Angling categories

[Emma two]

Someone recently asked me, 'do you coarse, sea or fly fish?'...and those categories are the ones which form the divisions in this forum. I always considered the categories to be 'coarse, sea and GAME fishing, the latter being not confined to fly fishing, for example its quite normal practice to bait fish and spin/lure fish for Salmon, Sea trout and non migratory Trout, and many coarse fish can be taken on the fly too.

 

The last Salmon I took was on worm,

It just seems that there is a whols stytle of angling missed out and one which is some anglers main method. 'Game fishing is not excusivley 'fly fishing', and vice versa.

[Elton]

And on the other side of the coin....

 

The reason this one is called 'Fly Fishing' is becuase a lot of people fish for coarse fish on the fly, but were unlikely to get much help from those that had never tried. By posting in this one, they may get some advice from traditional samlon and trout anglers.

 

Either way, there'd be grey areas, I suppose. In an ideal world, we'd just have one forum for 'anglers'

[Leon Roskilly]

Saltwater fly-fishing is one of the fastest growing areas of UK fishing.

[greenwells glory]

well mainly game fish are fished for on the fly because they are better fun on a fly but technically its game fishing not fly fishing..good point

[Emma two]

I dont know about 'better fun' on fly, sometimes the conditions rule out fly fishing and 'no fishin' is no fun at all

 

I transferred the following from the 'coarse fishing' section...

 

QUOTE (BUDGIE @ Jul 20 2008, 06:28 PM)

What Im asking is basicly do people fish for trout with spinning gear and bait in the natural waters still?

 

 

Yes, they do, well we do up here. One has to be versatile. the rivers rise and drop very quickly. When they are low and the water clear it's good to use fly tackle, and other methods are prevented by by-lays until a certain height is reached. When it rains (like its done lots of lately) the water rises dramatically, when its rising or dropping but running just clear and way over it 'normal height' we call it a 'spinning beck', when its full and the water the colour of Tea then it's a 'worming beck'. It's not at all unusual for all 3 methods to be used over the course of a day. For example my son took a 5lb 'Grilse' (Salmon on it's first run upstream) on friday evening in a raging river on worms (worming beck), when I arrived on the beat at first light the next day the river had dropped over a foot and was runing clear (spinning beck). Or course their are overlaps, one afternoon a few seasons ago I took 3 salmon and a good sea trout on worms as the water was clearing, before switching to lures and got another on a Toby.

 

We regularly spin and lure fish the bigger lakes, rigged up with a baitcaster set up, using small to medium lures and spinners, we are liable to catch equally Trout, Perch or Pike, and we specifically target trout on some waters, both 'ordinary' ones and Ferox. Migratory fish do run through the lakes too, but i don't know of anyone who specifically targets them in the lakes. The last sea trout I saw come out of our local lake (my son again) took a white jelly grub being bounced off the bottom for perch.

 

A look inside quite big and well know tackle shop on the edge of the lake district would display how anglers use whats effective it's packed with trout and salmon spining tackle.

 

The only reason I made the initial post about categories is that maybe newcomers to angling (and maybe some already 'old hands') might come to think that fly fishing is THE (only) way which game fish are persued, and that certainly isn't the case. As I write I can see two dim torches going across an area of cut grass, Salmon anglers out getting bait, 'cos guess what, it's about to start raining again, so in the morning it's going to be......you guessed it, a 'worming beck'

[greenwells glory]

well ya down here near me we ban spinning and worm fishing on the rivers but people still do it..in a flood a worm can be deadly and then a day after the flood when the water is that beary colour a small mepps is lethal but our local angling club try to encourage fly fishing on our rivers eg the loobagh,morning star etc

[casts_by_fly]

I fish to catch fish and enjoy my surroundings. I'll fish whatever method is most appropriate. On one of the US steelhead forums the questions always come up about what is the best method, is fly fishing elitist, etc. As mentioned, its all about the conditions. When I was steelhead fishing I could be fishing bait or flies on a spinning rod, centerpin rod, or a fly rod on any given day. Each had their own time. In low crystal clear water, it is tough to beat a centerpin with a single egg. High water was time for a big gob of egg skein. That nice green water condition fished anything well. Shallow water runs was the domain of a fly rod, shallow white water and pocket water was egg sacs on a spinning rod, and anything over 4' deep was perfect for a pin.

 

Pick the rod that is best for the conditions and go fishing.

[greg long]

I fly fish in preference to spinning and bait fishing, but as far as I'm concerned there is more to fishing than just catching fish. When things are hard I could resort to spinning or bait, but I just adjust my fly fishing methods to cope with the conditions and try to catch that way. I release most of my fish anyway, even salmon. I don't have anything against bait fishing and spinning....I often do it for Pike in the winter but I get pleasure from the flyfishing itself too.

I also have caught pike on the fly, other fish to fall to my flyrod are carp,perch,roach and rudd and a friend managed a tench on buzzer too. I have also caught pollock, mackerel, garfish and bass on fly.

[greenwells glory]

I fly fish in preference to spinning and bait fishing, but as far as I'm concerned there is more to fishing than just catching fish. When things are hard I could resort to spinning or bait, but I just adjust my fly fishing methods to cope with the conditions and try to catch that way. I release most of my fish anyway, even salmon. I don't have anything against bait fishing and spinning....I often do it for Pike in the winter but I get pleasure from the flyfishing itself too.

I also have caught pike on the fly, other fish to fall to my flyrod are carp,perch,roach and rudd and a friend managed a tench on buzzer too. I have also caught pollock, mackerel, garfish and bass on fly.

 

 

i totally agree with greg,fishing is about just enjoying being out on the river especially when your fly fishing,you see a fish rise and try and cover him with your fly and if that doesnt work you might change the fly,it depends.this is great fun even if you dont catch a fish and it takes a bit of skill aswell and every time you go out on the river your casting improves,you learn something new and you become a better fisherman in general..great points greg..