Is it all about the numbers???

[lhomme]

And we're off again...

 

[BobP]

Lechlade is £75 for a 'Full Day', 4 fish catch and kill ticket .Your 'Full Day' ends when fish number 4 has been caught and killed . . . unless you go and purchase another £75 ticket.

Speaks volumes about the descent of attitudes with regards to 'a day's fishing'.

What is unsaid is that all the fish weight between 4lb & upper double figures and a 4 fish limit will probably weight about 35lbs. That is £2 per lb and the owner isn't making any money out of that.
Rob tries to give the impression that the lake was dug specifically as a trout fishery. It wasn't. It was dug for gravel when the M4 was being built back in the 1960's.

 

[taffy1]

Of course it's all about the numbers.....the number of days you can get out fishing.

 

[eddleston123]

I like to catch numerous fish at my 5 acre fishery. If you want to do the same, here are a couple of tips --

Find out the day and time of the stocking truck , and follow it round until it stops and empties its load of stockies.

No need to wait until they settle, that's a myth. stick on a size 8 wooly bu@ger, yellow dancer or something of that kind, and fast strip through the newly stocked shoal. They will take readily. You also have a fair chance of foul hooking a couple before they disperse.

I have a false bottom to my bank bag were I can conceal a couple of additional fish, should the owner want to inspect.

When I have caught my limit (including a couple of concealed ones) I will continue to catch and kill, but just throw these additional corpses into the bushes behind me. This gives me a sense of having had 'value for money'

Now, just to complete the deception, when you arrive back at the fishing lodge, you can talk
eloquently about how things were hard going, but through your skill and expertise managed a couple on a size 20 nymph. This will gain you a lot of respect and will divert any suspicion.

Now, the above scenarios are, off course, exaggerated, but believe me, there is more than a grain of truth in most of these statements.


Douglas

 

[codyarrow]

So what your saying is show them how easy it is wait for the stock truck and fish every cast and when it gets hard they give up.The opposite can also be true,show them how fishing really is,where you need to think and use skills to catch and not become one of the bung and chuck brigade.

No wonder fishing has changed and the antis are about when they view some of the mishandling by so called anglers.

You've missed the point. I am not in favour of creating hierarchy pyramids about the fishing promised land. Let everyone take their own journey without the sideways glances of contempt.

 

[andygrey]

I had a day on a Cotswold river with a friend a few years ago when it was literally fish a cast. The fish were so hard on the feed that the only restriction on how many you could catch was how quickly you could get them to the net and release them.
It was a bizarre and strangely unrewarding fishing trip... just too easy and with the sense of surprise and joy when a fish took your fly removed almost completely after the first few fish came in in short order. It just didn't really feel like 'fishing'.

 

[micka]

I had a day on a Cotswold river with a friend a few years ago when it was literally fish a cast. The fish were so hard on the feed that the only restriction on how many you could catch was how quickly you could get them to the net and release them.
It was a bizarre and strangely unrewarding fishing trip... just too easy and with the sense of surprise and joy when a fish took your fly removed almost completely after the first few fish came in in short order. It just didn't really feel like 'fishing'.

You need the tough days for two reasons:

a) to really appreciate the more productive days

and

b) to get you to think hard about tactics but without beating yourself up - even the experts struggle at times when 'conditions' are simply against you.

In the days when the seas were full of mackerel, feathering became just what you said - especially when fishing for these miniature tuna on ultra light spinning or fly gear gives you such wonderful sport. Pound for pound is there any better sporting fish in this context? Fishing off Llandulas I have had mackerel running literally between my legs just a few yards offshore one hot May day when they were obsessed with chasing whitebait. These were joeys (as sadly is so often the case nowadays) but the bass (in this Darwinistic food chain) were not far behind with their spines on full display. So when its sunny and low on the rivers and you're feeling frustrated seek out the salt young Whittington!

