Why Only Trout ???

[Fredrick]

Besides it's what you enjoy, why only fly fish for trout? There is a whole big world out there with fishes that would like to eat your fly. Is it convenience, the lack of just not wanting to try something new? Is it snobbery do you feel like you are an elite or at a higher class because you fly fish for trout? The challenge? Me personally I find challenge in other species. SO why only trout?

 

[CLSports]

I think this has been answered many times before; Trout live in beautiful places.

I do fish for many other species like bass, musky, carp, saltwater fishes, etc.

I would not travel too far to fish for most of them, but trout I do seem to link the beautiful destination trips with trout or saltwater species.

 

[goose54cdd]

Trout are my first priority, but I sure love catching smallmouth on a fly. The low, clear and warm trout water in PA sends me to the smallmouth water.

 

[dryflyguy]

For one, I just think that trout are beautiful.
And with no scales or sharp fins - easier to handle IMO.

Living in Pittsburgh, WW fish would be a lot more convenient.
I have to drive several hours for quality trout fishing

No snobbery involved either.
I have no problem with people who enjoy fishing WW fishing.

As for trying something new - before I got into FFing, I used to spin fish a lot for WW.
Many trips to Canada for pike and walleye with a buddy who had a boat
It got old.
Fishing dry flies to rising trout is just so much more interesting to me.

I still remember something that my old fly tying instructor told our class - when a trout takes a dry fly, your heart goes in your throat.
And 40 years later, its still true for me


Bottom line - I'm just doing what I like to do
And you do what you want to do.
Peace,,,,,

 

[bdhoover77]

The most fun I had this year was catching pre-spawn smallmouth on the fly. Granted, I didn’t get to do a whole lot of fishing this year. But it’s fun throwing bigger streamers and experiencing the aggressive takes of SMB. I would target other species too, but I don’t have a kayak.

I wanted to try finding some carp this year, but it just didn’t happen for me. Maybe next year.

 

[HoboWithAFlyRod]

Some other fish just trigger a disgust reflex in me that I can’t help. Bluegill and smallies can be a lot of fun but carp and catfish just creep me out and I don’t even want to touch them. I thank God there aren’t gar swimming around my legs when I’m wading.

 

[dudemanspecial]

I prefer trout fishing over anything for many reasons, but not at the expense of fishing for other species. I actually bass fish with a fly rod more than I do trout fish, but thats due to my closer proximity to bass water.

If I had to describe why I prefer trout fishing.....I enjoy the subtlety of it.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

I know of no other sport where a creature with a brain smaller than a pencil eraser will leave you so frustrated that you say your Sunday School lesson backwards, GG

 

[dc410]

I like catching trout, I like catching smallmouth bass and I also like catching carp. Aesthetically, the trout and the places they reside are certainly at the top of the list.

But for the challenge of hooking up with and having a full blown out battle with a 15 lb. carp on the flyrod with your reel screaming is an absolute blast! I may be armpit deep in a thick patch of burn hazel in a meadow full of cowpies surrounded by electric fences but I’ll have a smile on my face. That adrenaline rush that never fails on the hook up keeps me coming back to carp on the fly year after year!

 

[tjsingle]

Personally I enjoy fly fishing over conventional for ANY species. Usually I'll get a saltwater trip in once or twice a year, I'll fish SMB all summer, and take my jon boat out on local lakes looking for LMB and panfish in addition to the trout fishing I do year-round.

But there is something about trout fishing that fishing for WW species doesn't do for me. I think its where they reside, and the technicality of it. It's also what you want it to be, you can fish dry, wet, nymph, or streamer where as bass for example its really poppers (sometimes) or streamers.

While bass on the fly for example is a lot of fun, it gets boring after a while. Often times when floating for SMB, its streamer fishing all day long, maybe some poppers or whiteflies as well.

I always look forward to the end of summer and the return of trout fishing on the majority of the water in PA.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I know of no other sport where a creature with a brain smaller than a pencil eraser will leave you so frustrated that you say your Sunday School lesson backwards, GG

Maybe a spring gobbler that gobbles his brains out but inexplicably gives you the slip! Their brains aren't much bigger!

