There are a few types of people one will run into while fishing. I have encountered all of these people and I only have one thing to say: No wonder there is so much gear for sale on craigslist.
The name dropper: This guy will definitely mention he spoke with Bob Johnson down at Steve so and so’s fly shop and tell you that the trout are only hitting size 32 midges. He might also, mention he saw Cornelius down here on Tuesday and they were hammering size 14 black Joe’s hoppers but NOT the brown ones. This guy will surely initiate conversation with you first or just stop when you walk by expecting to enlighten you about what he heard.
The no talker:
This guy will respond to the ubiquitous “Any luck?” with a simple “nope”. He will definitely be wearing camo of some sort due to the over lap of Duck hunting and fishing gear. If he does have a fly rod it will be a 7-9wt on a stream where a 3wt would suffice. If he has spinning tackle he will have braided line because it makes it easier to detect walleye strikes and there will be a buck tail spinner tied on trailing a chuck of dried up night crawler. No, this guy doesn’t like you and yes he is carrying an empty stringer.
The big talker: This could be anyone. Maybe even you a few times. You just caught a massive trout maybe an 18”er and you have to tell everyone that walks by. Try to resist. Would you believe you if you heard that from some guy? Not likely.
The off duty guide: This guy will answer your “any luck” with “yeah, a few.” Which means like 20 and I’m not going to tell you where or on what so don’t ask. This gentleman is easily identified by ether a very elaborate 3 fly rig or Sims waders that look like they walked to Alaska and back. He will likely be using one of his nine sage Z-axis rods and be selling all of his 9 sage XPs. Of course, the easiest way to recognizes this guy is he will definitely not be wearing a wedding ring.
The aficionado: I love this encounter the most. In fact, it just happened to me the other day. I fish in western Wisconsin and this time of year is notorious for its trico hatches. I refuse to fish trico hatches because, in my limited experience, big or even decent sized fish don’t bother with size 24 insects. If I wanted to nail a bunch of 10 inchers I’d go fish for brook trout. In any case, I wait until the hatch is over, which also has the advantage of not being at 5am, and fish attractor dries with a bead head dropper. The other day I was walking out at about 930 am and two guys were walking back in. The boisterous aficionado piped up as I walked by and proclaimed “hatch is over”. Subtext: Your lazy dumb ass isn’t going to catch anything. I had to stick him in the ribs a little-
What size were they coming off?
Him: 24.
Me: Were they keying on males or females?
Him in his head: HUH? Out loud: probably a little of both.
Me: Get any?
Him: 2
Me: any size to them?
Him: not really, maybe 10”.
I nodded and kept walking. He said, likely sarcastically, “good luck.” This is not a fish story. I fished from 930-1 and caught 5. 2 12 inchers and a fat 18 incher that got me straight into the line on my reel and took be up and down the pool twice with my 5wt. The guy likely knows his stuff but is so caught up in what he is supposed to be fishing that time of year he ignores quality water time with other patterns.
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