Fishing 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]

Please see my reply to your exact same post in the Fly Fishing forum....

[merlino bill]

OI OI,

welcome back first of all, Yes i agree entierly with what you say course, sea, & game, because you can also fly fish in the sea if you wanted it's just the purist's fly fishermen they seem to think if you spin for trout it's jolly unfair & your not playing cricket old boy. LOL

but me catch fish rod & line with any meathod that bring's them to the bank.

 

[gozzer]

It's got even more categorised now Emma. There are many waters that now advertise, "Carp and Coarse fishing", on their sites.

'Cos carp are 'special' don't ya know?

 

John.

Edited July 20, 2008 by gozzer

[Dick Dastardly]

I kind of like it that in Anglers Nets' "Fly Fishing" Forumn you will often see fly fishing for Mullet and Pike discussed.More people are using the fly rod for non "Game" species now then there has been for a long time.

 

Allthough I trout fish several times a month (at least 4 if not more when Ive got lessons booked) I have very rarely in fact only twice (other than illegal poaching activities as a kid ) bait or lure fished for them.Same goes for both sea trout and salmon (all though my first few salmon were caught spinning and I did worm fish once in Scotland)

 

Mind you thats most likely because the bulk of my non migratory trout fishing isnt done on "natural" waters.What Im asking is basicly do people fish for trout with spinning gear and bait in the natural waters still? and if so is there enough to warrant a "Game fish" forumn?

 

For the little that I venture into such topics the present format suits me fine but I can understand the point Emma Two is making and couldnt see it being a big problem to have another forum? Other than I suppose its easy to miss interesting stuiff if you have too many seperate/specialist ones.For example I normally only join in on a "Sea" or "Fly fishing" thread if it catchs my eye when I first log on as I rarely go into either.

[Emma two]

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'

[Vagabond]

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.

 

Excellent post Emma. That's the way spate rivers should be fished.

 

We used to have a fortnight each year (for fifteen years) on a Highland spate river, where the above scenario operated. We hired a cottage on the river and had three miles of excellent salmon fishing (if it rained!) included. Only about three pools were fishable by fly at the best of times, so it was upstream worm and spinner most of the time.

 

After fifteen years the owner retired and sold the estate. The new owner thought he knew all about how salmon fisheries should be run, and was braying "Flah onleh" before the ink was dry on the transfer. Needless to say, he lost all the regulars that first season, and has been struggling to fill the vacancies ever since.

[Peter Waller]

I have even heard enlightened gentlemen, clad in RealTree, state that they normally go carp fishing but thought that they would try coarse fishing for a change.

[BoldBear]

I have even heard enlightened gentlemen, clad in RealTree, state that they normally go carp fishing but thought that they would try coarse fishing for a change.

Some Carp men hardly ever catch a fish anyway, It's not that they are bad anglers but Its because they fish on waters that don't have a large stock of fish in them (on purpose) after 'Named Carp' and only expect a run every half a dozen outings if they are lucky. Although I have done this in the past its not really my sort of angling. Otherwise they doze on their bedchairs; every now and then reeling in a stocked carp;

So I can understand why they would want to classify Carp fishing as a seperate type of angling compared to other types of angling.

To do well in other types of Angling you need to at least stay awake and learn watercraft for several types of water; wheras to most Carp anglers watercraft is a forgotten craft other than a few who use it on their chosen Carp pools.

 

I would agree that Coarse, Game and Sea are sensible classifications and anything else (ie. fly fishing) would be just a subset of one of these.

Edited July 28, 2008 by BoldBear

[bluerinse]

The fly only thinking is really only prevalent in the UK, Bait and lure fishing for game fish is the norm in Scandinavia, also some methods not seen in the UK are used, for example Fly Spinning, they use a lead weight encased in plastic that leaves a bubble of air this has the effect of bouncing along the bottom with out holding bottom, a leader is fished of the weight with a fly attached, this is all fished on a rod and multiplier reel.

 

The fly is bounced through heavy flow rivers and you can search quite well all swims, behind boulders etc..., very effective and totally acceptable. Lures and prawn fishing are also common for game fish.

 

My only concession to fly fishing only would be southern chalk streams and rivers like the windrush in Oxfordshire. Using bait and a lure would be wrong, a lure or spinner in such rivers would be ridicules and you would catch every fish in the river very quickly.

Big lakes, large rivers and spate rivers are fair game in my book (local rules being observed)