Why do we fish?

[Duriensbane]

Therapy. My father drank himself to death, but always talked about how he wanted to go to streams with a fly rod and belly crawl up to them to find fish. I bought him a set up, rod, reel, line, waders and it sat, still in the package for years. After he passed, I just told myself, Im going to do it, im going to learn and im going to all these creeks that have fish in them. So, I did. June of 2023, i went to a creek with a rod after a few youtube videos and after 2 trips, i caught my first trout (image below).Did learn a few things since then as this little guy was caught on a 7wt rod with 7x tippet. Since then i took a deep dive into it, bought more gear then im willing to admit to, and i go out as often as time allows. Im currently on the chase for my first wild 20+ but since I have taken a keen liking to nymphing, size is less of a concern till i get better with a streamer.

 

[brookiefan]

To The Sasquatch, I think you"re doing fine. A well known outdoor writer once said, " If you're not a curmudgon by the time you're 50, you're either simple, or you haven't been paying attention".

 

[Oregon_OwlII]

Like alongside an old steel mill? 🙂

or a crayon factory?

 

[DomR]

To quote Robert Traver “Because in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing what they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion.”

Fishing is something I did with my family since I was a 6 year old, many of them are no longer here but fishing still brings me to them, I carry them a stream with me every time I’m out.

I also fish cause it one of the activities g the hat brings me clarity. My thoughts are my own there. It becomes therapeutic, a medicine for my soul.

Plus it’s damn fun to me and I like catching fish.

 

[wgmiller]

It's as simple as following one of our most innate human instincts, which is to explore and see what's out there. Seeing new water, a new town, a new area, what size/type of fish are in the water, etc., etc. are all a part of that exploration. Even if one is fishing familiar water, unless they have fished it ad nauseam, it still offers up surprises and unknowns. That's one of the biggest reasons I fish - because I don't have all the answers and I never will. Each cast made and fish landed gives me another piece of the puzzle that I'll never be able to complete. And that's what makes it fun and keeps me coming back for more.

 

[Cessicah]

Man, I hear ya. For me, it's the peace and quiet. Getting away from the noise is huge. Plus, there's something about the challenge, the hunt, you know? It's a good way to clear my head.

 

[Zipper]

To boldly go where no one's gone before.

 

[salmo]

I have a hard time saying exactly why I like it so much. It seems like a never ending learning experience I guess. Mostly it is just plain fun. I caught my first trout on a Royal Coachman wet fly from some variety pack of flies I bought at a discount store. I was using my super heavy duty South Bend fly rod with a piece of heavy mono knotted to the fly line. Remember feeding out line beacause I had no idea how to cast. I just got fly out there and twitched it back and it worked. I was 15 and had no one to teach me. I have been hooked ever since.

My first trout on a fly was a stocker beat up brown on a coachman wet on the Francis Branch about 50 years ago on an Eagle Claw fiberglass spin/fly 5 wt rod. Magic.

 

[wildtrout2]

My first trout on a fly was a stocker beat up brown on a coachman wet on the Francis Branch about 50 years ago on an Eagle Claw fiberglass spin/fly 5 wt rod. Magic.

I remember my first trout on a fly as well. It was also about 50 years ago, on Mill Creek. A stocker brown, on a muskrat nymph that I just plopped right in front of him. I guess he just got tired of looking at it. 🙂

 

[jifigz]

Guys, I gotta tell ya, I'm getting the itch to fish. Methinks I'll share an adventure with you all here soon.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

got my plans for Friday. Looks like it will be warm enough (>34) for my Jan 1 tradition too

 

[Mikey2006]

I left room for that by saying "not so much".

I left room for that too, by saying "most". 😉
One of my best wild browns was caught in a very mediocre place.

Also, Elkhorn Creek in West Virginia, which is a crap hole (literally), has some excellent wild trout fishing! Both browns and rainbows.

Southern West Virginia in general is insane in terms of the size of the brown trout people catch. I’m 99% sure that’s where a lot of the creeks the guy behind the Hardman Fishing Adventures YouTube channel fishes, and in his videos he catches some of the biggest wild browns I’ve ever seen. If only that area wasn’t so far away, kinda hard to drive over 10 hours round trip unless you know exactly where he’s fishing at, and I haven’t quite figured that out yet

 

[salmo]

Southern West Virginia in general is insane in terms of the size of the brown trout people catch. I’m 99% sure that’s where a lot of the creeks the guy behind the Hardman Fishing Adventures YouTube channel fishes, and in his videos he catches some of the biggest wild browns I’ve ever seen. If only that area wasn’t so far away, kinda hard to drive over 10 hours round trip unless you know exactly where he’s fishing at, and I haven’t quite figured that out yet

