Why they do it and what they miss.

Received an e mail the other day from Devon at "The Tactical Fly Fisher" and as I was reading it I became pissed about the content. A blog from a young kid that is into competitive fly fishing and all about his exploits in Central PA- of course it was The Little "J" and Spring Creek, talking about numbers of fish caught and how he did in the three day event, well what the hell are they doing to our resource in the mean time. Do any of these nuts ever take time to listen to the birds or even notice when an animal comes down to the water as they are fishing- no I bet not. How the hell does this prepare them for life, does an employer give a shit if this kid wins any thing while fishing, I bet the HR person is really impressed about how he traveled from NJ to PA and fished for three days and came in second- that is some great skill sets to bring to the work force. I have been in the parking lot at McCoy's dam when these idiots show up and watched them rush to get their spots and begin to fish all the while never bothering to ask if anyone there wanted to fish any specific water, it is all about them. I have seen the strips of bright plastic they put on trees or stream side vegetation just to show their "beats", have also seen them forget to take them down after the end of their competition, what a bunch of crap. I guess it might be because I am old but what the hell does this bring to our overall enjoyment of being outdoors. I love the idea of fishing with someone and doing it the as a partner, taking turns either catching a fish or missing (screwing ) one up then  your partner gets his or her turn, this really brings enjoyment to the entire day all the while giving both of you great lessons learned form the experience. I have little enjoyment in just going fishing with someone and then never seeing them until you have the urge to leave and then having to go find them, what shared experience did you have that day, maybe someone to talk to going to or going home, big deal that is what a radio is for! Maybe listening to them lie about how many they caught and knowing they are not telling the truth, same shit just a different day.
  If you ever see these nuts setting up for a competition get back in your car and drive as far away as you can and do not return for a while, as much as I hate this shit I will tell you these guys can fish and catch a shit load of fish, I guess that is what pisses me off the most, they are much better than I am at this age and they can wade a lot better also!

They are on!

Just returned from a Trico fishing adventure and they are on, maybe not really good but the fish were up- 30+ fish rising in sight and boy do they fight when hooked. Used a #20 double winged spinner a #24 male spinner and a #22 olive dun and all took fish maybe not on the 1st. float but they ate if it was a good drift. It was a mixture of nice rainbows and browns, the brown boys had big shoulders and fought like dogs. I used Trout Hunter 6.5x tippet and had no trouble fooling any fish that came to look and take but there were some that just did not like the first float and refused to come look again. About 10:15 the spinner fall petered out and of course the "tan caddis" come on not strong but good enough to bring some fish up, so a #16 bubble back tan caddis was tied on and brought results till I lost a hell of a good fish- my double surgens knot just shit the bed! Took 4 more and then called it a day when the plastic hatch started to happen. I will go now about every 3 days on various locations till the fish get picky then I'll wait and beetle the heck out of them!
  Go if you can.