Podcast: A Fly Fishing Life, and Doing the Hard Things — S3-Ep9

by | May 22, 2022 | 5 comments

 The Troutbitten Podcast is available everywhere that you listen to your podcasts.

** Note **  The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below.

Living a fly fishing life, being Troutbitten, is something that you can’t shake off. Your mind always churns over something tactical, like  a fresh spin on an old streamer retrieve. Or maybe you’re daydreaming about the upstream reaches above the water that you chose last weekend — fishing past dusk before walking out, a mile and a half, under the stars, by yourself, full of the satisfaction that good exploration brings. And you know there’s more to find — still miles of river toward those headwaters. So the questions and that allure of discovery taps you on the shoulder all week long, reminding you of what’s to come.

The next fishing trip is something to look forward to. And that’s the secret to happiness — always something to look forward to. Something to work on. Something to improve. Something to achieve.

These are life goals. And fly fishing for trout, like so many other great pursuits, gives our life a purpose, just by giving us the next thing to look forward to and the next thing to work on.

This is why we choose a fly fishing life. This is Troutbitten. And I’d guess that most of our listeners want the same.

But here’s the thing: There’s a difference between wanting it and working for it.

I think everyone imagines themselves deep into the middle of a sweetheart spot, with no one else around, casting and fishing for big wild trout that are eating our flies and coming to hand. Maybe it’s the rising trout at dusk, or a frenzied streamer bite in the morning as you cover water quickly. Whatever your favorite scenario, these are the idealized moments we imagine when we think of a fly fishing life. And, of course, those moments are there for us. We get a lot of them.

And yet, the amount of effort it requires to get there, the preparation, the planning, the failure and frustration requires hard work to get through all of it, and on to those best moments.

Doing the hard things. That’s what this podcast is about.

What are those hard things? How do we enjoy them? And what kinds of things are overlooked but seem to make all the difference?

We Cover the Following
  • Listener question about quantifying improvement in our game
  • Getting up early
  • Refining the casting stroke
  • Perfecting our rigging
  • Efficiency
  • Research of tactics and locations
  • Gear purchase and maintenance
  • Tying and testing flies
  • . . . and more

 

Listen with the player above, or . . .

Find the Troutbitten podcast on any of these services:

— Apple Podcasts
— Spotify
— Google Podcasts
— Amazon Music
. . . and everywhere else where you listen to podcasts.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Al the Things
READ: Troutbitten | What to Trust 
READ: Troutbitten | How to Stay in the Fly Fishing Game for a Lifetime

 

You can find the dedicated Troutbitten Podcast page at . . .

podcast.troutbitten.com

 

Season Three of the Troutbitten podcast continues with Episode 10: Learning a New River.  So look for that one in your Troutbitten podcast feed.

Fish hard, friends.

 

** Donate ** If you enjoy this podcast, please consider a donation. Your support is what keeps this Troutbitten project funded. Scroll below to find the Donate Button. And thank you.

 

Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com

 

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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5 Comments

  1. Thanks guys! I appreciate you addressing my question. Dom would it be okay for me to email you and ask you a few follow ups?

    Reply
      • You are the best! I will send something your way in the next day or two.

        Thanks!

        Reply
  2. I made my spread sheet then drove 1.5 hours to my favorite stream Sunday. After 9 hours of fishing my results were so bad that I was actually embarrassed when entering the data. Haha. Wtf. I wasn’t expecting that. A blistering catch rate of .2222 fish/hr.

    Reply

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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