Welcome to Week CLXXI of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
When we think of exotic fishing locales our minds often go to British Columbia, the far north of Canada, Patagonia, or the river of New Zealand.
Closer at hand for us Canadian Prairie fisherfolk is Montana, just across the 49th parallel.
For those thinking of heading south, a bit of pre-trip preparation should include checking out the Bum Trout Blog (www.bumtrout.blogspot.ca )
The blog’s intro speaks to a philosophy of fishing I myself like;
“Bum Trout is a western Montana fishing blog filled with plenty of fish stories, grip and grins, ramblings, half-baked philosophy, lackluster fishing advice, and mostly poor photos from in and around Montana’s trout infested waters.
“Like the name implies, Bum Trout is here for all you financially strapped trout bums out there. Our waders leak, floating lines no longer float, and we have never spend more than fifty bucks on a fly reel. Our trips to the fly shop are never complete without thoroughly rummaging through the clearance bins first.
“What I think we share with all trout bums is a love for running water, seeing the rise of a big fish, and feeling a large brown trout crush a streamer. This blog is for all whose greatest passion involves standing in a river and waving a stick.
“Ninety per cent of our angling time is spent within an hour of home. Here at Bum Trout we believe in the value of community, sense of place, and time spent on the water with friends.”
So when I came across the blog via Facebook, I had to contact the ‘bum’ himself; Robert Prince, and find out a bit more about him as a fisherman, and as a blogger.
“Well I launched the blog in April of 2012 with the idea of sharing my experiences of time spent wandering around Montana, fishing rivers big and small and generally having a good time,” he told me via email. “I was motivated by a few friends that had fishing blogs (it seemed like the hip thing to do in those days) and was blessed with an inordinate amount of spare time.
“My vision (however limited) was to highlight the life of the everyday fly fisherman, someone who isn’t a guide or outfitter, someone who has a regular day job, and whose gear is all in various amounts of disrepair and decay. I wanted to appeal to the guy with the duck taped waders and a beat to hell fly rod always at the ready in the back of their station wagon. I hoped that I could represent the average Montana “trout bum,” the kind of guys that I have met all over the state in great little backwater watering holes such as Joes bar in Craig and the Wise River Club along the Big Hole River. These are the guys that sleep in their cars and live off PBR and Top Ramen during trout season. They also happen to be some of the best anglers I know. Finally, since ninety percent of my fishing is spent in my home watershed I wanted to highlight what it means to be connected to a place, a watershed, and community in a very real way.”
But has the blog fulfilled the vision of its founder and writer.
“The goal was to hopefully add something of value to the fly fishing community. I’m not sure if I’ve accomplished that but I think I’ve given it an honest effort,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to have had a few articles published in Montana Fly Fishing Magazine and I guess quite a few folks have visited the blog in recent years, which I’m happy about. A year or so into blogging I decided to post a lot less of those grip-and-grin shots, I was getting a little sick of how more than a few of the fishing sites out there seemed to just serve as a place to show off, basically saying “look, how I can catch more and bigger fish than you!” I decided to be more thoughtful, and to try to post articles that I thought would somehow contribute positively to the fly fishing community.”
It’s a case where blogs are a growing alternative for fisherman to learn tricks, share stories and generally interact?
“I do think blogs are accomplishing all those things and more,” said Prince. “I’ve learned immensely from some great blogs that I’ve read and continue to read. Everything from great fly patterns to fishing tactics and beyond.
“The explosion of fly fishing’s presence on the internet and on social media has been mostly good I think. Sure, I don’t like the part where people are posting videos and pics showing some of my favourite spots to the entire planet. Some of these places have been well guarded secrets and I think some folks should exercise a little more discretion before telling the world about how they caught X number of big fish from X spot.
“I think that’s the exception however.
“For the most part blogs and social media have been great for anglers and for the sport as a whole. The wealth of information available for the novice angler is amazing, the learning curve is definitely not as steep as when I started fishing. The sense of community bloggers have generated is also great to see. Blogs have given concerned anglers platforms to easily disseminate information on important issues such as stream access and threats to our rivers. Bloggers have helped put regional issues (such as the plight of wild steelhead in Washington, and the Pebble Mine debacle in Alaska) into the collective consciousness of anglers nationwide.”
Prince said readers seem to like what he provides via his blog.
“The feedback that I have received, has been largely positive,” he said. “I haven’t been posting like I used to so I see less than I used to also. I’m a little surprised at how readers from all over the world have checked out the site and follow me on my social media outlets. It’s cool to think about how folks in Russia, Argentina, and New Zealand are reading your stuff.”
Of course behind a fishing blogger is the fisherman himself, which is just as interesting to me.
“I’ve been an avid fisherman as long as I can remember,” said Prince. “I grew up in Central Oregon and started fishing my family’s farm ponds and local lakes as soon as I could hold a rod and keep from falling in. Fishing with my family was and still is an integral part of life. I started fly fishing when I was about ten or eleven and my first trout on a dry fly was truly a life changing experience.
“I actually fished more with my mom, grandpa, and uncle more than I did with my dad. My dad took me a lot though when I was younger, and was always eager to take me to the ponds or local reservoir and help me catch smallmouth bass. It’s funny but my mom I think was a much better and more avid angler and hunter than my dad! I’m just thankful that I had family that introduced me to fishing at a young age. They never forced me into it but let me come to love it in my own time, for that, I am forever grateful.”
So what is his favourite spot to fish; the one which conjures memories of past fish and fishing?
“Oh man, this is a hard one,” said Prince. “I have so many favourite spots and they are all favourites for different reasons. Some of those reasons include the fishing, but most places are favourites for other reasons. Some spots are favourites for sentimental reasons and others are favourites just because they are in beautiful, special places.
“If I have to pick one favourite spot though, it has to be a small stream on a friend of mine’s ranch in south-central Montana. I love this spot because of the beauty of the country, the mountains, the amazing colours on the trout there, the gin clear water, and the fact that I may well be the only human on earth to throw a fly at these fish on any given year! The fish aren’t particularly huge but they love dry flies and there’s something magical about standing in a mountain stream on a crisp September day with elk bugling around you, watching that glorious fall light filter through the golden leaves of the cottonwoods. Those moments are as close to perfection as I think a person can get in this world.”
As you might expect from a blogger that calls his site ‘Bum Trout’ Prince likes to fish for trout.
“I love brown trout! The fact that they are usually elusive, grow big, and have bad intentions when they eat flies make brown trout my favourite,” he said. “I love that browns on our river are often in the sneakiest, technical water and that big ones (over 20 inches) are often hard to come by. A truly big brown is the gold standard for trout in Montana. From sipping trico spinners under a cutbank to smashing six inch long streamers, to blowing up big foam hoppers, browns do it all exceptionally well. I love that one day you can catch a fish on a size #24 spinner on 5x, and a week later catch the same fish on a giant articulated streamer (trust me, I’ve done it). My favorite approach though has to be throwing streamers.
“There’s nothing like watching a big brown absolutely destroy and streamer. As they say, the tug is the drug!”
Check out the blog, it’s a great resource of interesting tales and I suspect most are nearly completely true (wink).
