s be honest, what you see on social media is not realistic. It is full of anglers with so many pictures of fish you wonder how they keep fish off their line. Most of the time you have to work for your fish. And I will let you in on a little secret – so do the influencers you see on social media.
I came to this realization when I took the step from being a casual angler to a die hard, well-experienced fly fisherman. There will always be banner days where it seems every cast nets a fish. However, it should be noted that for every banner day, there are several days where you will go out and only catch a few fish or get skunked altogether.
If it was easy, we wouldn’t do it. Fly fishing is appealing to me because it is much more involved than dropping a line down and easily reeling in a fish. You have to understand three main components to have consistent success while fly fishing:
1. How to cast.
2. How to fish a fly.
3. How to fight and land a fish.
Putting all that together while managing line is difficult and takes years of practice to master. That is without even mentioning the need to understand fish behavior and ecology so that you can select the right areas to fish.
I recently bought a 16-foot Tracker Grizzly jon boat and took it up to Lake Champlain for its first big adventure. Although I had splashed the boat a few times before, I still had several kinks to sort out. Used boats are always difficult because you inherit any problem that the boat may have had, but you wont necessarily know all the problems until you use the boat.
Day one of fishing and scouting was fine. The boat ran as it should, and myself and my passengers had a great time getting to know it. We wanted to fish hard during the trip because we were up against a weather window. Because of this, we decided that day two would be a dedicated full day of fishing.
The first half of day two was fun but not lights out. We worked rocky shorelines early in the morning in search of small mouth bass. We caught plenty young of the year fish but nothing substantial. Its always fun to feel the tug but we wanted something more. We had dropped a solid 2-3 pound bass at this point and were feeling less than successful, however not defeated.
We came up on a flat that was loaded with bass. Because these fish were on the move, we decided to stay stationary and blind cast in the area or sight cast if the opportunity presented itself. Time and again the bass were refusing every offering – crayfish, minnow patterns, egg sucking leaches, and jig head flies were all failing.
Finally as I was stripping back on what felt like the hundredth cast, I felt a solid tug. I strip set and bam I announced my quintessential “fish on” phrase. The fish gave me a couple nice jumps and came into the boat. It was the best fish we got all day at a little over a pound. It was nothing to write home about but we worked for that fish. It just wasn’t our day but that’s ok, its part of the journey as an angler and especially a fly fisherman. I would rather work for that one fish all day than catch all its big brothers and sisters time and again with ease. Why? It keeps me coming back for more. The obsession can never be satisfied until I perfect my craft. And guess what? Perfection is not possible.
The day ended with engine troubles that required me to make a couple repairs to my outboard. However, it did make for a white-knuckle trip back to shore battling wakes at extremely low speed due to a failing outboard in a flat bottom boat. These experiences with hardship and finicky fish are why I fly fish and why I implore others to as well. I will remember this bass for a long time because it was my last fish of the trip as the engine and weather did not allow us to get back out.
These types of stories could easily discourage an individual, but you can’t let it. These stories are the reality of fishing, especially fly fishing. Don’t let social media fool you, get out and fish and have fun while you do it, regardless of the result.
