Post by dpiscator on Mar 31, 2009 8:59:45 GMT -4
Awww hell, you can fly the "Jolly Roger" on yer jetboat or you can fly the Brownliners Dixie-"Jack". It's all good!
Is there a widening rift between blueliners (clean trout stream anglers) and brownliners (river and creek bass anglers)? Many seem to think so. Ever since the Wall Street Journal broke the story on brownlining, blog posts and message boards have lit up on the topic, including a post on Fly Talk. So what's the deal anyway?
Critics of the brown line seem to hit upon several points, first and foremost that brownlining has been around for far longer than we have been led to believe. I have no doubts that man has been brownlining since the advent of the fly rod. It's just that few have had the gumption to stand up and admit it in public.
Many comments threaded on fly fishing message boards seem to evolve around passé d*ck and fart jokes, that brownlining = fishing for baby ruths. Even the perception of brownlining portrayed by the author in the WSJ article plays up on this fact. I've done some urban diaper dodging for carp before, but roughfish live in pretty places too. There are plenty of us out there that choose to fish over salmonids for bass and carp in the same stretch of water. We care about the environment and the waters we fish; in no way do we "sanction nature's destruction".
A stereotype worth reiteration is the fact that trash fish don't require quality gear. I call bullsh*t.
if you have quality gear... your nose is turned up? NOT ME!if you are old... you are the whitehaired stereotypical "orvis guy"
if you are under 35 with good gear... your a "walking ad" NOT ME
carp are the most difficult in freshwater... needing more quality gear than raceway pelletheads... NO WAY!
You could make an argument for gear 'till your lips turned blue. Do spring creek browns, brookies, and 'bows need a machined and ported large arbor aluminum reel with low inertia drag? nuts no. You need one like you need a piña colonic. It still doesn't stop the reel companies from trying to sell you one. The only non-anadromous fish I've caught in freshwater that took me to my backing was a carp. Same with a broken rod: carp.
The final observation taken from the backlash of WSJ article involves the accusation that the brownliners are putting up the very same barriers that we sought to take down within fly fishing. I don't believe that to be the case. I think the boundary is being put up for us by others. Specifically the brownline nation isn't a case of exclusion, but merely a band of a few brownliners showing some solidarity after getting kicked around in the beanbag by folks hatin' on the brown lifestyle. To say we are exclusionary is laughable; look at our citizenship. We aren't looking for a trophy or a pat on the back. The Nation of brothers and sisters are solely a vehicle for distributing propaganda to folks interested in our teachings. I'm not looking to include or exclude; I don't even care who you are and what you're fishing for, so long as you leave me alone on the river and let me fish. After all, isn't it simply about the fishing?