Well rounded fishermen

[PowerBaitHeppy]

I have noticed that many of the people here are very extreme with their flyfishing, and look down on those who use bait (or any other method to catch fish). I realize this is a fly fishing forum, but that is not my point. There is a book by David James Duncan called "The River Why". It is the story of a boy who grows up with an extreme fly fishing father (much more extreme than any of you......maybe) and a mother on the opposite side of the spectrum (extreme bait fisherman). His experiences are great, and we could all learn a little from him trying to please both his parents. There are a few of you that use this forum that should (maybe I should say need to) read this book. There is a time and a place for bait, just like there is a time and place for flies. Just because we own a G. Loomis, or Fenwick fly rod doesn't mean that we are a better fisherman than the guy with the Snoopy bait casting rod. If you don't beleive me ask Curtis.....he saw someone catch a 20+lb Brown on bait. How many of you have caught a Brown over 20lbs on your fly rod?

[Larry S.]

If you could see me now after a couple months of laying around and especially after the Holidays you could say I was a "well rounded" fisherman!

[Mike]

I think that most fly fisherman who tend to look down on bait fisherman do so not so much because of the technique employed, but more because of the higher mortality involved with bait fishing. Also, I think after seeing a bunch of worm containers, 30 foot sections of mono and powerbait jars littered stream side (particularly in areas where they're not allowed by regulation) it's easy to peg bait fisherman as irresponsible. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of idiots fly fishing too. I'm just stating what I believe to be the consensus reason that bait fishing is often frowned upon by people fly fishing.

Just to clarify my position on fishing in general as it relates to this site. I personally don't really care too much what people use to go fishing. After all if you *really* just want to catch trout dig up a worm and put it on a hook. You will instantly catch a fish. Hell, get a gill net and drag it around! You can catch lots of fish... I just don't have any interest in discussing how to catch fish with powerbait, yamamotos, triple teasers or tube jigs -- at least not here. There are plenty of other sites out there where you can talk about bait fishing endlessly.

Lastly, I don't want to see this thread turn into a diatribe about why bait fishing or bait fisherman suck. If you don't like bait fisherman and bait fishing, great! That's your choice. If you do, great! That's your choice too. There are aspects of both sports that make them more appropriate in a given situation.

[PowerBaitHeppy]

I think it is great for you to take your little girl fishing with you. But don't limit her to just bait fishing right now either. Many people think that young kids can only fish with bait. When I was 4, my dad would take me to Otter Creek Res on opening day. While he worked, me and my bros. would cast a fly and a bubble all day and catch a ton of fish. Fly fishing out of a float tube can be as simple as letting out a bunch of line, then kicking around.....you don't have to be casting.......you can't catch fish with your fly in the air!

[Conehead]

My boys prefer bait fishing. I always try to get them to use as small a hook as possible, like a 4/0--not really; we usually try to use something smaller than a #12.
When they use powerbait, we take two of the hooks off of the treble configuration, and we always smash the barbs down. We've been able to release fish by doing these things, and the kids have fun. Usually, we'll bait fish at places like Silver Lake, Brighton.
I am always trying to teach my boys that, while fishing is a riot, we've got to develop a sense of respect and reverence for nature.
Heck yeah! There's nothing wrong with bait fishing. I feel kind of like Mike--it's maddening to find old bait containers, and such in places where they shouldn't be.

[Lonnie]

Back from the dead....

[JayMorr]

Nice Resurrection. Seriously Lonnie bringin this one back is asking for trouble.

Anyways, lets keep it Utah on The Fly.


JayMorr

[Lonnie]

I didn't really read it Jay, I just did a search for "flies" and looked for an old thread. Just trying to keep things for getting too boring around here. Maybe I just happen to pick the right thread for that. Oh well, let's see where it goes...

:P

[powerbait]

I've introduced my son to both and he prefers artificial flies, hands down, though he often fishes them with spinning gear. But I grew up fishing bait--dead drifting worms and hoppers, primarily--and most of the best fly fishermen I know started out fishing bait: it's not a bad way to learn to read water. My grandfather taught me to fish, and he fished bait his whole life--a real master at it. I know some may scoff at that, but he was one Hell of a fisherman. I can't recall him ever hooking a fish deep either--because he fished a taught line and was lightning quick on the set.

[Lonnie]

So is there anyone here that didn't start off fishing bait?

[PowerBaitHeppy]

I didn't. I've never used the stuff. Bait is for those who can't catch fish on a dry fly.

