Anomalies?

Otherwise, I was talking to a mate back home who's starting to fly fish for pike. With mixed results. Obviously living in Japan I don't fish for pike, but I used to fish for them a lot both with fly and lures. It's the species I most look forward to fishing any time I go back to Scotland on holiday too. I know a few people who think they're just rabid predators that are super easy to catch because they'll eat anything put in front of them. Not true, but the view seems to be hard to shift, which is probably why old mate back home is getting frustrated. It's partly cultural, Scotland is one of the most pro-salmonid fishing cultures going, to my knowledge only Ireland still retains the same level of pro-trout anti-pike sentiment. Obviously if Stevie is seeing them as a sport fish that's not what he consciously thinks, but I'm sure it's there. He must have heard the refrain from the old team as often as I did.. Kill it, they eat all the trout! Fortunately that's on the wane, but the image of the pike remains.

The other thing is that he's caught them by accident while trout fishing. Accidental captures of non target species don't really tell us much, but can shape our image of the species in question; "They're easy because I wasn't even trying to catch one". Perch get tarred with this brush by British trout anglers too. It's an understandable conclusion but doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. I mean if they were so much easier than trout to catch, even when you're not trying, why don't they dominate all the trout anglers catches? Following their logic the answer must be that trout are easier, no? Maybe not quite, but it's a point I've put to a few trout people over the years..and trout generally aren't that hard to catch in the grand scheme of things.

You can't build your expectations on an anomaly, that's the thing. So Stevie is going to have to do a bit of learning on the water and broaden his repertoire. He's currently only fishing one presentation, with no other options. A big fiber baitfish on a 7' leader usually on an intermediate. It's not a bad option, but if it's not working he's got nothing else. Obviously they don't just eat anything and some days they can be incredibly hard, but most days they will eat something. Learning where they'll be in different conditions and at different times of year will take a bit of time and books, videos and other anglers can help, but ultimately it requires real feedback from the fish.

While I've no immediate plans to go home, he has go me thinking about pike so maybe next year. It's been a while since I was back. The only obstacle is the option of tropical islands in the vicinity.