Trout Fishing Hillbilly Style

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Sorry about what's to follow Grandad. He would remind us that trout fishing really should not be done with artificials. For Grandad there's only one way, and it better be on a fly rod. Of course we would not disgrace him by combining live bait with a fly rod when fishing for those stocker rainbows in the local lake, but we might have accidentally arrived without our fly rods and we might have remembered some worms and a few floats.

Don't get me wrong here, we like to fly fish about as much as anyone. On the other hand there seems to be something a little wrong with the idea of pulling up to a lake where some truck a few weeks ago dumped a bunch of dumb strocker trout that have about as much experience with a nymph or a woolly bugger as a yuppie leaving Starbucks in his BMW to go get a Thickburger at Hardees. Or maybe its the other way around-I'm not too sure. Anyway, catching stocker trout in a lake isn't really much about the aesthetics of a pretty roll cast, but more about meat for the table.

On th

Rainbow troutImage via Wikipedia

e subject of putting meat on the table, I have to tell you about a minor pleasure I derived in our recent Hillbilly fishing excursion. My youngest son thinks for this type of fishing, one rod isn't enough. Watching him run a track meet between 14 different fishing rods h

Starbucks in the Financial District of Boston,...Image via Wikipedia

e had out, thinking he'll out fish Dad, is kind of a comical experience. I set up my folding chair in the brush near a little tree I was using for a rod holder and quietly observed his maniacal behavior. He literally had his poles spread over a 200 yard span. Needless to say (or I would have left this part out), I consistently caught just as many fish with my one little rod with a float and oh yeah, a worm. And for those who might wish to suggest I was exaggerating about those 14 rods my son used, you're right. But there were a bunch more than I had!

It was a nice day, all in all. We fished a couple of hours, went home and cleaned our fish, and went on about our day. We had started early and I cannot think of a better was to start a late Winter day than the way we did. Next time Grandad, we'll wet the old fly lines and I promise we'll do it the right way!



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