Hardcore Angler -Do You Know One?

[flymaker2]

Fish Bums-

Those guys and gals that give up the normal trappings for a life as a guide. Not sure that qualifies them as being a "Hardcore Angler" or not. Sure, those folks into fishing enough to work as a guide, a clerk in a fly shop, and even building a rod here and there to make ends meet are really into the sport. Shop owners hardcore? Nope. Ask them if they ever get to fish. usually not enough. Fishing industry types are not hardcore.

I contend that there are really very few true Hardcore Anglers. I know only a few personally, and of a few more by association within groups of anglers.

So what is a Hardcore Angler? Well for one thing I am pretty sure they don't spend much, if any, time on angling bulletin boards. Nor does a hardcore angler work in a fly shop or does one guide for profit. They are fishing and traveling -period. The Hardcore Anglers that I know spend at leasty 200 days a year on the water. Sometimes much more. They both bounce back and forth chasing the bite; which can mean Florida, Costa Rica, Mexico The PNW Salmon Rivers, BC, or even the Ruby Marshes and Pyramid Lake or the Arctic.

One hardcore friend even had his dentist sharpen a couple of teeth to enable him to chew Maxima through instantly.

Both these Ultra anglers would not try to spoil their sport by making money from it. They don't write articles. They don't ask for advise, and their techniques are so finely honed that they never question the methods to use in any given situation. Their gear is fine tuned and specialized. Their personal belongigs revolve around the sport. They both have several fishing boats. Each is very opinionated and they won't buy what most " Fishing Guru's are selling in print, or at seminars, or on DVD. These hardcore Anglers avoid the fishing shows and crowded fisheries and are hard to get a hold of on the phone. They each truely are masters. Each has a prowess that is uncanny. They both catch monster fish and outfish those around them consistantly. They both tie very basic, simplistic, very specialized fly patterns that are not found online, nor in flyshop bins. They have their special tools and get the job done. They live to fish.

I find these characters, in general, fascinating. Do you know a "Hardcore Angler"?

[J Castwell]

I have know some, still do. I refuse to expose them.

[Jonezee]

"I fish all of the time when I'm at home; so when I get a chance to go on vacation, I make sure I get in plenty of fishing."

Thomas McGuane "Fishing The Big Hole" And outside chance (1990)


So the guys fish 200 days a year. With my vacation time and maybe 1 or 2 days sick time, I work about 240 days a year. This of course includes week ends off. I don't think I could make a living working only 40 days a year. They must have had a big inhertance? I think if Bill Gates said all he wanted to do was fish, no way would even he fish over 200 days a year. IMO. But then there is always the odd one.

[WarrenP]

Everyone I know is like me and has to work for a living and fish when life permits it. Your description would be someone born with a silver spoon!!

[flymaker2]

Like JC Says-You don't want to expose them. But you may know one of these hardcore anglers.

Neither one of the anglers I know were born with silver spoons. One guy runs a lumber business. He lives close enough to a great river that he "makes the time" to get there for the morning and evening bites.

Both had day jobs (Both retired now) and yes maybe they didn't get 200 day years in each year. Yet they managed to wet a line more than a few times a week. Both live on rivers now and moved to these places just to fish. Believe me-where there is a will there is a way.

I myself have had a couple of 300 day years. You only need to live near good water and then make an effort to rise early and retire late and dedicate your free time to fishing. I, of coarse am not one of the subject anglers. I have gone 5 years without even fishing a time or two.

One of these guys I know had a VW Bug. He had only the drivers seat in it. That way he could leave right after work and drive like a madman to a place to fish and then stretch out on the plywood platform on the floor in his survival bag to get some winks. He racked up some serious miles.

So you have normal friends and when you ask for a ride somewhere do they say-"Well I don't have any seats in my car"? That is hardcore. All social peer pressure out the window. Just fishing on his mind. Yes he was and is still married. Takes his wife to fish Salmon for a month at a time too.

He got a pilot's license just so he could reach waters out of driving range in order to fish them yet maintain his job. That is hardcore. Bought a Whaler to explore the Sea of Cortez in Baja and did that for ten years before the magazines reported being able to fish there with a fly rod.

This guy I know who is in the lumber industry: He works hard. He has positioned himself to be able to open and close his shop when ever he needs to be gone and still have a customer base. He now has his son filling in and that lets this guy leave for months at a time to chase warmwater fishes in the dead of winter.