It’s a shame that YouTube takes off all of the geolocation data from their posts

 

[Mikey2006]

It’s a shame that YouTube takes off all of the geolocation data from their posts

I haven’t gone that far when looking for spots lol. I just look for noticeable features and then bounce around on google maps street view in the general area. Found a lot of good spots that way, but HFA usually blurs out or just doesn’t show the recognizable things along the stream, which makes it difficult to recognize unless you have already been there. And good for him, if I was posting videos fishing on creeks that good I would do the same exact thing, I guarantee after dropping the name of a stream to 100,000 people who just watched 5 fish bigger than their PB get caught in one day, the fishery would be overrun with other fisherman and poachers pretty quickly

 

[Swattie87]

HFA is pretty good at hiding locations, and I don’t know WV as good as PA, but some of his can be figured out with enough effort. He’s all over the place in WV.

 

[Mikey2006]

HFA is pretty good at hiding locations, and I don’t know WV as good as PA, but some of his can be figured out with enough effort. He’s all over the place in WV.

I know for a fact some of them could easily be found with enough time, I just haven’t gotten THAT desperate. Yet.

 

[wildtrout2]

HFA is pretty good at hiding locations, and I don’t know WV as good as PA, but some of his can be figured out with enough effort. He’s all over the place in WV.

I have noticed a common theme in some of HFA brown trout videos. He's often very close to a road and or RR tracks. The Elkhorn in McDowell County WV, is almost 24 miles long, and apparently per YT videos, there are roads along a lot of it's length. I think at least some of his videos are on various sections of that creek.

For as much trash as you see in the Elkhorn, and the fecal matter that's literally flushed into that stream, I find it amazing the quality/size of the trout in that creek.
Supposedly, back in the early 70's, there was a trout stocking truck that broke down very near that creek. Since it wouldn't be able to get to it's original destination, it was decided to empty it's contents into the Elkhorn. Hence it's wild population of both browns and rainbows. A very interesting story.

 

[Swattie87]

I have noticed a common theme in some of HFA brown trout videos. He's often very close to a road and or RR tracks. The Elkhorn in McDowell County WV, is almost 24 miles long, and apparently per YT videos, there are roads along a lot of it's length. I think at least some of his videos are on various sections of that creek.

For as much trash as you see in the Elkhorn, and the fecal matter that's literally flushed into that stream, I find it amazing the quality/size of the trout in that creek.
Supposedly, back in the early 70's, there was a trout stocking truck that broke down very near that creek. Since it wouldn't be able to get to it's original destination, it was decided to empty it's contents into the Elkhorn. Hence it's wild population of both browns and rainbows. A very interesting story.

I wouldn’t say any of that is wrong.

 

[Mikey2006]

I have noticed a common theme in some of HFA brown trout videos. He's often very close to a road and or RR tracks. The Elkhorn in McDowell County WV, is almost 24 miles long, and apparently per YT videos, there are roads along a lot of it's length. I think at least some of his videos are on various sections of that creek.

For as much trash as you see in the Elkhorn, and the fecal matter that's literally flushed into that stream, I find it amazing the quality/size of the trout in that creek.
Supposedly, back in the early 70's, there was a trout stocking truck that broke down very near that creek. Since it wouldn't be able to get to it's original destination, it was decided to empty it's contents into the Elkhorn. Hence it's wild population of both browns and rainbows. A very interesting story.

If you look at some of his older videos, he fishes a stream through the middle of a town. walls on one side, sometimes both sides of the creek. It looks a lot like what elkhorn looks like. He probably fishes it in some of his videos, although I find it hard to believe that some of those REALLY huge ones are from water that is well known, and if other people are catching them too, they must be keeping silent. In some of his vids you can even hear/see trains going by, and he elkhorn has railroad tracks that run along it. I would make the drive and fish it, but if it ends up being a bust I don’t have any other streams in the area to fish so I haven’t done so yet

 

[wildtrout2]

If you look at some of his older videos, he fishes a stream through the middle of a town. walls on one side, sometimes both sides of the creek. It looks a lot like what elkhorn looks like. He probably fishes it in some of his videos, although I find it hard to believe that some of those REALLY huge ones are from water that is well known, and if other people are catching them too...

Wooly Bugged has at least one video on fishing the Elkhorn. There are RR tracks that parallel at least a portion of it's length, with multiple very old steel truss bridges as a clue as to what section he's fishing.

As far as the BIG browns in some of the HFA videos, I think it might be possible, due to it's length (24 miles), that Jonathan is fishing more out of the way sections of the EH? Just a guess.

I know there would be a lot involved in getting there and fishing the EH, basically because it can't be a one day trip from Pa, and lodging might be a problem, but I'd love to somehow experience fishing that creek, given the history of it's trout population.