Fishing???

[Swamp Girl]

The thread about FFS reminded me of this true story:

 

For a magazine article, I once fished with a couple guides who told me a couple unsettling stories about how some rich and powerful people "fished." The guides had worked for a billionaire with one of those gargantuan Montana ranches. The billionaire's guests were rich and powerful, from Barbara Walters to Dick Cheney. The billionaire raised rainbow trout in ponds and those fish were fed by underwater feeders until they were monstrous. When guests arrived, some were captured and moved into the stream, where there were more underwater feeders, but not operating. The rainbows, by conditioning, would wait at the inoperative underwater feeders, waiting to be fed and growing hungrier and hungrier.

 

The guides, knowing the locations of the feeders, would play the game and say to a guest, "That looks like a good spot. Why don't you cast there?"

 

And...kaboom!

 

The guests occasionally caught a native fish, which the guides considered a true catch, so it thrilled them, which confused the guests, for why would a guide thrill to a relatively tiny cutthroat after the guests had been catching giant rainbows?

 

I also have a story about how they "hunted," which is even more off-center. 

[BigAngus752]

It would be a horrible life to be "rich and famous".  To be spoon-fed every experience and every piece of information.  Every single person in your life is a fake trying to ingratiate themselves to you or manipulate you.  It's no wonder they are so out of touch with the rest of us.  I bet that if all of them were told about their "fishing trip" now, some would be hugely disappointed and some would feel that they deserved such royal treatment.  I'm sure some hate constantly being duped and others are content to be oblivious. 

[Swamp Girl]

18 minutes ago, BigAngus752 said:

It would be a horrible life to be "rich and famous".  To be spoon-fed every experience and every piece of information.  Every single person in your life is a fake trying to ingratiate themselves to you or manipulate you.  It's no wonder they are so out of touch with the rest of us.  I bet that if all of them were told about their "fishing trip" now, some would be hugely disappointed and some would feel that they deserved such royal treatment.  I'm sure some hate constantly being duped and others are content to be oblivious. 

 

Angus, I once fished the Whitefish River on Michigan's UP for smallies and caught quantity and quality. So, I invited two pals the next year, regaling them with tales of what we'd catch. Well, the weather and fishing were foul and day by day, I felt guiltier for promising, but not delivering.

 

So, one morning, I rose at 3:30, went into the gray rain, and looked and looked. Fish have to eat, right? And I found them, smallmouth and walleyes, clustered on a point. I caught ten quick ones and motored back to my buddies. It took three days of delayed gratification, but when I returned to that point with my friends and we caught them two and three at a time, our joy was beyond the ken of some people who don't have to wait, who don't have to find their way to the fish. 

 

^This^ story is everyone's story at BR. We all can tell tales of failing, but not quitting, and then FINALLY finding fish. These stories are our best stories. Failure is the path to true joy. 

 

 

[gim]

@ol'crickety example above about rich suits catching big dumb trout in a private location reminds me of game farm hunting for pheasants and chukars here.  People pay a lot money to have memberships at gun and sporting clubs with private access to farm raised game birds.  The birds are released half an hour before people arrive, and they are dumb as chickens.  You can quite often spot them on the ground before they flush because they are unafraid of people and dogs.  There is almost no "hunting" involved.  People pay big bucks to do this because they are unwilling to scout and hunt wild birds that actually try to evade them.  Hunting wild birds is a challenge most of the time and is rewarding when my dog and I are able to put a few in the bag.

 

I have done it twice before and I'll probably do it again, because it does an amazing job of training a young dog.  It guarantees success to a bunch of slow, dumb birds, so the benefit is there.  But I would never refer to it as hunting, and I certainly would not be bragging about it to anyone.

[Swamp Girl]

5 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Hunting wild birds is a challenge most of the time and is rewarding when my dog and I are able to put a few in the bag.

 

^That's^ it, the challenge. Rod Sterling wrote a Twilight Zone episode about a gambler who thought he was in Heaven because he won at every game. He wasn't in Heaven. 

[Susky River Rat]

I fail wayyyy more then I have success. I am extremely hard on myself and do not like to take the easy way out. I guess this is some of my anti FFS attitude. 
 

if you want to pay to go to these places and hunt more power to you. If you want to go to pay lakes to fish it’s your money do it. It does not mean you did anything special to me. 
 

I fish to have fun and hopefully catch fish. I don’t need trophies. I don’t need bragging rights. I just need to have fun.

