I just walked through the back door and into our air conditioned sunroom. Today is the fourth day of a hot and muggy week, and it finally feels like summer outside. So it’s nice to be out of the early afternoon heat for a while. Last night I set the alarm to rise early and fish a full morning, but since the fishing was so good, I kept fishing until it was hot enough that I wished I was wet wading.
Not surprisingly, I had whatever section of water I wanted all to myself. While relocating twice, along the most popular stretch of one of the best wild trout waters in this state, I saw just one other guy out there. And I recognized him. He fishes all the time.
I’m sure the reason most fishermen stayed home today is because the weather report read, hot early and damn hot later. It was also a weekday morning — and that always keeps the crowds at bay. But last Sunday, during the peak of our Sulfur season (the prime hatch on my home stream) the creek was empty then too. Again, the weather was surely the reason: drizzling rain, kinda chilly, with the river up and off color.
The conditions of these two days aren’t exactly at the extremes, either. And yet, anything on the far side of each will keep many anglers away. It’s predictable, and I’ve seen it ever since we moved here. I drive along the popular section of my home stream most every day, often multiple times, on my way to whatever errand I’m chasing to the bottom of my to-do list. And on a stream where half of the cars may display out-of-state license plates, there may be no cars if everything isn’t just right (e.g.: hatches, weather, water, light conditions, etc.).
I have an old college buddy who fits into this mold. He won’t take the time to fish unless things are either perfect or damn close to it. I call him Goldilocks, and he hates me for it.
Last month, on a whim, I gave Goldilocks a call. He’s one of the few people left who still answers his phone, and he picked up within seconds.
“Hey. Want to fish tomorrow?” I asked quickly. I figured that rushing him into a decision was my best chance at the preferred result.
“Where? Up your way?” He asked.
“Yeah.”
“Didn’t you just get a pile of rain over the weekend?” He asked.
“Sure, but the creeks are coming down and the fishing has been fine,” I replied.
He paused and stammered for a moment. My fast pace was thrown off, and I already knew what was coming.
“Did the tan caddis start yet?” Goldilocks asked, skeptically. “I mean those morning ones — the number sixteens that the trout actually look up for.”
“No, not really,” I said honestly.
He paused again. And after a moment, I repeated my first question.
“Hey, do you want to fish tomorrow?”
My friend blurted out before I could finish the question . . .
“Hell no!” He yelled into the phone.
“I thought you might say that, Goldilocks,” I chuckled.
Photo by Bill Dell
To be fair, Goldilocks lives one-hundred and forty miles away, and it takes two-and-a-half hours to get here. Through the years, I suppose he’s saved a lot of time and gas money by choosing his moves wisely. Like most of us, he doesn’t get a lot of free days, so he tries to make the most of them. He’s a salesman who sort of makes his own hours, so he has the luxury of choosing when to fish.
At his best, this type of angler can really maximize those free days and turn them into something special. And Goldilocks seems to hit it right every time. He watches the weather and frontal systems like a sailor, compulsively checks USGS water flow gauges on his phone, follows every fly shop stream report in the tri-state area, and has regional hatch charts committed to memory. He also has a fishing log with picture albums full of successful trip reports, hitting big number and big fish on a pretty high percentage of his trips. It’s impressive.
But here’s the thing: Goldilocks is way better at this than most. He has a set of variables that matter to him, and somehow, they’re the right ones. He’s scientific about it, not emotional. And when the day is right, he gets on the river early and sticks with it. Often, I think he makes things happen, which is more of a factor for his success than the perfect conditions really are. The point is, he wants to fish.
On the other hand, it seems that some fly fishermen are constantly looking for reasons not to fish. Provide them with a logical reason to stay home, and they will — and they’ll feel good about it.
