Maybe it is the end of the summer trout season and I’m getting crusty, or perhaps I’m just noticing the obvious that the culture of this sport is seemingly going to hell. The latest inspirations for these thoughts include seeing 3 people with different sized cameras taking a photo of a modest 16” fish at the same time, for several minutes in 85 degree heat like a movie star, seeing the 20” mark go from sacred to common without the use of a ruler, and more generally a cultural shift that can’t help but make anyone that has been around a while feel that this sport has lost its core values. It is ridiculous what has happened in even a short 5 years in this sport and its sad. The sport of fly-fishing for not just 5, 10, 15 years, but from the beginning was respected and admired for reasons that are in no way resembling of the culture this sport boasts today. For one, fly-fishing, and all methods of fishing were a quiet man’s sport. You didn’t tell everyone where you were going, or where you had been, because for one you went there to be by yourself and get away, not join 20 of your other friends and strangers on your highly pressured stream of choice. We now have seen a total shift in that regard, with the enthusiasts of this sport choosing daily content and the excuse that “the cat is already out of the bag”, while clearly more cats come out of the bag on each river, each year as a result. We have the superficial environmental argument as well that “ the more that love a river the more it is protected”, when the reality is most of the premier trout rivers in this country are now loved to death, and overly pressured with most fish having some deformity signifying many others before you have hooked the pet you used to think was a wild trout. Hypocritically, many guides, outfitters, and fishing folks that post photos every day with clear identifiers that let you know where they were fishing, share detailed locations, and generally share too much publically also talk about the old days and bitch about crowds at the ramp, traffic on the rivers, and worse fishing generally. And for those that aren’t bitching, its because they’ve accepted and know they are a part of the problem, but accept it as a necessary evil for their existence in this modern fly-fishing era. I dunno should we applaud them for not being a hypocrite, or more reasonably encourage them to go back to some respected form of being discreet when it comes to sharing information? The waters we enjoy were not created and do not exist for the purpose of this sport, but the industry of fly fishing seemingly thinks that if you are in the industry, you have the right to abuse and take what you can from a given resource for the sake of your livelihood.
Secondly, the “cool” factor that has entered this sport from the branding that followed the surge in popularity this sport saw has made this sport a downright embarrassing scene to even want to be a part of on a mainstream level with cliche click’s and sheep behavior that feels like the sixth grade. It’s the look and the lifestyle, not the challenging chase after a worthy adversary. The actual art and skill of actual fly fishing is now an afterthought as the sport tries to commercially grow and become a mile wide and an inch deep. More people that fly-fish, less people that can actually fly fish. That has become the primary appeal and approach for those commercially involved trying to align with what they think the average clueless sport influenced by these new shifts wants. Credibility now comes to those that have the new adipose, yeti cooler, boat dog, and overall “the look” with the latest set ups #hatch #dontgiveAF #agoodcraftsmandoesntblamehistools, rather than the dude that can just flat out fish, who likely resents all of the above now making them a downright isolationist. For those as disgusted as I am, and anyone that has a clue now wants to see a fishing guide at the ramp that appears unorganized and appears to be living out of his truck. This is because the guide that is organized with a new truck at the ramp is likely to be a better promoter of himself/instagram hero rather than a still committed guide and fisherman, and will surely be a clockwatching guide that does just enough on the water to be professional. They won’t kill themselves for you to make your day, because they don’t really care about your day more than anyone else they took out the last 90 days. It’ll just be a job not a passion, and every guide worth fishing with needs to be passionate. And for the record, a lot of great guides are disgusted too as digital fish bros (many of them younger/better with technology) with half their knowledge out hustle them online to get credibility that isn’t deserved. In most other business scenarios, I wouldn’t sympathize saying dog eat dog, but in this sport, I do. This isn’t investment banking or digital advertising. Its going into the wild with the best person you can find to capture a wild animal, and that knows what they are doing. You can’t determine that online. You need to meet the person or go word of mouth.
