Fly fishing without flies. What are we doing?

Flymph said:
I will call year fear and raise you three hates! For every fear factor I see on nightly news, and your are right, there are many, there are at least three "hates" being espoused/exposed.
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I would propose that hate is very often rooted in fear. We fear what we don't understand be it technology, culture, people etc. These are the levers that great manipulators of populations understand well.
 
swimmy said:
Thanks!

I understand your point. I try not to get stuck in that mindset. In the 2000's there were folks talking about how much better it was in the 90's, 90's the 80's, 80's the 70's, and on and on. Walk into Dan Bailey's and look at all of the trout on the wall. Insane!

Lewis and Clark were catching cutthroat on the Missouri River in North Dakota in the early 1800's. But now we've built dams and the created some of the best tailwaters in the world: Big Horn, Madison, Beaverhead, Missouri. Things change. Some for the better, some for the worse.

So yeah, I could focus on how great it used to be. I know a couple of folks in Bozeman who do exactly that and they are kind of beatdowns. That's not my style or personality. Instead, I just try to make the most of my short time here with like minded friends.

On WFF, I started three threads about positive things that happened locally regarding conservation. One was lands outside of Yellowstone being protected under federal law, another was three rivers declared Wild and Scenic, and the last was about a bill including massive spending on our National Parks. Those threads got very little action. Not a peep from many in this same thread. Weird, I'd think we'd celebrate any and all conservation wins.

Longputt is right. Fear and misery are much easier to sell.
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I have fished the Madison since about 1990.

It is just as good today as it was then. I typically fish it at the busiest time if year and have no trouble finding my own water whenever I want to. I don't catch quite as many fish due to fishing pressure and the fact that I don't fish as hard, but I still catch plenty and plenty of those have size and nearly all of them on dries.

There is no reason for pessimism in regards to Montana trout fisheries.
 
Rob Allen said:
I have fished the Madison since about 1990.

It is just as good today as it was then. I typically fish it at the busiest time if year and have no trouble finding my own water whenever I want to. I don't catch quite as many fish due to fishing pressure and the fact that I don't fish as hard, but I still catch plenty and plenty of those have size and nearly all of them on dries.

There is no reason for pessimism in regards to Montana trout fisheries.
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I've fished the Madison since the 1970s...any fly would work, floating, drowned and swinging I know because I was a young novice in those days and two good casts in a row was a miracle!

I agree about the lack of pessimism, I worried when the bobber/indicator thing started, my primary concern was that we were now catching fish from areas that had previously been in-river refuges, right in the middle of the day. I really watched for a drop off in fish/mile but it didn't happen.

I think fishing is important enough to the MT economy that they are careful in regulation to sustain the fisheries. I know people that fish the world and still prefer MT, even with the increased pressure over the last 30 years.
 
Three words: Political focus groups.

My mother always told me that "fear is a great motivator". As a basketball coach she was a great motivator. She knew of what she spoke.

Political parties have found that fear can not only motivate people to vote, it makes you choose a team or a tribe and stay loyal to it. That is the very purpose behind the ubiquitous negative ads in elections. Fear that your tribe is losing power of that the rights you like most are in jeopardy or fear of some other group, economic fear, status fear etc. are the levers that are pushed. Never waste a good crisis.

Consider this quote from political pollster and communications consultant Frank Luntz ,"It's all emotion. But there's nothing wrong with emotion. When we are in love, we are not rational; we are emotional. ... my job is to look for the words that trigger the emotion. ... We know that words and emotion together are the most powerful force known to mankind."

Luntz may be the best America has ever seen at the game. He even tells everyone he is doing it and it still works. He actually is somewhat responsible for the phrase "climate change" rather than global warming. It is less scary than global warming. We all use it now.

It makes sense that bugs are declining. I can see how any number of factors can be at play and likely there is more than 1 thing doing it. We can be mad at cities for lights or mad at ag or monsanto for pesticides etc. Whomever we view as "other" is likely who we find to blame with these days. I blame Yankee fans myself............. and all of Philadelphia. As with most environmental issues, the shear number of people on earth is the likely root cause of all the other causes.

Like Climate change, reduction in insect populations is something that we should probably pay attention too. It's something we probably should actually have some fear about to motivate change. The way these things work though is that we transfer the fear to whomever we see as an enemy and blame them. That's pretty sad and it seems to even have played out on this thread to some extent.
 
Rob Allen said:
I have fished the Madison since about 1990.

It is just as good today as it was then. I typically fish it at the busiest time if year and have no trouble finding my own water whenever I want to. I don't catch quite as many fish due to fishing pressure and the fact that I don't fish as hard, but I still catch plenty and plenty of those have size and nearly all of them on dries.

There is no reason for pessimism in regards to Montana trout fisheries.
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You are right. There was a thread on the other forum where some guy was complaining about Colorado fishing that should have reminded me about being pessimistic.
 
The number of bugs still high, high I tell you!

Wellington-heads-in-sand-close-up1.jpg
 
Flymph said:
You are right. There was a thread on the other forum where some guy was complaining about Colorado fishing that should have reminded me about being pessimistic.
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I complain about the fishing in Colorado but I have no historic frame of reference and I haven't done a whole lot yet. But in a side by side comparison Montana blows Colorado so far out of the water it isn't even funny. Most of that due to 1. The abundance of cold water and the abundance of the hatches. At least that's my anecdotal assessment.
 
Matt B said:
Anecdotal—who grew up out East? Remember lightning bugs aka fireflies? There’s not nearly how many there were. Hardly see them now, and not in numbers like I remember.
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yep, same...totally anecdotal (yes folks, this is quite different than an actual statement--or pic--of supposed "fact" as some would have you believe), but even in my childhood spent in central TX, I noticed a decline from my early single digit time to my later, pre-teen (but still double digit) time there. It should be noted that this isn't an actual study, just anecdotal observation in case those who care actually care.
 
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