 

[Bamboozle]

When I was a kid, trout fishing was considered a natural evolution of an angler, something to be aspired to with fly fishing being the pinnacle. Sort of like graduating from a penny whistle to a clarinet.

After I got over that notion and my self imposed snobbery, I went back to fishing for anything with any tackle... 😉

In my world, fishing for largemouth bass with casting tackle or smallmouth with a spinning rod; or for sunfish with bait & bobber put as equally a big smile on my face as wading a trout stream with a fly rod...

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

I'm not an only-trouter. I'll happily (edited) reel in anything that takes my fly... while fishing for trout.

 

[rrt]

I like posts 4 (though I never made the ww trips) and 11 (gobblers beat me all the time, and I refuse to resort to using baits [aka food plots], blinds, and decoys to kill them. Like trout, turkeys should be taken by honorable means -- and this is not a slam at non-fly-fishermen.).

Anyhow, I like to fish for trout. I don't want to start a brouhaha with this, but I like Michael Altizer's statement: "God didn't have to create trout; he could have settled for bass." I just think trout are especially beautiful creatures, and to attach to them while using flies, esp. dry flies, is a special experience.

 

[JimKennedy]

The brown trout and its cousin the Atlantic salmon are the original gamefish, and the original gamefishing tradition was fly fishing for those two creatures.

It’s like animal racing: there’s times and places for watching pigs, camels, dogs, ostriches, turtles, crabs and any number of other creatures see who’s fastest, but horse racing is the most popular.

Remember, James Henshaw, the first guy to popularize bass fishing for sport, described largemouth bass as the trout of the American south.

And bass are essentially the second main sport fish species.

Non trout fly fishing is not a lesser sport. It’s just been around, as a sport, for much longer than sport fly fishing for any other fish species.

 

[DomR]

Primary reason is that I don't own a watercraft (float tube, boat, kayak, or canoe) so it limits me to places I can wade or cast effectively from shore. That is a very limiting factor. I love sunnies on a dry fly but its hard to find ponds that are cast friendly.

I will fish the D for smallmouth but I'm limited by wading plus to get to where I like to fish on the D is 45 minutes to 1 1/2. I cross more trout water on the way or can get to more trout water in that time frame so it's just more appealing to me to fish for trout.

 

[jifigz]

I like how discriminating they are. I enjoy getting away from people. I like being on small streams. I like shade and not baking to death from the sun in more open places

All reasons why trout are my preferred quarry.

 

[Cznymph]

I like posts 4 (though I never made the ww trips) and 11 (gobblers beat me all the time, and I refuse to resort to using baits [aka food plots], blinds, and decoys to kill them. Like trout, turkeys should be taken by honorable means -- and this is not a slam at non-fly-fishermen.).

Anyhow, I like to fish for trout. I don't want to start a brouhaha with this, but I like Michael Altizer's statement: "God didn't have to create trout; he could have settled for bass." I just think trout are especially beautiful creatures, and to attach to them while using flies, esp. dry flies, is a special experience.

This is an interesting take. Do you find yourself unwilling to fish streams that have had habitat improvement projects?

 

[Kyle]

I like how discriminating they are. I enjoy getting away from people. I like being on small streams. I like shade and not baking to death from the sun in more open places

All reasons why trout are my preferred quarry.

this about sums it up for me. i would only add because trout live in beautiful places such as mountains. although i do love a good smallmouth bite and carp.

 

[rrt]

Just got home from an afternoon on the water. To answer Cz's question: I am willing to fish improved water and have worked on such projects in the past. Some of the projects have allowed trout to flourish where they could not prior to the projects. Some projects, however, get washed out by floods. The streamside plantings, though, at least on the projects I helped with, are almost universally helpful in shading streams. These are long-term projects that help the trout all year long -- for years.

I do not think these projects are like most food plots I hear/read about: Most/many of them are done shortly before a season, even along crop fields. Then a blind is set up, and on the day of a hunt, decoys are set out in front of the blind in the baited area. All of this negates the turkey's best defense mechanism: his eyesight. My son calls this murder (of gobblers). However, it is advocated and promoted by the game commission and detracts from respect for wild turkeys.

I do not think stream rehab and the construction of "food plots" (baited areas) are remotely similar.