Mick

 

[Bongoch]

It's not all about numbers for me but I have to be honest and say the gap between one and zero is enormous! To a certain extent it depends on conditions, if everyone around me was catching and I wasn't I most likely wouldn't be happy. On the flip side if conditions are tough and nobody's catching then a nil return probably wouldn't bother me at all. On the small brooks I fish there's so many small fish that it's sometimes difficult to catch nothing unless the brooks over the bank in which case I probably wouldn't be on the water anyway.

 

[morayflyfisher]

Let everyone take their own journey without the sideways glances of contempt.

But if we are teaching them its easy by starting on stockies we are not letting them take their own journey.Your showing them this is how easy it is and when they dont catch is when the rest of what I said comes in.
The only contempt i have is towards those who,like Douglas mentioned and those who dont respect their quarry of which are growing in numbers.

 

[raphael]

Not all about number, no.
Sometimes it can be (trout frenzy on ants or may flies...), sometimes it does not make sense (salmon fishing). You may enjoy the challenges you're making just for yourself (that fish, and just that one with this technique), you may enjoy simple things (just give it a go, just to see what's going on for a couple of hours).
It is also about finding relaxation and self control.
It is also enjoying stop fishing just to stare at the otter on the other side, or crawling on the grass juts for spying that trout nymphing 50cm from the bank, taking time to observe insects and birds, etc...

R

 

[codyarrow]

But if we are teaching them its easy by starting on stockies we are not letting them take their own journey.Your showing them this is how easy it is and when they dont catch is when the rest of what I said comes in.
The only contempt i have is towards those who,like Douglas mentioned and those who dont respect their quarry of which are growing in numbers.

Well I still think a quick catch is good for an absolute beginner and then you can move on.

As regards to Douglas's point I used to see people like that (taking out the exaggeration) 40 years ago, so nothing has changed. Even in that mind set though a few will come through, and as long as they do not break the fishery rules so the owner makes a profit they are in their way supporting the old guy at the other end of the pond with his size 22 black gnat.

 

[codyarrow]

, sometimes it does not make sense (salmon fishing).

Thanks. Just filling the flask and then I am off.

 

[morayflyfisher]

Well I still think a quick catch is good for an absolute beginner and then you can move on.

As regards to Douglas's point I used to see people like that (taking out the exaggeration) 40 years ago, so nothing has changed. Even in that mind set though a few will come through, and as long as they do not break the fishery rules so the owner makes a profit they are in their way supporting the old guy at the other end of the pond with his size 22 black gnat.

Being an owner and making a profit these days isnt easy,but its also about looking after your stock as you would a cow or sheep.Sooner anglers realise this it would help and those who call it a sport ,should take what that entails,its about skill,patience and learning not,being easy and numbers game.Remember the old saying,1 fish is a bonus.

 

[atr]

Every time I go fishing I enjoy myself. If I catch 1 it's a great day fishing. If I don't catch any, it's a great day fishing.

 

[BobP]

Back when I was competition fishing we always used to say that the two most difficult fish to catch were the first one to get you going and the last one to complete the limit. That was in the days when a limit of 8 would guarantee a place in the next round irrespective of when in the day it was caught. In fact, often enough 5 or 6 fish would be enough. No double figure scores and hours of time bonus then.

Human nature being what it is, the numbers thing has always played its part as has exaggerating the size of the fish caught and the size/pattern of fly that was used to catch it.

Pointless really, because the only person fooled for the most part is the person making the claim.

 

[sewinbasher]

I'm relatively new to fishing so my opinion may not be worth much in the grand scheme of things, but here goes anyway.

I first picked up a fly rod maybe 15 years ago but due to other hobbies and commitments it only lasted for 6 months then it was put in the attic. When the first lockdown came last year I decided I would start fishing my local which is literally 5 minutes from my front door, so most weekends since then I have been out on the lake enjoying myself.

Now here is where I feel I may be missing the point.

When speaking to other anglers or reading about fishing it all seems to be about the numbers rather than the enjoyment. Infact I'd go as far as to say that for many the enjoyment seems to be based on the numbers.