Another fellow I met one time is hardcore. He is in his 90's now and had a very lucrative business that he sold when just 34 years old. He invested the money and has managed to live the remainder of his years as a dedicated hardcore fly fishing angler. Sure this guy had a big nest egg. Again-he lives and breaths fishing. His home is a fly fishing library and gear depot. He traveled to each and every fishing destination on the planet, lived simply and simply to fish. Normal? Nope. Still going at ninety. He has to hire a Gilley now to schlepp his gear. But the guy has done it. Fishing hardcore for 50 years straight. He too relocated to an area that is ripe with great angling nearby; so that is easy to get on the water. Would most people with a pile of cash actually drop off the face of society to fish full time for half a century in anonimity? Remember-this is for personal pleasure-not fame or glory. That is hardcore.

These guys and gals are out there!

[Photojoe4]

I've always tended to think quality was more important than quantity. I certainly don't make it out the 200+ times a year that you specified. Actually, I really have no idea how many times I go fishing in any given year. When time/money permits, I fish. I pick a few local spots that I go to regulary, and I make a trip to a few others within the state over the year. Most of it isn't "trophy" water- not realy known for big fish, or enormous quantities, or exoctic species. But the spots I pick are awful pretty, and so are the fish. I'd happily take 1 day of fishing on some little local stream over 199 days of driving all over franticly trying to catch as many fish as I possibly can. To me, it just sounds more like work than fishing. Clearly, I'm not "harcore".

Regards,
Joe Martin
Salem, OR

P.S. Where in L.A. do you fish? I know there are a few places NE of there (I used to live in Santa Barbara, and in Ventura), but I can't really think of any really "local" places you could be wetting a line.

[wireguy]

the things that make you go hmmm?

[Jonezee]

A commerical fisherman in Alaska doesn't fish 200 days in the year.

[Eric D]

I've met a couple guys that would qualify as " Hardcore" . I don't really think fishing a certain amount of days is the only criteria though. Some I've met were in basically 3 modes: getting ready to go fishing-fishing & getting back from fishing before getting ready to go again!.
I fish every time I get a chance to and when I do make a trip out I fish as much as I can-I tie flies in my spare time & read about it trying to learn as much as I can. In a way I believe it makes be Hardcore. There's been plenty of days when I pulled on my waders in the early morning and didn't take em' off until well into the night and they were wet 99% percent of the time.
I wish I had more time and sometimes fantasize about being a "Trout Bum" but I have a job, mortage, car payment & bills- ah well.......

[Bill Blake]

I have this 'friend' who has the following confession about being a 'hardcore angler.'

The only guys I know who fish 200 days a year are flyshop owners who fish an hour or so after the shop closes in places that have open water year round. Other than that I resemble that description in a number of ways, I'm sad to say. However, It's not glamorous, that's for sure. Allow me to demystify the life of harcore angler. I've worked temp jobs so that no boss can tell me when I can take time off go off somewhere and fish. While everyone else was off working during the week, I was frequently off fishing in all the places that people try to get to first on the weekends. You don't see me because I'm there when you're not! I probably was catching the big fish, not because I'm better at fishing, but because it's far easier to avoid being seen by the fish when your not worried about the next guy coming along and spooking the fish. The only reason I outfish anyone is because I'm there alone. While we're on the topic of misconceptions, I'm not too pure to try to make money off of fishing. I've tried all kinds of things to support my addiction Fly fishing related photography, painting, rod building, I'm even considering writing a fly tying book. . . ultimately, trying to market all that stuff takes too much time away from fishing. I'm generally pretty close to broke, but at least I'm not in debt. Toward the end of the month it often comes down to trying to work out a proper balance of food vs. gas money. I won't buy most stuff you see advertised in a magazine not because I don't want it, it's because I can't afford it since I work as infrequently as possible. All those great expensive fishing trips you always imagined us taking. . . well, what we didn't tell you was that most of them were for things like funerals, weddings, or any lame excuse we can get. Heck I'm taking a cross country fishing trip next month. I'm flying up to Maine to visit my wife's family (read: fishing trip) then helping my brother drive from Maine to California because he's moving and you can bet I'll be fishing every place I can in between. The best part is, I'm not paying for the gas.