Well said, Miles.
Cheers,
-- Greg
Sent from my iPhone
Brendan,
I don't find this apology particularly helpful. First, I think you're misunderstanding the point of this club: namely, to encourage people to fish more diversely in our region, and not focus exclusively on teeny-weeny trout. For every angler you bump elbows with on Big Hunting each Saturday, I would reckon TPFR has a half-dozen hitting 4MR, Chain Bridge, the Occoquan, Riverbend, Hemlock Overlook, and other non-trout locations. We spend 80-90% of our time up here talking about everything but trout; the easiest way to keep people from fishing for trout is to show them something better. And your use of SNP is disingenuous: every post I can remember on the subject this fall has recommended people stay out of SNP streams during the spawning season.
Second, I also think you're making a categorical error in how you understand lots of the places we fish. Mossy Creek, Upper South River, Beaver Creek, the Gunpowder, the lower Jackson, and - yes - Big Hunting Creek are man-made fisheries. Even if the trout are 'wild' on Big Hunting, there is no way they would be there now without extensive human intervention. So it's kinda BS to swing the term 'wild' around as if you're standing up for something pristine. We (people) made those fisheries, and we can make more. Those guys on Big Hunting are evidence that there's demand for lots more of these sorts of fisheries.
So where you might look at this forum and this group as lots of competitors who want to fish 'your' favorite spots, I see allies that can help push fisheries managers to make better decisions, and to revitalize -- if not create outright -- more 'wild' trout streams in our region. We've already seen this group join the effort to pressure the Atlantic Fisheries Council to reduce the commercial menhaden catch, and some of us are watching the restoration of 4 Mile Run closely and looking for ways we can get involved (http://alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/planning/info/masterplan/Four%20Mile%20Run%20Restoration%20Master%20Plan.pdf) -- just to bring this back to the original thread topic.
Point being: I think your apology would be more effective if you were tuned in to what we're trying to do, and tried to be helpful, rather than woe-is-me whinging about the end of the world as we know it.
thanks,
Miles
--
http://www.tpfr.org
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