After catching a trout the other night while dragging back my fly by hand I started to think about which fish earns the distinction of the dumbest in my fishing lifetime and I figured that some of you might want to share your experiences as well. While all of the fish caught are dumb, (they wouldn?t get caught if they were smart); and all of us praise the ones that are difficult; some are just plain stupid, especially if I?m catching them. My all time dumbest award goes to a trout I caught three times in two days; TWICE in the same day on the same fly.
I was fishing a favorite limestone stream in the summer one day when I hooked what felt to be a heavy trout on a beetle. The fish put up a lethargic fight and when I brought him to hand I realized I had caught a colorless stocked brown with some tell tale stubby pectoral fins. This particular section of stream is not stocked and hasn?t been for years so a stocker is a rarity. Several hours later I was back down in the same pool and saw a riser in the same general vicinity and cast and hooked a fish. This time something felt familiar: that wimpy fight. Much to my surprise it was my stocker again; twice in the same day on the same fly in the same spot!
The next day I was back at the same stream in the same pool when again I saw a riser. Once again it was my trusty beetle to the rescue and again a hooked fish. The lethargic fight and the weigh of the fish felt vaguely familiar. It was ?d?j? vu all over again?! Once again for the third time in two days old stubby was back reinforcing my belief that fish ISN?T brain food. I should have dispatched him to save the gene pool or better yet just whacked him with a rock to knock some sense into him but I released him to get caught on another day or hour but I never saw him again.
I don’t know if this qualifies as dumb, or just agressive, but my neighbor used to go after bluefish, and once they felt it was time to have a little fun, they would catch blues on hookless plugs, and even beer cans. When a fish goes after a beer can, you know that something is exactly “clicking” in thier brains.
[This message has been edited by CJR (edited 13 May 2005).]
i have to say that chain pickeral are probably the dumbest fish i have ever hooked. they seem to attack anything you through at them. i know that is mostly instict but i have always thought about casting to these agrresive fish without a hook and see just how many times they wll hit a certian lure or fly before they realize its not edable.
Northern Pike get my vote. I was spinning (no stones please, it was long ago) and saw a group of them. I reeled in fast to switch leaders and the dumb fish followed it right up to and into the canoe. Best part was sitting there barefoot with a 33" Northern snapping away while bouncing against my legs.
In catch and release areas they are caught 3 and 4 times a day, day after day. They will swim up to the FF and wait for the hook to be removed so they can go back to their holding position and get caught again.
When they are feeding on hatches you can move within 3 ft of trout and catch them all day long.
JC is right. Grayling are pure idiots. Pike aren’t far behind. The dumbest trout on the planet could swim circles around a grayling. And most trout are smarter than me, I’m convinced.
Pike…We were up in Canada my young nephews were fooling around with this big yellow plug on a spinning rod. They caught a big pike and it broke off. 5 minutes later we see them laughing and carrying on. They got their plug back…fish still attached…on a chartreuse plug. Dumb!
JC your vote for grayling wont get any argument from me, though I have caught some lake trout in Canada that will probably be very close. Especially the one that had a 15 inch grayling still sticking out of its mouth. There was no way it could swallow anymore food.
you know i love blue gills (especially the salt water ones) but i watched my son dab 10 bluegills huddled together in a small pool. and though their brethren were disappearing the next gill took the fly like it was nothing.
The dumbest fish has to be the hatchery trout that this state stocks. I’ve seen hatchery trucks spraying the fish out a 4" pipe off a bridge and “trout fishermen” catching them while more are still being sprayed out! It was unbelievable.
i was fishing a small stream and cast along the bank but before i realized it, my leader hung up hard on a branch in the water. as i was trying to untangle it, i watched a tiny brookie sit there and nip at the fly over and over. i guess it would’ve been funnier if he hooked himself.
i’ve also caught the same fish twice and it was a stocker too. same fish on two casts.
Mackeral once while bait casting off the peir in San Diago…I accidently left my trusty size 2/0 hook and leader hanging over the side (about a foot) off the water.
While I was lookin for muscles on the posts to use as bait to catch mackeral, which in turn were bait to catch the Sculpins (best eating fish in the world imho) hehe.
I come back with a handfull of muscles and the damn mackeral had jumped up and grabbed the hook and was flopping like mad. I grabbed the poll and he got off.
Of course I cursed at him for being so ignorant to reject that stainless steel hook. Then I set the poll back down…and sure enough…
God that was funny my wife still laughs about me goin to all that trouble to catch something that will just jump up and grab the hook.
A kind word is absolutely free to give, but totally priceless to recieve
I think rock bass are the most stupid fish. I’ve caught them with bare hooks before, and it is really easy to catch the same fish over and over in one day. They sure do scrap well though.
Bamboozle, Diane and other Grayling knockers… I have not found the Grayling (at least the European variety to be so dumb. I havn’t caught that many and Its been a long time since but I remember one in particular that would look my fly over a lot better than any trout ever did. He would drift downstream tail first with his nose about an inch from the fly and refuse to take it. I finally caught him when he went upstream and was feeding in a shallow area with his whole fin and part of his back out of the water. I dropped the fly in front of him and he took it…but this occurred days after my first encounter with the son of a gun. Maybe the European ones are a little more wary than the western ones. ???
I have no vote, but, I will quote a guide I was listening to at a TU meeting. He said, “Trout are not the smartest fish we fish for, but, trout do know the difference between something that looks alive and someting that does not.” His point being that the fly and the presentation must look like something alive.
