Say ‘Nice Fish,’ If You Must, But No Giggling

Some fishermen giggle. Some yell “Fish on.” Some attract attention by grandstanding when they hook a fish. Most are so quiet you’d never know they are catching fish unless you watch them.

You can identify all types at nearly every lake or stream. And you can see them on the TV fishing shows.

While fishing a northeastern Washington lake last week, I concentrated on my indicator and wasn’t aware of what other fishermen were doing. An indicator, by the way, is really a bobber, but a fly fisher wouldn’t let the word “bobber” escape from his mouth. It’s used to telegraph the take of a fish in a lake or stream.

One of my friends was fishing a chironomid pupa pattern only about 200 yards from me. Yet I didn’t realize he was catching rainbows up to 22 inches long. I wasn’t surprised a little later when he said he had hooked nine fish.

He’s the quiet kind of fisherman. You’ll never hear him utter a word while he’s catching fish after fish, yet, more than most, he enjoys every minute of his fishing experiences.

You also know that when he says he has caught nine fish he’s not exaggerating. He doesn’t need to embellish a fish story; he’s too good a fly fisher. And he doesn’t crave the admiration and recognition by fellow anglers.

He didn’t stop at nine rainbows. By the time he left the lake, he had hooked and released 17 trout between 14 and 22 inches. That was more than all the other anglers combined.

You can hear the gigglers and other vocal fishermen nearly everywhere you go. They’re the anglers who shout to attract the attention of other fishermen, as well as women and, yes, the men who laugh and giggle when they hook a fish. They’re saying, in effect, “Look, I’m a good fisherman; I’ve hooked a fish.”

You’ll see them on most TV fishing shows. Producers of the shows apparently believe that fishermen should be vocal. They can’t stand silence. They even hype a show by turning up the background music that sometimes drowns out the fishermen’s words.

Serious anglers cringe when they hear the gigglers. One TV showman, billed as the star of the most popular fishing show, cackles when he hooks a bass. Another TV personality, an attractive woman fly fisher, giggles a lot in all of the shows she and her husband produce. Other women fly fishers feel embarrassed for her.

How often have you heard an angler giggle at the region’s lakes and streams?

However, you’ll sometime hear fishermen shout and banter with friends. At a British Columbia lake a couple of weeks ago, several California fly fishers attracted the attention of other fishers by yelling loudly every time one of them hooked a big Gerard strain rainbow.

They were the only anglers on the lake who talked, yelled and bantered loudly with friends. And they were among the few fly fishers who kept the fish they caught. One sour Spokane fly fisher commented, “What else can you expect? They’re from California.”

Californians often are the butt of Northwest anglers’ jokes. That’s provincialism.

If you don’t live in the state or province of the lake or stream you’re fishing, you’re an insensitive, loud-mouthed fish hog. Canadians blame Americans when fishing at a lake deteriorates. Idaho fishermen think Washington fishermen take the best fishing spots. And Spokane fishermen won’t tell Seattle anglers where the best fishing spots are located.

Many anglers banter among themselves. Usually, the bantering is so low-pitched anglers in other boats or along a stream don’t hear them. They joke with one another, brag that they’ve caught the biggest and most fish and comment on the fish they catch.

Their only sin is repeating over and over, “Nice fish.” Of course, all fishermen are addicted to that phrase.

If anglers were somehow prevented from uttering “nice fish,” they’d be left with nothing to say. No other phrase is more widely used. You only need to watch a TV fishing show or hear a fisherman in a near-by boat or along a stream, to hear it again and again.

It’s the showoffs we’re talking about, the loudmouths who yell when they hook a fish and then, assured of an audience, give a running account of their expertise as they subdue a 12-inch fish. And it’s the gigglers and cacklers who, we’re sure, are quiet when they don’t have an audience.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review