Which Kind of Skunking is Worst?

[lestrout]

There have been many ways I've been skunked. But which flavor is the worst? Being totally skunked, with nary a sign of a fish; or where they are in a prolonged feeding frenzy, but not at all interested in your flies? How about hanging a few but not getting them in hand? Does it matter if losing them is due to line breakages versus just jumping off? Or if they hang you up in snags?

Thoughts are welcomed.

 

[a23fish]

Being skunked when you know fish are there is worse. If you haven't seen fish, you can always wrote that off to simply being in the wrong spot at the wrong time or other environmental factors.

Knowing fish are there means the reason you're skunked is you.

 

[csoult]

I personally think it’s worse when you don’t even see a fish and the water seems devoid of life.

 

[dryflyguy]

I'll take the feeding frenzy.
Because at least I found what I wanted - hungry fish.

If I just wasn't up to the challenge that day - for whatever reason - I can live with it.
And it will really get my mind working to try to figure out what went wrong. And what I can do about it.

That's part of the beauty of this sport to me.
No matter how long we've been at it, and perhaps think we finally got it all figured out - we can still get humbled.

And keep us appreciative of the days when everything does go right

 

[Bamboozle]

Fishing all day and seeing nothing when I know there is something and catching nothing does not bother me that much as long as other factors like the weather & scenery are favorable.

Seeing & hooking fish but losing them before I bring them to hand hardly bothers me at all.

Seeing fish actively feeding, THINKING I have the right imitation and not being able to do squat or maybe catching one fish when I expected 20 drives me nuts no matter how bloody nice the damn weather is or what the #&*!@$*! scenery looks like!!! ;-)

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Losing good fish with pulled hooks or they just get off some how? The worst is the long lasting skunk. One that never ends or seems that way. Standing on one side of the boat going fishless while the other side, not 6 ft away slays them. GG

 

[Biggie]

The worst skunking I took was on Penns. I fished a run(about a 50 yd long) for about 2 hours. Didn't get one hit. I started to walk downstream when this guy moves in on the other side of the creek. He caught 6 in about 30 min....BTW the day before I caught 8 in that same run.

 

[TwoDogs]

Different types of skunking:

Bad - Not so much as a tap all day

Worse - Seeing everyone else but me hooking up consistently

Worst - See above plus having my waders leak!

 

[Swattie87]

For me the worst is when I misjudge the given conditions and think I’m driving a couple hours to fish in primo conditions only to arrive and find I’ve calculated things wrong and the stream is either far lower/clearer or far higher/muddier than what I thought.

For bigger streams with streamflow gauges on them this is easier, but I like to fish small streams a lot and for those you have to make some educated guesses, and I’ve swung and missed plenty of times. It’s a bummer making a 2+ hour drive thinking you’ll be pulling in to dialed in conditions only to find the stream looking far different than what you anticipated. For me, the most valuable fishing asset is my relatively limited time. I hate wasting a weekend day on a stream in poor conditions when there likely were better options elsewhere.

 

[pcray1231]

A skunking with no chance. Whether it seems devoid of fish, or there's a few in the frog water that scoot at 100 yards. Anytime you are casting because, well, you're here, but you feel like theres zero hope nomatter what you do. That's the worst.

If missing and losing fish, or they're feeding and not to you're fly. It's frustrating. But frustrating is fun. You're in the game. You got something to do better or figure out. You are changing things, trying to get it right and you go home more determined instead of dejected. That kind of skunking is actually good.

 

[laszlo]

my worst skunking was 1. losing my net, 2. breaking my rod. and 3. not catching a single fish. This was all on the Letort however.