9/11/1998
Brendan,
In Britain, on many trout streams, the rules specify that one must fish with dry flies only, casting upstream only, to rising fish only. To fish by any other means is considered by some to be uncivilized, even barbaric. To most American fishermen, such rules seem pretty ridiculous, made up by purists with too much time on their hands.
Trolling flies behind a moving boat is a time-honored method of fishing with a fly rod in New England, especially for lake trout and landlocked salmon. It escapes me why trolling flies in the salt should be considered any more reprehensible.
Just as generosity has more to do with the size of one's heart than the size of one's purse, so sportsmanship has more to do with one's attitude toward the fish than with the method of rigging the hook and line.
Like you, I gain maximum satisfaction from the sport by tying my own flies, trying to master the challenge of casting them in adverse conditions, learning to double-haul into a stiff breeze, read the water, mend the line in currents, etc. But I certainly don't feel that choosing to fish this way somehow makes me a more worthy angler than someone who chooses to troll, whether with flies or Kastmasters or anything else. Some people like to sit on bait. (Some people like Michael Bolton, too.) More power to them. This is supposed to be fun, remember? The fish doesn't know whether the fly is trolled or stripped.
Granted, running a boat through a school of breaking fish is just plain dumb, because it's likely to make them sound and scatter. My tendency is to head elsewhere in scenes like this, because I don't like crowds of fishermen any more than the fish do. It's a big ocean.
I see little point in being a purist. I know a man who claims the Clouser Minnow is unsporting, because the weighted eyes make it not a fly, but a jig. Whatever. If the fish will hit Clousers today, that's what I'll be double-hauling in their direction.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll troll away from this crowd. It's a good way to cover a lot of water and find a school of breaking fish I can cast to.
Keep those lines in the water.
Bill Bowers