Most Goldilocks-type anglers are paralyzed by the data. They watch the weather and read the stream reports too — and they sit home too often, waiting for even the good days to be better ones. And after a few years of that, they’re out of the habit of fishing. As a result, more circumstances and variables enter the equation: the gear isn’t packed; the fly boxes aren’t stocked, and that leaky wading boot was never patched after the last trip.
Most Goldilocks anglers think they can predict what conditions are good, bad, better and best. But this is fishing — and the trout always have the final say about all that.
Over and over, I’m told that fly fishing is more popular than ever, that the creeks are overrun with anglers, and that things aren’t like they used to be. But I just don’t see it. Instead, as I drive that same stretch of popular water near my home, I see what I always have: on the sweetheart days, the Goldilocks angler is there. Any other time? This morning? Not so much.
Fish hard, friends.
Photo by Bill Dell
Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
My mentors told me to fish on the bad days because you learn a lot more. They said fish on the good days, but you learn much more in imperfect conditions.
Good call.
I’ll echo what Bruce has just said. My fishing mentor was actually my grandmother who told me to just fish; to hell with the weather. If you want to learn, you need to be on the water in all conditions. I learned to love being on the water simply for the sake of being there, regardless of what the fish did. That being said, I sometimes wish I had the discipline of a Goldilocks to be able to manage fishing information in such a way. I don’t.
I, too, have heard people say there are people fly fishing everywhere. I haven’t seen it. They’re certainly not up here. I live in far northern Maine, in the middle of the Fish River chain of lakes and streams, some of the best wild brook trout and salmon habitat left, and I will ALWAYS have whatever piece of water I find myself on to myself.
I stand there in the middle of the stream, catching big beautiful brookies, and it never fails to amaze me that I have the total solitude that I do. Set the science aside once in awhile and walk into a river, let it be your muse.
Nice
So great to read. I would love to be with you one day landing some of those brookies. I can find them around here in PA but they are on the very small and on the thin side. But, I still enjoy catching them once in awhile.
Bruce, …and I’ve never fished a limestone stream. Lol. I’ve made one Haj to the Catskills but Pennsylvania’s wonderful heritage waters are still an unchecked box on my list. One of my first book buys as a high school kid was Marinaro’s “In the Ring of the Rise.” In my teenage head it conjured up images of a less manicured version of the Test.
Cheers
If you fish on just the “good” days you’ll miss some much “better” days.
I LIKE THAT
I enjoyed your article, but with my fishing buddy (of over 60 years) when one of us calls the other to go fishing there is only one question…What time do you want me to be ready? This time can range anywhere from 3 AM onward, depending on the time of year. We are both avid fly fishermen but also fish for Black Bass. On trout steams and rivers if the wind precludes fly fishing we will spin fish #2 Mepps and Thomas Bouyants. During the long New England winters when you really can’t safely access a trout stream we will ice fish for perch, pickerel, pike and bass. While, like I said, fly fishing is preferred we feel that any fishing is better than no fishing and fish accordingly regardless of weather and time of year. As the old saying goes, “There is no bad time to go fishing, it’s just that some times are better than others.” 🙂
Right on.
Call me, I’ll go.
(Jeff Prough, formerly of Huntingdon, PA and now Stanardsville, VA with brookies a’plenty)
Nice
Any day on the stream is heaven on earth. Any day making an excuse to not be on the stream is hell. I figure most of my days are in the rear view mirror and I am not going to waste any of the few ahead making an excuse to not got fishing. Only excuse for not going fishing is Family!
I have been fishing 3 days a week from 4:00pm until dark.I am catching a ton of fish even in the heat.I almost never see anyone. Even on great sulfur hatch nights,nobody!Big change from a month or two ago.
Being retired,and fishing the cheapest thing you can do in Reno,im probably on the river 200 days a year. So I’ve seen it bone dry,and I’ve fished in the parking lot. And the results are untold numbers of 18″+ fish,tactics learned that would of never dreamed of,and a great appreciation for the bad days,cause those are the ones I’m alone