If You Love Trout, Take Up Bass Fishing
We’ve entered a new era when how anglers interact with the rivers can be as much a conservation concern as anything.
I get asked all the time what my favorite fish is. My answers tend to fluctuate with my moods.
I’ve often said that I daydream about trout, but my night dreams inevitably involve tarpon. I mean that.
Lately, I’ve taken a growing shine to redfish. The more I fish for reds, the more I like them. They give you a fair fight. And they are resilient, tough, blue-collar fish (sometimes literally).
I respect the hell out of permit, muskies and those “hard to catch” fish, but I’m not a glutton for punishment.
At the end of the day, if I had one day to fish for one type of fish, it would be trout. I like all the moving parts that go into successful trout fishing, like reading currents, matching hatches, making casts and perfect drifts. Despite being a complex puzzle, trout fishing is my comfort zone. It’s where I’m from, and where I want to stay.
Like many, many others.
It’s no secret that 75% of the products sold in fly fishing are trout-centric. Most of the fly rods sold in America are 9-foot 5-weights. By a wide margin. Still. Despite efforts to branch out in different directions and different species, the fly world spins on an axis of trout.
But this year promises to challenge that, at least in the West.
With weak snowpack in many places, though it’s snowing today in Colorado, the outlook is pretty bleak. We’re expecting record low flows, fires, and if recent history is any indication, warm temperatures will proliferate and make rivers too warm to responsibly fish for trout.
That’s a dire set of circumstances. But if you think it’s going to be hard to make a living as a trout shop owner, outfitter, or guide in some of these places, think about how hard it will be for the trout themselves to make any living at all.
All of us should be making plans B, C and D.
Now is the time to learn more about smallmouth bass. Smallmouth should be the national fish, in my opinion.
Common carp used to only be the fancy of weirdo anglers, myself included. 2026 should be the Summer of Carp. Get good at carp fishing, and there isn’t a trout river–even a bonefish flat–in the world that should intimidate you for the rest of your life.
Northern pike head for deep water and weeds in the hot months, but they can still be caught.
Take up saltwater fishing. Pray for rain. Go North, young man–to the upper Midwest or beyond. Take up birdwatching. Something.
The point being: The average angler who truly loves trout and trout fishing might consider fishing for anything but trout in the coming months, at least in some places. Give them a break. A real break.
Hoot owl restrictions are bogus. Lipstick on a pig.
I’m not saying I’m going to turn my back on trout fishing entirely, if conditions are right. But maybe pump the brakes on trying to catch as many as possible every time you go out this year.
There is a time and a place for everything. A 90-degree summer day with water temps in the 70s is not the time or place for trout fishing.
We’ve entered a new era when how we anglers interact with the rivers can be as much a conservation concern as anything, probably second only to climate change. Never before has ethos mattered as much as it does now.
Is this the new, forever normal? I sure hope not.
But I’m afraid we’re going to have to act–and fish–like it is.
More Reading
More thoughts on helping the fish this summer…
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It's good to read your warmwater enthusiasm, Kirk, and giving trout a break is a solid conservation message.
Much of the U.S. has way more bass fisheries than trout streams, yet so much fly fishing culture is focused on trout — even the non-natives. Yet there are few of us who pursue trout primarily when the bass need the break.
Sound advice! I started fly fishing at the young age of 12 with a fiberglass 8 wt. I had a lot more warmwater and tidal water close to me than trout waters, so that's what the bulk of my fly fishing has been about. I see nothing wrong with anyone choosing only one species of fish to target, but not when it negatively impacts the possible sustainability of those species. I've now been fly fishing for 60 years and could be very happy sight fishing to Redfish on a flooded salt grass flat for the remainder of my life. However, I also like chasing Striped Bass & Largemouth Bass, and now live near a lake that they both inhabit. It would be foolish not to take advantage of that, because of some notion that trout are more worthy. I believe that I have learned a lot more about the sport, by having had some diversity with the fish I would chase. There's no trout or Smallmouth close to me, so I'll pursue what is available, and won't have any regrets about it either. People always have some choices, but if they choose to be stubborn about it, that means less people on the water. You make lemonade out of lemons.