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”?
“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.
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.
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”. :roll:
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.
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…
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.
I’ve known a couple of guys in the past who were hard core. One of them did a good bit of trapping in the winters (back in the '70’s when fur prices were high) to provide funds. They were young guys. I’ve heard of others who spent 4 or 5 years in the service and squirelled away their pay. When they got out, they went fishing, hunting, and camping for a year or two. I haven’t known anybody doing this who drove anything approaching a new vehicle. They weren’t big on fashion. They lived camping out. They had strong opinions on various brands of canned beans etc… They ate game and fish as much as they could. Some did day labor for a little cash. They lived out of their vehicles for long periods of time. Most would give you the time of day, but maybe not much more. It seemed to be a young man’s game and after a while they shaved and put on ties and went into the work-a-day world. At least they had won through some memories to carry them for the rest of their lives. Let us hope that we never get too “civilized” here for their type to disappear completely. A bit of adventure in a man’s youth can be a very good thing. From my cubicle, I lift my coffee mug in their honor and hope that the ones that I met are still doing well.
I do remember a friend growing up who probably fits the hardcore description. He married youg to a girl who didn’t want kids, inherited her mom’s house and worked at a good paying job. Dave never worked as long as I can remember. His wife loved the outdoors as much as him and on weekends they either went fishing, hunting or claming. Weekdays Dave was always out in his old Ford Pickup with a canopy on the back. He loved to salmon,steelhead and sturgeon fish. He had a smoke house and there was always smoked fish on hand. He started hunting when the bantail pigeon opened on Sept. 15 and hunted all the way up through goose season and then would be hunting deer and elk. We all envied him and like some of you have described Dave was a very quiet solitary man. You could go along but you better be ready to perform at his speed or that was your last trip. Dave to was frugile, beans and hotdogs were his usual fare. I imagine it would be harder today with the cost of gas aand inflation. The next generation hardcore guy might be riding a motorcycle or an electric truck.
Now the reports are coming in. These anglers are out there and they are unique and very interesting people:
RE: Hardecore Angler Qualifier,
You don’t simply measure this by how many days you fish. It is an attitude and a behavior. If you are a Hardcore Angler or know one, little things seem to pop out that tip it off:
One time I checked at a local flyshop about one of the hardcore types that I know. I was visiting his area, stopped by to see him and was told a bunch of catch-related stuff that would likely be unbelievable for the mere mortal to have done. So I hit the fly shop in Mr.X’s town and worked in a question to the flyshop staffer about Mr. X:
“I’ll tell you something about Mr. X” (I knew the truth would now be uncovered :D) “If Mr. X said that he caught 15 Salmon this morning, then he actually caught more!” Hardcore anglers tend to downplay their actions!
And I finally get my other buddy to answer the phone. Got him on his cell. He was switching rivers and was in BC. Be home in a month. He and his partner had just caught 1000 salmon and they were headed north to a new bite.
I qualified at one time. In the Canadian coast guard I was stationed on a small island for 4 years. I fished at least 8 hours a day everyday. I fished 4 hours before my shift and 4 hours after my shift. Everything from giant Halibut to Pile perch. I hunted Octopus during low tides , netted prawns and shrimp, pulled my crab pots on the way out to fish for salmon and again on the way in. Hated to quit for work or because it got to dark to fish. Sometimes I even fished in the dark for cod. Strange thing is I hardly ever kept the fish, crabs etc. Just lived to catch them. Then I was transferred to the Queen Charlotte Islands where the fishing was even better.(winter steelhead) . I was there for 2 years hard-core as ever.
I was sent out for a refresher course to Ottawa for 3 months where I met and married My wife. Responsibility of a new family slowed down but never stopped my fishing. Over the next 40 or so years I slowly changed my ways to where I only fish about 2 or 3 times a week in the ice-off season.
I fished 8o different bodies of water last year, I’ll leave the days I fished to your imigination since I don’t want to be included in a numbers game. I love variety and fished many of the same water here in Colorado over many times but also ventured out of state and country to find incredible fish holes!
Bio: Self employed 35 yr old not retired but loves to travel & fish
I know of a hardcore hasbeen fisherman. This man had a loving wife and two beautiful daughters and his own business. He started fishing again after taking a number of years off. Obsession took over. Had to have the boat, nothing but the best and the fastest. Had to get to that water first. He couldn’t make due with a few mediocre rods and reels. He had to have close to a hundered, $150.00 rods, $400.00 reels. He said he could justify them.
Lures? Probably into the thousands. A dozen at a time of the best ones in the same color, size and style. Had to have that back-up in case one was lost.
He decided he had to make his own lures. You know,he could improve on style and technique.
TWO HUNDERED AND FIFTY SIX days on the water in one year. Twenty years close to the same numbers. He missed seeing his daughters grow up even though he loved them more than life itself. He wasn’t around for his wife when she needed him, but she stayed by his side.
This man traveled far and wide to fish. The amount of money spent can’t be counted.
This man had it all,--------------until he lost one of his children, lost his business, and proceede to loose his touch with reality. When this man came around, he realized he was old and had lost the most precious things in his life.
This man still fishes, grandchildren sitting on his lap as he helps them wind in a fish now and then. Tears occasionaly come into his eyes when he thinks to much.
Being a Phake Doctor has its privileges. I don’t make much money, but I have a flexible schedule. So I fish when I don’t need to be doing anything else.
Wife, family, and friends (and the Big Guy) come first though. Sometimes I get to combine that with fishin’. And once in a while I even catch a fish.
I’d fish more if I could, but I don’t think the trips would mean as much if I did. It’s a reward for working hard to make a humble living, and I get to have a couple cool toys to do such bidding.
Hardcore? I dunno. It’s frequently on my mind. But it’s not the most important thing in my life…so say what you will. I have made some wonderful friends and had some fascinating experiences fishing. Wouldn’t trade any of 'em.
My wife just finished one of William Tapply’s, Brady Coyne mysteries. She announced that Coyne is just like me. He never quits thinking about fishing, even when he isn’t fishing.
