A New Yardstick Part II

Anyone can hit a body of water with light gear and size 8-4 flies and catch a ton of fish.  As A. D. Livingston states in his 1994 book Bass on the Fly:

‘To be sure, small lures will catch some bass of any sort, but I firmly believe that day in and day out you’ll catch more fish with size-2 and larger flies.”

I would love to be able to tell you how I, day in and day out, fish with my 5wt and catch 3lb to 5lb bass consistently.  I have, on occasion, caught some really good sized fish as described in the previous sentence.  But consistently?  Depends on your definition of  “consistently”, doesn’t it?

 Well here is my definition:

Consistency would be to frequently place in the top 50% of a tournament held on the body of water you just fished.

There is my definition and  your new yardstick.  Consider it a challenge from me to you.

How do you put it into practice? 

Tournament weight information is readily available thanks to the internet.  Even if your body of water doesn’t have clubs fishing it, you can use data from nearby similar lakes.  Find club websites for your area and they will inevitably have a “tournament results” page and you will find the competitors’ weights  for the bodies of water they fish.  Most clubs and trails will fish the same lakes, sometimes twice, each season.  So there is a high probability that you will be able to match time of year too.  The info will also show how many keepers caught and weighed in.

I know what you are asking me:  I am to weigh my catches? 

Damn straight.

 You can obviously estimate weights, but even seasoned bass fishermen either under or over guess their catches.  The scale doesn’t lie and one of your goals should be to accurately estimate your catch.  I use a Boga Grip but there are a lot of other options.  You should always measure the length your catch and any fish under the minimum legal length doesn’t get weighed because it doesn’t count.

Many people gauge others and themselves by their photos of large fish catches.  That’s not what I am talking about here.  What I am talking about is Lefty Kreh’s third stage in the progression of the fly fisherman:  to catch large fish consistently.

If you take up my challenge, you will find that the fire of your imagination will be stoked and you will experiment more.  You will grow as a fly fisherman and as a bass fisherman.