[Further North]

2 hours ago, BigAngus752 said:

It would be a horrible life to be "rich and famous".  To be spoon-fed every experience and every piece of information.  Every single person in your life is a fake trying to ingratiate themselves to you or manipulate you.  It's no wonder they are so out of touch with the rest of us.  I bet that if all of them were told about their "fishing trip" now, some would be hugely disappointed and some would feel that they deserved such royal treatment.  I'm sure some hate constantly being duped and others are content to be oblivious. 

Rich and famous people only wind up in those circumstances if they choose to.

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

^This^ story is everyone's story at BR. We all can tell tales of failing, but not quitting, and then FINALLY finding fish. These stories are our best stories. Failure is the path to true joy. 

Anyone who is afraid to fail is domed to failure.

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I have done it twice before and I'll probably do it again, because it does an amazing job of training a young dog.  It guarantees success to a bunch of slow, dumb birds, so the benefit is there.

This is the value of hunt clubs; exposure of the dogs to lots of birds and opportunities to train.

...there are also the birds that escape the daily releases, which often become some of the toughest birds to actually hunt because of the constant pressure that lasts much longer than the actual hunting season.  A released bird that survives a season becomes one of the most difficult to hunt.

[gim]

7 minutes ago, Further North said:

This is the value of hunt clubs; exposure of the dogs to lots of birds and opportunities to train.

Yep, I've seen it first hand with my own dog.

 

I get it, some people are lazy and some people have a lot of money, and some are just unwilling to put in the work, time, and effort required to put wild birds in the bag, or even attempt to.  Game farms are there to make money, and as long as there is a demand for it, they will continue to be there and turn a profit.

 

As for the bird that survives a preserve hunt, I can't comment on that part.  The ones I encountered there were dumber than a rock.  I literally had one flush, fly into a tree, and knock itself stone dead.  I'm sure someone could take advantage of getting some easy ones that left the preserve property too, if they had access to the adjacent land.

[Susky River Rat]

You guys should also see the PA trout opener. Elbow to elbow getting in fist fights over fish that were put in a couple weeks before. Once they are fished out you won’t see an angler there again till next year. (Expect in lakes)

[Further North]

13 minutes ago, gimruis said:

...some people are lazy and some people have a lot of money, and some are just unwilling to put in the work, time, and effort required to put wild birds in the bag, or even attempt to.

I would rephrase that as "...some people have different priorities, or life gets in the way of putting in the work, time, and effort required to put wild birds in the bag, or even attempt to."

Lots of people just don't have access to the numbers and quality of birds that you and I do, living where we live, and the time and expenses of travel to get to that many birds can easily exceed the cost of taking Fido to a hunt club.

When we lived in SE WI, my career was in full swing, and my daughter was young, my access to birds was limited to a very small number of wild pheasants, a few woodcock, put and take pheasants, and game farms.  Anyone who lives in an area like that has the same limitations on bird availability, and traveling on the weekends is expensive and not something you can always fit into a busy life.

 

20 minutes ago, gimruis said:

As for the bird that survives a preserve hunt, I can't comment on that part.  The ones I encountered there were dumber than a rock.  I literally had one flush, fly into a tree, and knock itself stone dead.  I'm sure someone could take advantage of getting some easy ones that left the preserve property too, if they had access to the adjacent land.

When we lived in SE WI a few friends and I belonged to a small, reasonably priced, and really well run hunt club.  No fancy clubhouse (just a converted barn), no staff (just the owner and his wife) and no facilities. Incredible cover, and quite a few leftover birds that quickly learned to thrive in the heaviest impenetrable cover on the property.  Getting any of those birds in the air was an achievement, and plenty made it through a season more than twice as long as the public season, which made them escape artists of remarkable caliber.

 

[Swamp Girl]

I like this: Trout sip.  Bass inhale.  Muskies bite.

[Buzzbaiter]

3 hours ago, gimruis said:

People pay big bucks to do this because they are unwilling to scout and hunt wild birds that actually try to evade them.

In addition to being too lazy to scout, they’re also unwilling to manage land so that native gamebirds have habitat to live on. There’s not much point to sportsmen’s conservation if hunters and fishermen aren’t interested in conservation. It’s sad to see a sport watered down to such a degree. I’d just shoot clays at that point.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

I like this: Trout sip.  Bass inhale.  Muskies bite.

and Spotted Bass murder 😁

[gim]

1 hour ago, Buzzbaiter said:

In addition to being too lazy to scout, they’re also unwilling to manage land so that native gamebirds have habitat to live on. There’s not much point to sportsmen’s conservation if hunters and fishermen aren’t interested in conservation. It’s sad to see a sport watered down to such a degree. I’d just shoot clays at that point.

