Troutbitten

Life on the water. Troutbitten is a deep dive into fly fishing for wild trout in wild places. Author and guide, Domenick Swentosky, shares stories, tips, tactics and conversations with friends about fly fishing through the woods and water. Explore more. Fish hard. And discover fly fishing at Troutbitten.com — an extensive resource with 1500+ articles about trout, friends, family and the river.

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Troutbitten

The Airing of Grievances

June 18, 2022 • Domenick Swentosky • Season 3 • Episode 13

So, you know how you see something from far away and it looks really great? It’s almost perfect. But if you look a little closer, even from a long distance, you might start to find a few things that aren’t quite right. But it’s good . . . it’s still pretty good.

When you get even closer, you notice more problems. And when you’ve been around it for a long time, you can’t help but see many, many things that could be better.

Well . . . that’s the fly fishing industry.

And I don’t just mean the companies and the big names either. I mean the whole thing: the full scale, from Instagram hashtags and big internet groups to the few anglers that hang out at your local bar. The industry trends, these habits, these practices — some of them just seem wrong. And the gear, the ads, videos and articles, — a lot of it kind of steers people in the wrong direction.

So we thought we’d have a little fun with this and call out as many issues as we can fit into one podcast.

Yes, we’re here to criticize and complain a bit. But it's all in good fun. And quite honestly, I think most of the things we’ll bring up could certainly benefit from a fair dose of constructive criticism. Think of this as a cleansing. It’s a chance to bring everything out into the open — from the dark corners and into the sunlight.

I'm joined by my friends Josh Darling, Austin Dando, Trevor Smith, Matt Grobe and Bill Dell.

We Cover the Following

Purists. Elitism
The warm water police
Spot burning
Weather complainers
Marketing to lifestyle anglers
Mean people
Euro anything
Cheap gear
Telling anglers to be specialized
Leaky Waders
The squeezing fish hold
The knuckles hold
People who comment without reading article, watching full video, or listening to whole podcast
Club Fishing
The assumption that "experts" knows more than you about fishing
Anyone pretending that catching fish doesn't matter

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