The sport has also been infiltrated by articles, “influencers”, fisherman and self described contributors that downright do not possess the skills or knowledge to be the professionals they hold themselves out to be in this sport, and so much of the behavior I’ve witnessed displays a total lack of concern for protecting places that might be known, but not yet ruined. It feels like there is a never ending stream of bogus and cheesy information being released daily with the two latest examples being (1) a middle aged and purported “guide” and pubic figure in this sport I recently saw at a presentation proclaiming that going to 4x (yes that is not a typo-4 fucking X) on a night-time mousing “mission” was a difference maker to draw strikes in a stocked pet farm stretch of water; (2) A well known fly shop recently posting on its Facebook page ” Tell us Your Favorite Trout Stream” in what I imagine was some mom and pop fly shop attempt to enter the modern era and get people interacting on their feed- with 50+ replies from other direct reflections of this era naming lesser known streams to accommodate this shop’s poorly calculated attempt to be relevant at the expense of sensitive local streams being compromised. . This is what causes me to use the word embarrassing in my heading as these “contributions” come from a people that are given complimentary exhibition tables and booths, opportunities to speak publically at various forums throughout the country on fly-fishing, and generally speaking consider themselves figures in this sport. Embarrassing and if you don’t understand why my first example makes that guy a joke you’ve either never night fished or also don’t know what you’re talking about. People go from novice, to fly-fishing for 5-6 years on local water and then suddenly they are a “guide” now. You don’t need to be qualified, you just need to be superficially credentialed. Gear programs (and discounts) in exchange for hash tags and exposure, clean boat, nice truck, maybe a beard and a fish tattoo for the look, an active social media account- and yea you’re in. The dramatic increase of these mediocre pawns is directly reflected by the over the top traffic you see on premier river stretches in most regions. Why? Because these guides don’t actually know how to fish, and lack the confidence and instincts to spread their time on the water out beyond the one stretch they’ve loved to death. So instead, they float the same, most predictable and steady stretch every single day to take the guesswork out of their day to conceal their deficiencies. Add 10-20 of these embarrassments to every prime cold-water stretch worth fishing in a given region, and you have the exact shitshow I’m talking about now. The recreational fishing scene is just as bad. There is no true due diligence anymore, just go where you heard other fisherman told you is good. While I hate the mentality, I and the many other disgruntled fisherman that have moved on from ruined waters actually benefit because most anglers will not break the sheep heard, resulting in an odd decrease in other waters that got lost in the shadow of rivers that in recent times have become coined the go to stretch. What’s old becomes new again.
The reality is now, if you are a committed fly-fisherman that just wants to get better, fish hard, and not deal with the crowds and negative impacts I’ve eluded to above, you need to adapt. No one that loves what this sport used to be about is on the common stretches now. They’ve adapted and found other stretches and come up with a program that allows them to avoid the bumper boat and intrusive parallel parking drift boat etiquette you’ll now find on popular/floatable waters. If you are not yet offended, but are also a social animal that buys into this approach, You’ll also need to prove your worth to find friends, since any angler in this later camp I speak of that knows something good now is more closed lipped than ever, and you’ll have to convince them you bring something to the table that makes it worth sharing something with you. Sociology and fly-fishing combined. Anyone in the fly-fishing industry that reads this will, best case scenario, shrug and say they see both sides, but that is ridiculous when you really think about it. If being honest with yourself, how can you say that it is ok what this sport has become when putting aside your personal needs, ego and general acceptance of the new era of this sport? It was never ok to be public about obscure streams and make places public that couldn’t handle the pressure (enter fly fishing film tour/ guides excused from doing same as justified standout marketing). It was once ok to catch a great fish, and tell no one about it. All those ethics, principles and the true sense of responsibility for the places we enjoy are gone now, so its easier to rationalize being a part of the problem.
So where does the sport go from here? Does it just keep getting worse to the point that the entire angler base agrees regulations need to be put in place to limit the horror show that ensues on the best river in any given region? Do we just see a dual split in the culture of this sport develop, where you have tools that need to catch fish and always tell their virtual friends about it/wont take risk; versus people that have caught enough fish to risk not catching one who seek out other waters in secret and develop an undercover society of haters? Or, does this sport as a whole recognize the whorishness that has developed here as a whole is downright pathetic and a negative for the waters we fish and the sport we enjoy? My guess, being extremely cynical at this point, is the second category. Over and Out.