Tip # 25 – Spend Off Time Researching Fishing Techniques
As with most things in life, we can’t spend all of our time doing what we love. Fishing is something that most of us need to set time aside to do. We can’t necessarily wake up every morning, grab our waders and rods and head for the river. Sure, it’d be nice, but it just isn’t realistic.
In my off time, I do as much reading and researching as I can without the ‘better half’ getting too upset with me. This means searching the web on various topics related to fishing. I might be looking for new toys to play with, or maybe seeking out a new fly pattern to tie up for my next trip. Other things that I take the time to learn more about are subjects such as river flow levels and how they’ve tied into some great fishing days. Your local ministry of natural resourses, or the equivalent in your area will probably be able to provide all sorts of great information. And this is where your fishing diary will come in handy as well. Most of these river flow websites will have historical data that you can look up based on days you’ve been out and had success. Here in Ontario, you can visit http://scitech.pyr.ec.gc.ca/waterweb/formnav.asp to do a little research on your own!
Of course, I also spend quite a bit of time reading various blogs and participating in various discussion forums related to fishing. Most of the forums I visit are local to the areas I fish, but the blogs and other sites I visit are just plain interesting and fun to read! Here’s a little list of some of the websites I frequent:
- The Joy Of Fly Fishing New Brunswick
- Fly Fish Ontario
- Hipwader
- Midcurrent
- Trout Underground
- The Urban Fly Fisher
There are tons more out there, so let me know some of the ones you like!
