Lost Trout Are Your Fault

Photo: Courtesy of Dom Swentosky/Troutbitten

When you lose a fish, Dom Swentosky believes you’re at fault—not the fish.

And losing a fish is decidedly different from missing one, as Dom is careful to point out. In this recent story over at Troutbitten, Dom lays out why he “believes the blame lies with the angler and not the fish” when your line suddenly goes slack in the middle of a fight.

As is often the case in fly fishing, Dom posits that the reason we lose fish is impatience. Whether we’re trying to horse the fish in too quickly, or we jump the gun on the hook set, not giving things enough time is a recipe for failure.

But it’s not solely impatience, either. Dom also notes that where you fight a fish impacts whether you’ll lose it.

“Trout are best fought in the lower two thirds of the water column,” he writes. “The riverbed is a bad place to fight a trout, and so is the surface. And I notice that these two places are where most losses occur.”

Thinking back on my own fishing, my experiences closely mirror Dom’s. How often have you lost a fish when you had its head up above water, and you were inches away from slipping it into your net, only for the fish to make a final—and successful—dash for freedom? After reading Dom’s story, and thinking on those experiences, I realize that most of the fish I lost in that situation probably hadn’t been fought for long enough.

I encourage you to read his story and think back on your own failures, and how you can learn from them. You can read the entire story here.