[chris]

Live frogs to be exact.

[Cary]

I've said it before, and dagnamit I'll say it again...

Baitfishers smell like spoiled milk.

[jim m.]

I was taught to fish for trout in rivers using red worms and live shiners on a tight line drift as mentioned above. No bobbers (strike indicators) just using feel and watching my line.

I will say this: I learned to read moving water fishing that way and it's done nothing but help my fly fishing. I'm thankful for it.

My fondest memories of bait fishing would have be eel fishing a big river at night using slashed blue gills....that deserves it own forum though.

The most well-rounded fishermen that I know don't dedicate themselves to one type of fishing.

[Marty]

I started or should I say my grandfather started me with bait. Double rig of an egg (pre balls of fire) and a piece of worm on a cane fly rod with an auto reel. I remember his worm getter, it was two metal ski poles with leather handles that he hard wired with an extension cord. He would them stick the ends into the ground and out would come the worms. I don’t have a problem with anyone’s choice of angling but I am with Mike on the trash thing and I also think that looking down on bait fishing is more the perception of the bait fisherman. You will find that most fly fisher’s don’t have a problem with the other forms of angling but most of the guys that use the other forms of angling have a problem with fly fisher’s.

[SnakesOnAPlane]

Nightcrawler on a bobber fished on the Uinta lakes. Good times. If we didn't catch fish, we always had "Iron Man" or "Cracklin' Oat Bran" for breakfast. Did you ever notice how that bran stuff ran right through you when you were a kid? Ok, it's just me.

I liked going through the stages of bait to fly. It sure made reading Patrick McManus books all the more hilarious. Looking back, I started flyfishing right around puberty, so I thought it would be a good idea to mature in all ways, and elevated my status from bait fisherman to spin fisherman, then fly fisherman. I like flyfishing best. It's here to stay!

[Red.Fly]

As with nearly everybody else, I started life with bait. By age 8 I was highly proficient with crawlers and hoppers on a hook in a stream. Around the age of 12 I dare say I mastered bait fishing. As with other master baiters, I opted to explore the world around me by use of other methods. By the ripe age of 14 I had added several arrows to my quiver of tricks including the art of seduction using a fly. To this day, I much prefer using my flies to attract lunkers rather than the old standby of bait. I guess you could say I'm a player.

There's nothing wrong with people who opt to never advance beyond the point of being master baiters, they're just missing out on some serious fun.

[Lonnie]

Here is a scan of two really bad polaroids of my very first fishing trip ever to my uncle's pond in SC, circa 1971 or 1972. In the photos it's my dad, my sister and my cousin. Since that day, I've caught many fish out of that place...

[ute]

Wouldn't we all love to have Larry Dalhberg's job.

[cardiac]

So is there anyone here that didn't start off fishing bait?

Seriously, I started with M-80's
BTW Lonnie, in your pictures, the page boy hair cut of your's, really dates you.........

[FishOn!]

My dad has always been a bait fisherman along with his best friend from highschool. My dad's friend is a really good fisherman...I believe he used to fly fish a bit but his shoulder went bad and he was no longer able to cast all day. Anyway, when I was young my dad's friend took me down to the Provo River through town and pulled a cased caddis off the bottom of a rock. He then carefully opened the case and got the larva out and put it on a tiny hook and let me drift it along the current with a bobber. I hooked up with a little rainbow and I had never seen something so cool as using a tiny little bug to catch a fish. It was interesting that he had such a good knowledge of the river system while being primarily a bait/lure fisherman.

[kingsonthefly]

When i started to fish as a young lad my dad was the worm kinda guy so he tried to get me to join in all the fun of course! The only draw back was i was one of those kids that would go running back to the car at the first sight of a worm! (they still freak me out a bit nasty little things) so he decided that the only way that he was going to get mom to let him go fish was to put a lure on the end of my pole! Then years latter we went to yellowstone and his best freind talked us in to flyfishing up there and the rest is history except the thousands of dollars spent on this past time! It would have been a lot cheeper to just put a worm on!


Chris

[Larry S.]

I started by slinging gobs of dough balls at the carp on about 10 feet of line which we held in our hands on the boat pond at Liberty Park. By the time I was 8 or 9 I graduated to little pieces of baloney to blue gills on the stream that ran down behind the tilt-a-whirl and into Tracy Aviary. Caught my first rainbow at the pond at Fairmont Park. Might have been 11 or 12 by then.