I'm on quite a few fishing forums and groups and I hear that quite a lot. Folk saying that the fishery isn't great or it wasn't a good day because they were catching under 10 fish. So what they are saying is the amount of fish that one catches is the deciding factor on whether it is a good fishery/day and this in turn decides whether that person had a good day out.

A good example of this happened to me this week. I had been out fishing and later that evening I was talking to a mate and he asked me how I got on at my local. "Great, I had a very good day" I replied and explained about battling the crazy wind, catching a fin perfect brownie, a few fights with some tough fighting blues, a decent amount of rainbows and meeting another angler for the first time who I got on with really well. But the best part of the day was two dear walking down to the edge of the water for a drink literally no more than 10 metres from me completely at ease with me being there. They spent a good 5 minutes drinking and watching me then wandered off. That is not something I have seen before and can't imagine I will ever again.

On hearing this his reply was, "yeah yeah but how many did you catch?"

That got me thinking. Don't get me wrong, I would rather catch fish than blank, but am I bothered if it is 5 or 35...no not at all. Does it have to be an overfed mammoth slab of a fish...no. As long as I am enjoying my day out I honestly do not think that the numbers really matter. However, I also understand that we are all different and require different things in life. I actually fished pretty decent for me and made some good decisions which by the end of the day meant I caught the most on the lake. But to me the numbers were irrelevant. I had a great day and can honestly say that the numbers were just an added bonus. Having a day off work, getting outdoors, coming face to face with nature, meeting new people and chucking some flies out made a fantastic day for me.

So I guess all I am saying is perhaps if you are relatively new to fishing and are disheartened that you are catching single numbers while the person to the side of you has caught 30, there is no need to be. Ask yourself what you have enjoyed about the day and take that home with you.

The alternative is that you could be working or doing chores around the house. I know what I would rather be doing.

To be fair your point of view reflects a more mature attitude than some of your companions. One's fishing career often progresses along a fairly common path. First catching a fish is important, then numbers become the measure of a day with the achievement of a limit being the goal, then it's often about big fish, then difficult fish become the most rewarding and then many abandon stocked fisheries in favour of wild fish and then it's often back to any fish to top the sheer joy of just being out.

 

[JoeOh]

I actually do have a number in mind. Two. First fish, I've not blanked. Second fish indicates I must be doing something right and not just luck. As all C& R for me these days, often call it a day after two, but I do blank quite often.

 

[green man]

...I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that our approaches and preferences may change with regards to our fishing but we are still anglers and we have more in common than not.

I think the thing we have most in common, is not so much the fishing, but a need to find something (of our own) beyond the humdrum existence that the world tries to pigeonhole us into.
.

 

[Bongoch]

This thread reminds me of the fable of an old man who dies and wakes up next to a river. Being an angler he gets up and notices a fish rising in the pool just upstream. 'Lovely' he says to himself, 'if only I had a rod and line!'. Lo and behold he finds a rod next to him already strung up with a dry. Picking it up he walks stealthily upstream and then casts to the fish which has just risen again. The dry drifts downstream and is taken. After a short fight a 3lb wild brown is landed. 'Beautiful!' the old man says, 'I must be in heaven!'. He then notices another fish rising in the same spot, again the fish takes first time and an identical 3lb is landed. This process of spotting a fish rising in the same spot and it taking first time is repeated over and over, only then does the old man realise he's not in heaven......

 

[Craig808]

This thread reminds me of the fable of an old man who dies and wakes up next to a river. Being an angler he gets up and notices a fish rising in the pool just upstream. 'Lovely' he says to himself, 'if only I had a rod and line!'. Lo and behold he finds a rod next to him already strung up with a dry. Picking it up he walks stealthily upstream and then casts to the fish which has just risen again. The dry drifts downstream and is taken. After a short fight a 3lb wild brown is landed. 'Beautiful!' the old man says, 'I must be in heaven!'. He then notices another fish rising in the same spot, again the fish takes first time and an identical 3lb is landed. This process of spotting a fish rising in the same spot and it taking first time is repeated over and over, only then does the old man realise he's not in heaven......

I like that