Learning from Andrew

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.

Oscar Wilde

On a daily walk in my new environs – Lake Ontario, its tributaries, ponds and wetlands – I stopped to watch a man as he fished the shoreline of Long Pond. He was fishing with a micro spinning rod; it’s length a bit more than the micro spinning rods used for ice fishing. On his second cast and retrieve, his little rod bent over with the pull of a nice fish. After a brief but vigorous tussle, he brought to hand a substantive white perch – thick and stout in body. Subsequent casts produced a few more of similar size. After witnessing his success, I felt compelled to talk to him about his unique fishing method.

His name was Andrew, and his heavy accent hinted at Eastern European origins (he later revealed that he was from Belarus). He was of medium stature, fit, slightly balding, and he stood with an interesting stance as he fished, a fencer with his spinning rod extended like a foil.

I watched intently as he cast his tiny rig and then worked his bait to shore. His casts were 20 to 30 feet and ended with an open bail and upward lift of the rod to put more slack in the line. Then he’d stand in that fencing pose, rod held straight out to the side as he slowly retrieved his rig. The retrieve started with a series of rapid jigs of the rod tip, followed by a very slow retrieve and a pause. He repeated this all the way to the shoreline, then cast again at a completely different angle.

Closer inspection of his lure revealed that it was nothing more than a small split shot above a size 6 – 8 hook, on which was threaded a ruby-colored, segmented, and very thin, soft plastic worm. The little worm seemed to imitate a bloodworm.

I continued to talk to Andrew as he fished. It was not that he wasn’t forthcoming with answers to my questions, but he struggled with each sentence, bearing down with a grimace that looked like he just drank a very strong shot of whiskey, followed by stuttering and then finally the words that he wanted to speak. It was painful to watch, and I almost regretted asking him anything for the effort it required to respond, but he was enthusiastic and it was obvious he loved angling as much as he wanted to share his secrets from “his country”.

Among Andrew’s many “laws” on fishing were the following:

1. Fish when the wind is out of north or calm – this was purely to facilitate casting his ultralight rig. The line he was using was likely 2 lb. test and if casting from the shore of Long Pond, a south wind would have made it near impossible.
2. He claimed the fishing was “never good in summer”. I think this was more of a statement on the types of fish he was after, primarily perch. Yellow and white perch come into Long Pond to spawn each spring via an outlet that joins the pond with Lake Ontario.
3. Keep moving and cast in various angles – Andrew could not understand anglers who “camp” in one spot and fish that spot all day long. He emphasized that he would thoroughly cast the half mile shoreline up and down many times in the course of each outing.
4. Have confidence in your rig and method and perfect it like fine art. Andrew claimed he was a professional angler back in Belarus. I’m assuming this meant he competed in tournaments and based on what I witnessed, he was very effective at his craft.

Andrew showed me pictures of some of the fish he had been taken in the course of a week. Among the many big perch were truly sizeable walleye and sheepshead (freshwater drum).

I finally left Andrew to his fishing, not wanting to delay him from enjoying his morning trip. As I continued my walk, I reflected on my infancy with the long rod and the hubris I developed regarding what I considered “lower” means of fishing. But over time, I changed my perspective, realizing there was a lot I could learn by watching conventional anglers, like Andrew. Their tactics clued me in on better ways to fish the fly, fly choice to imitate their own baits, color or action choice, and the amount of weight to use to fish the water column effectively. Even when I could not exactly match their tactics, watching them gave me better insight into the bite and made me a better fisherman. Indeed, these days I find myself often watching anglers around me as much as the water, the hatch, or signs of fish feeding. Andrew was just another good chapter in the book of imitation. And after watching him, I was soon envisioning adapting his technique with a one or two-weight fly rod, fine light leader and 6X tippet, and a fly all of my own to imitate a bloodworm…