[Jason]

Worms on City Creek Canyon, salmon eggs in Uintas, Panther Martins in Uintas, fly and bubble with a Renegage, trolling with spin gear with my float tube, .................

I think we've all evolved in some way or another until we found the light. :-)

[Tough]

As a youth, 60 Years ago, I would tag along with my dad and his cronies on the Logan and Blacksmith Fork rivers. They would fish flies, and I was allowed to dunk worms. My rig was a fly rod, sinkers clipped onto the leader, and a large worm on a bait hook. I have to say that I did learn alot about trout and their habits from those early days. If my dad wanted to fill a creel with good eating fish, we would travel up Logan canyon to the old forest service camp, where the Logan is small and shallow, and we would wade the stream, turning over rocks, and collecting "rock rollers" (cased caddis). They were kept in a wool sock, inside a burlap bag, under dripping water in the back yard.
They would keep for weeks, and when uncased, and loaded on a small bait hook, floated under a bobber, it was just a matter of a few casts.

Those were good old days. Now after having fished all types of ways and places, I find fly fishing stillwater from a pontoon boat is most enjoyable.

However, I have to admit, having a fish rise to a dry is always a big thrill.

Oh yea, I ate so many trout as a kid, (basic Cache Valley diet staple) that I haven't kept one for over 20 years.

[Lonnie]

As a youth, 60 Years ago, I would tag along with my dad and his cronies on the Logan and Blacksmith Fork rivers. They would fish flies, and I was allowed to dunk worms. My rig was a fly rod, sinkers clipped onto the leader, and a large worm on a bait hook. I have to say that I did learn alot about trout and their habits from those early days. If my dad wanted to fill a creel with good eating fish, we would travel up Logan canyon to the old forest service camp, where the Logan is small and shallow, and we would wade the stream, turning over rocks, and collecting "rock rollers" (cased caddis). They were kept in a wool sock, inside a burlap bag, under dripping water in the back yard.
They would keep for weeks, and when uncased, and loaded on a small bait hook, floated under a bobber, it was just a matter of a few casts.

Those were good old days. Now after having fished all types of ways and places, I find fly fishing stillwater from a pontoon boat is most enjoyable.

However, I have to admit, having a fish rise to a dry is always a big thrill.

Oh yea, I ate so many trout as a kid, (basic Cache Valley diet staple) that I haven't kept one for over 20 years.

That's one awesome post right there fellas!

[Larry S.]

As a youth, 60 Years ago, I would tag along with my dad and his cronies on the Logan and Blacksmith Fork rivers.

Oh yea, I ate so many trout as a kid, (basic Cache Valley diet staple) that I haven't kept one for over 20 years.

And that is why we keep telling all you south-enders there are no more fish up here!!! ;o)

Nice post.

[royalwulff]

As a youth, 60 Years ago, I would tag along with my dad and his cronies on the Logan and Blacksmith Fork rivers. They would fish flies, and I was allowed to dunk worms. My rig was a fly rod, sinkers clipped onto the leader, and a large worm on a bait hook. I have to say that I did learn alot about trout and their habits from those early days. If my dad wanted to fill a creel with good eating fish, we would travel up Logan canyon to the old forest service camp, where the Logan is small and shallow, and we would wade the stream, turning over rocks, and collecting "rock rollers" (cased caddis). They were kept in a wool sock, inside a burlap bag, under dripping water in the back yard.
They would keep for weeks, and when uncased, and loaded on a small bait hook, floated under a bobber, it was just a matter of a few casts.

Those were good old days. Now after having fished all types of ways and places, I find fly fishing stillwater from a pontoon boat is most enjoyable.

However, I have to admit, having a fish rise to a dry is always a big thrill.

Oh yea, I ate so many trout as a kid, (basic Cache Valley diet staple) that I haven't kept one for over 20 years.

Nice story. The great thing about logan is that things like this still exist for kids here. Oh, thats right Larry, those kids must be fishing the provo because there are no stinking fish in the Logan.

[rodrick]

First- That was a good book. 2nd. I started taking an inventory of all the fishing gear I have. When my father passed away I came into probably 3 or 400 lures from spoons to mostly rapalas and other plugs. Many nice 8 ft Berkley trolling rods, spinning rods etc. I went out and bought a 14 ft aluminum with an Evinrude 9 1/2 motor and I will probably use it 90% for fly fishing . But I am going to use some of this equipment. I know my wife will enjoy catching a wiper, tiger muskie- whatever trolling a plug for them rather than watching me using a fly rod.