Some of that is out of their control.  Upland bird populations are greatly affected by availability of habitat.  Much of the habitat loss is directly due to modern agriculture.  Agriculture is a very powerful entity and they have a lot of lobbying power on how the land gets used.  Unfortunately, wildlife habitat is not very high on that list because greed and profits are more important in the world of crop yields.

 

I do agree that when it comes to that point, sporting clays are just a better alternative instead.

[Further North]

7 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I like this: Trout sip.  Bass inhale.  Muskies bite.

Thanks.

[Bigassbass]

There is a park near my house that stocks trout each year when the weather is cold enough to sustain them. I went one year and I gotta say it was no fun at all, that's not fishing that's catching dumb fish that have never seen a hook or bait.  I've never went back and I'd go real trout fishing any day if I liked to wade.  Never understood why people thing everything should be easy, cause life isn't easy!

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Bigassbass said:

Never understood why people thing everything should be easy, cause life isn't easy!

 

Amen.

[Tennessee Boy]

I guess I’m one of the rich fisherman like the ones in the story.   I fish almost exclusively in lakes formed by dams that cost billions of dollars in today’s dollars.  These lakes have been stocked and managed by a team of experts that are funded by an annual fee paid by me and other anglers that use the lakes.  I fish out of a boat that cost more money than half the people in the world make in a lifetime.

[Swamp Girl]

27 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I guess I’m one of the rich fisherman like the ones in the story.   I fish almost exclusively in lakes formed by dams that cost billions of dollars in today’s dollars.  These lakes have been stocked and managed by a team of experts that are funded by an annual fee paid by me and other anglers that use the lakes.  I fish out of a boat that cost more money than half the people in the world make in a lifetime.

 

To me, the story is one of deception and pretension. The rich guests were deceived into thinking they were catching huge trout so they could pretend they were skilled fishers. 

[Woody B]

I suppose being "rich" is a double edged sword.   I suppose some people are rich by luck, or accident, but normally being rich means being successful.   Being successful in most cases takes a BUNCH of work.   I suspect many of these people don't have time to hunt, fish, or whatever the "right" way. 

 

I enjoy Bass Resource because it's a diverse group.  There may be members here who have been or still go on high fence hunts or fish for huge bass in managed pay lakes.  My hat's off to them for their financial success, as well as the fun they're having.   

 

[Tennessee Boy]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

To me, the story is one of deception and pretension. The rich guests were deceived into thinking they were catching huge trout so they could pretend they were skilled fishers. 

I enjoyed the story just as I enjoy all of your posts.   I see a lot of myself in the story.  Where would I be without my expensive boat,  expensive tackle,   and clean (mostly) stocked lakes?  Am I deceiving myself?

[Swamp Girl]

42 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I enjoyed the story just as I enjoy all of your posts.   I see a lot of myself in the story.  Where would I be without my expensive boat,  expensive tackle,   and clean (mostly) stocked lakes?  Am I deceiving myself?

 

I'm glad you enjoy my posts. Back at ya. 

 

I did understand your point and I'm a less expensive version of you, but still pricey, for I'm fishing from a Kevlar canoe with a carbon fiber paddle, but both you and I actually find our fish and our fish aren't fattened and then sited and starved to trigger a hit. And no one is deceiving us about the bass we catch. Even if your lakes are stocked, you know that they are.

 

The guests weren't told that they were casting to fattened and then starved trout. The deception is what bothered the guides. The guests would celebrate their big catches and the guides were expected to play along. The guides wanted to teach the guests to catch trout that weren't prepped to be caught. 

 

[Dwight Hottle]

14 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I guess I’m one of the rich fisherman like the ones in the story.   I fish almost exclusively in lakes formed by dams that cost billions of dollars in today’s dollars.  These lakes have been stocked and managed by a team of experts that are funded by an annual fee paid by me and other anglers that use the lakes.  I fish out of a boat that cost more money than half the people in the world make in a lifetime.

Sounds like tongue in cheek to me. Hint TVA, state fish & game dept & Tenn state license for fishing privilege. The expensive boat doesn’t have to be that expensive considering more than half the world lives in poverty compared to our standards. 

[TnRiver46]

14 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I enjoyed the story just as I enjoy all of your posts.   I see a lot of myself in the story.  Where would I be without my expensive boat,  expensive tackle,   and clean (mostly) stocked lakes?  Am I deceiving myself?

You can still catch ‘em. I use cheap gear and a metal canoe to fish quite often, and they don’t stock much of anything but walleye and striper and those black nose crappie in lakes round here. Luckily the lakes restock themselves with bass 

[Skunkmaster-k]

I wish I could afford to be a good fisherman.