Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
According to a 2006 fishing and hunting survey 68% of sportsmen who hunt also fish, but only 29% of anglers also hunt. Unless someone is in the sporting goods or outdoor recreation business those numbers probably have little significance. I would have thought that the number of hunters who fished would have been higher, but as this was a national poll, it would have to take into account those who live in areas where there is far more land than water and going fishing might require a lot more effort than just slipping out behind the house to shoot a few squirrels.
I expect the fact that there is a disparity between the two doesn’t surprise most sportsmen since we all know our share of fishermen who don’t hunt, and while I for one cannot quite understand “why” they don’t, I can at least accept the fact that it’s an outdoor activity that’s not for everyone. My wife loves to fish, but while she can cook up one mean cut of venison, she’s not partial to being the one who pulls the trigger or loosens the arrow that puts it on the ground. As someone who loves to hunt, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for her and so many other non-hunters because I know darn-well the kind of outdoor adventures and experiences they will miss out on. Other hunters know what I’m talking about.
I bring all this up not because I wish to make a point about hunting as much as a way to break into what I really want to discuss, which is “fly-fishing.” And if you’re wondering where the correlation between the two lies, just bear with me a moment and I’ll try and clear things up.
Just like hunting, a lot but not all fishermen fly-fish. Though I couldn’t seem to track down a published figure, I’m certain it would be far less than the 29% of anglers who both hunt and fish. Also, similar to hunting, a lot of us who do fly-fish pity other fishermen who have not been so fortunate to take up the sport because we know how much they are missing out on. Other fly-fishers know what I’m talking about and it’s kind’a hard to put into words, but I’ll see what I can do with the space I have to work with.
I often say that fly-fishing is to “fishing” in the same way that bow hunting is to “hunting.” Hunters know that you don’t just purchase a bow, sight it in, and go hunting with it the next day. Effective bow hunting requires a commitment of practice and plenty of patience and while the end result still might not mean a freezer full of meat at the end of the season, bow hunters tend to be an enthusiastic bunch who embrace the challenges of taking game with a bow and their times spent in the woods doing so is cherished. Such is the case with fly-fishermen who are willing to work within the limitations of their equipment to catch fish that at times could very easily be taken on conventional bait and tackle. While I don’t like to generalize about how other people “feel” about things, I think it’s safe to say that in most cases, hunters who take game with a bow and anglers who land fish on fly-tackle have a better feeling of accomplishment than those who use guns or conventional tackle to do the same job.
Then again, since (according to statistics) such an analogy to hunting might only be understood by 29% of the fishermen reading this column, I guess I’m not adequately getting my point across to enough folks. So for the other 71% of you I’ll try to move this along in another direction. I’ll start by saying that fly-fishing is not all about catching fish. Not that fly-anglers don’t want to catch fish, they certainly do, it’s just that the fun of fly-fishing is in the entire process of “fishing” not just the “catching.” The “process” involves a lot of decision making which includes; what kind of line to use (floating, sinking, intermediate), the length of leader, the test of the tippet, the use (or not) of a wire or heavy mono bite tippet, the size, shape, color, and pattern of the fly, the type, distance, and accuracy of the cast and the method by which the fly is retrieved or “stripped” back to the fisherman. Depending upon the target species and just how willing they are to feed, catching fish on a fly can, at times be ridiculously easy, or so extremely difficult that unless every facet of the “process” is done precisely not a single bite will be had.
When everything clicks, and fly-fishers actually get a bite, they have a right to take a little extra pride in their accomplishment because in most cases, the reason the fish was attracted to take their fly was not because of the built-in action of some highly engineered “lure” that requires the fisherman to do little more than cast it out and crank it back. With fly-fishing it’s the angler who determines the action of the fly by the movement of their own hand as he or she strips it back in after each cast. Every sweep of the arm or slight twitch of a finger is transmitted directly to the fly, making it react in a different and hopefully tantalizing manor that will solicit a strike.
There’s something about the sport of fly-fishing that gets under the skin of fishermen and makes it downright addictive. I was bitten hard by this bug a couple decades ago and still haven’t been able to shake it. Since then fly-fishing has pretty much become the way I choose to fish whenever I’m not out running charters, no matter if it’s big fish or small, if I’m out for fun I’ll be using a fly-rod.
Saltwater fly-fishing opportunities abound here on Delmarva as just about any fish that can be had on conventional tackle will, under the right circumstances, resort to taking a fly, and the late summer and fall period can sometimes be prime time providing offshore anglers shots of hooking tuna, dolphin, wahoo, sharks, bonito and false albacore while inshore fishermen will have the chance to land bluefish, rockfish, shad, flounder, croaker, seatrout and even puppy drum.
Just as there will always be fewer hunters than there are fishermen, the time and commitment required to become proficient at fly-fishing assures that there will never be as many fly-anglers as there are conventional fishermen, and those of us who are lucky enough to know the joys of both of these sports will always have a little pity for those who don’t.
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
