How About Some Pointless Fishing?
By Chris Chin
(Note: I am not advocating C&R fishing
versus keeping a few for the BBQ. Where
regulations permit, the choice is up to each angler.)
When I first started part time Guiding for
the local river Association,...I set out a
few rules from the get-go. I would only take
out clients when the Association's full time
Guide was overloaded. I would (and still do)
only guide on the main branch, as I don't know
well enough the North-West arm.
That said, I still had (and have) a lot to
learn about my home waters. Even after picking
the brains of the Wardens and passing countless
hours just watching some of the real "pros",...
nothing compares with actually fishing each pool,
run and riffle in all kinds of water levels and
all of the three seasons.
The #3 in the 5B zone Ste-Marguerite River - Slow
even flow in a deep slick...Where to fish?
One of the best ways I've found to explore
pools and test flies is to do a bit of
"pointless fishing."
When I have friends or clients coming up
and the water is relatively high, I like
to find out where the Salmon and trout are
hiding. A nice way to do this is by casting
a few flies to interesting lies. Same goes
for low or normal water levels, when I'm just
not sure what could be "interesting" for the
trout and salmon.
Well,...I don't want to go around stinging
fish all afternoon and spoiling the pool
for the next day, so I started fishing with
flies which have no point or even no bend
at all in the shank! (Remember, my home
waters is an Atlantic salmon river, so sometimes,
just moving a fish is a feat in itself.)
After all, I want to fool the fish into
taking the fly. I don't "need" to hook it,
fight it, bring it to hand then release it.
I can get (IMHO) a realistic evaluation as
to whether or not I "could" have set the hook.
I mean, isn't a big part of fly fishing the
fly selection, scouting, stalking, presentation,
mending, drift etc?
An example of a pointless fly I used
on a touch 'n go one fly 'contest' we
had up here.
I even saw in a fly fishing magazine several
years ago (or was that decades?), an article
featuring a hook manufacturer who was actually
producing pointless hooks.
As water temperatures here are rising as fast
as the level of the river is dropping,...I
might just switch to pointless flies this
coming weekend. ~ Christopher Chin – Jonquiere Quebec
About Chris:
Chris Chin is originally from Kamloops,
British Columbia. He has been fly fishing
on and off ever since he was 10 years old.
Chris became serious about the sport within
the last 10 years.
"I'm a forest engineer by day and part time
guide on the Ste-Marguerite River here in
central Quebec. I've been fishing this river
for about 10 years now and started guiding
about 5 years ago when the local guide's
association sort of stopped functioning."
Chris guides mostly for sea run brook trout
and about 30% of the time for Atlantic Salmon.
"I often don't even charge service fees, as
I'm more interested in promoting the river
than making cash. I like to get new comers
to realize that salmon fishing is REALLY for
anyone who cares to try it. Tradition around
here makes some of the old clan see Salmon
fishing as a sport for the rich. Today our
shore lunches are less on the cucumber sandwich
side and more toward chicken pot pie and Jack
Daniel's."
Chris is 42 years old as of this writing. He
is of Chinese origin although his parents were
born and raised in Jamaica. He has a girlfriend,
Renée. "She and her 12 year old son Vincent
started fly fishing with me last October 2002."
To learn more about the Ste-Marguerite River,
visit Christopher's
website https://pages.videotron.com/fcch/.
~ Christopher Chin
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