Newbie
Brian, I’m glad that you’re able to join us today. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and where you’re from and how you got started fishing on the Salmon River?
Brien Hansen
Yeah, so it’s kind of a long story. I was kind of thinking about this leading up to tonight, trying to pinpoint when I actually came up there for the first time. I think it was probably 16. I’m 26 now. So ten years ago I came up on a fishing trip with my dad and some friends for drop backs.
Brien Hansen
And, you know, we absolutely beat them up, not realizing that we could drive, you know, 3 hours north because I live in southeast Pennsylvania, so drive 3 hours north to go catch these big steelhead. So the out started probably in when I was 16 for a couple of trips and then I didn’t go back up for a while, probably into college.
Brien Hansen
And then out of the blue I was actually co-run ing a fly fishing club at the University of Pittsburgh. And another another club had kind of reached out to us, which happened to be Oswego, you know, the the college up there in Oswego. And it was one of my buddies. Now, Josh Collette was asking us to come up to, you know, learn how to steal that fish.
Brien Hansen
So we did. And I don’t think I’ve pretty much been a nonstop obsession ever since. I mean, we just got done talking about how I haven’t been up there in like three months. So this is kind of the longest time I haven’t been up there. But yeah, that’s kind of how the whole thing started. And I think we fish the Salmon River in Oswego for like three days, maybe even a quarter thrown in there.
Brien Hansen
And I probably caught like only three or four steelhead in three days. But since then I was like, damn, all it’s it’s time to get into this seriously. And then I started fishing all the time and that’s all I really dial to them. So it’s kind of a long.
Newbie
Yeah, no long.
Brien Hansen
Drawn out process.
Newbie
So and that’s where you also met Dan and Dan that’s an engineer.
Brien Hansen
Yeah. So Dan, theirs was actually the one who had started like came up with the idea of what we called panther fly fishing was just a fly fishing club, a pit. And that’s how I met a lot of my close buddies that I still fly fish a lot with now. So, you know, Daniel as Mirsky and Grant Kaplan, my two close friends in college, and Zach, like there was another one in there that we just started fishing all over the place and that’s kind of how it all started, just because we were in Pittsburgh at the time and there’s really not all that great.
Brien Hansen
I wasn’t Comstock Trout, there wasn’t that great a fishing. So we just figured we could drive, you know, an hour and a half north, straight up 80 and just hit Erie and did that constantly. I was, you know, got on a class at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday and I just hop in the car and drive to Erie.
Brien Hansen
And that would happen all the time. So it kind of was a slippery slope there for a while.
Newbie
And so how did and how did salmon fishing then start? Well, yeah.
Brien Hansen
So that was probably that is that was probably so the first trip I would have ever gone up into the Ontario region would have been probably November time period. So I skipped salmon at that point, but at that time there were zombies everywhere. Yeah, we’re thinking like, this is awesome. Like giant fish were all over the place. Everybody’s, you know, all the locals are turning their nose up to it.
Brien Hansen
But I’m like, these fish are huge. Like, I don’t care if they, you know, look like a zombie and smell even worse. But I eventually was like, all right, I got to come back to try for these things the next the next season around. So that was actually the beginning of like I do maybe a week or two weeks stints up there and same season pretty much every year now.
Brien Hansen
So that was probably the first time that we did that. We didn’t even fish the Salmon River all that much because it was, you know, the Salmon River. Yeah. It turns into a circus. Yeah, we were fish in, you know, Oswego and Oak Orchard and all that. I mean, not much better in Oswego as much either, but still, you know.
Brien Hansen
Yeah, hitting the big three, trying to just catch one salmon. And we did. We did pretty well.
Newbie
So awesome and so like, I guess and one of the reasons why I am so excited to have you is, is I get this question all the time and I know that when I tell you you’re surprised is like, you know, people ask, you’re kind of like the poster boy, you know, like of the salmon. I mean, like actually when you look up the Salmon River, I think your picture comes up, you know, you know, like, is that good?
Newbie
Yeah, that’s good. I mean, it is better you than some of the ugly guys that have been on there. You know, I’m sorry for the ugly guys like, you know, shout out to the ugly guys. So but yeah, like, like so and then I get a lot of like because I mean, not only are you a prolific angler and I’ve actually watched you, you know, fish and see your crew fish and watched you guys.
Newbie
And not only are you guys good anglers, but your ethical you guys work at it. So I think that people see that. And, you know, I think that people are wondering, what is this guy doing? You know, what are some of the things that he’s doing? And so I get that question all the time. What is Brian doing?
Newbie
You know? And so that’s why I’m really this call this this podcast is really interesting to me. It’s like, what are some of the things that you could give to a Nagler that is has been coming, it’s not been that successful or an angler that’s actually just starting out. What are some tips that you could give them today?
Brien Hansen
Right. So you would ask me this ahead of time and try to come up with some stuff. And I had to think about it a little bit because I wanted to actually write stuff down and yeah, like actually, you know, even prioritize because obviously the stuff I do all the time, but it doesn’t really matter all that much.
Brien Hansen
So how about I start off at the bottom first?
Newbie
Okay, sure.
Brien Hansen
At least least, you know, high priority. And I really can’t. Yeah. Kind of just, you know, we’re working our way to the top. This is kind of just nice to have. And this is even not even efficient. It is. Okay. It’s when I first started fishing in the Salmon River, I froze my ass off and I learned very quickly, you can always take layers off midday, but you’re never going to put them on.
Brien Hansen
So that was the biggest thing that I ever learned was double socks, multiple layers on the upper body, multiple layers on the lower body. And if you end up walking six miles that day and you start sweating, you can you know, you could drop your waders in the middle, the in the middle of the woods and pull layer off.
Brien Hansen
But you’re not going to put a layer on when you’re doing that. So that was probably the biggest thing with layer, layer, layer, because obviously I can’t fish in the outdoors in the winter all the time. I know what cold is like, but man, it’s cold up there. So anybody that doesn’t fish the Salmon River doesn’t fish up in the Great Lakes area in the winter.
Brien Hansen
Be prepared for that. Hand warmers always help.
Newbie
So so high priority like before that anybody is leaving. The first thing that you’re going to tell them is dress for success. You know, layer, layer, layer. So.
Brien Hansen
Right, right. Well, actually, you said high priority. I’m going reversal, but we’re going just just a little this is kind of just like a hint, not just really not even a fishing. Yeah, but it definitely saved me from, you know, having a bad time. The first couple trips because you will. Yeah, it will get cold.
Newbie
So no, I think it’s I think it’s like one of the things that people do underestimate is the environment and the cold up here on the Salmon River. I mean, it’s slipped in. And, I mean, it takes a little bit of time to get yourself dialed in, to get yourself acclimated and then getting your drafts, getting all that stuff together.
Newbie
And if you’re cold, you’re going to go home quicker than you should, right? I mean, that stuff.
Brien Hansen
Exactly. And I’m like, I’ll come back to it. That’s the number one tip I have when I get to it. It all ties back into this summer holds up. Well, the next thing that I had, the big one kind of goes in line with this, you know, in the winter that was read in the water. So like differences in water in the winter fish, you know, hang out and act differently than they would in not even the fall or spring, but just in warmer weather.
Brien Hansen
So warmer weather, steelhead tend to go to the moving water. They don’t you know, they’re okay with they don’t need to conserve that much energy anymore because they’re not freezing. There’s plenty of food around if it warms up. So, you know, if it’s a warmer day, fish, the fast water, if it’s a freezing cold day, fish that flow water.
Brien Hansen
I see a lot of people that’ll be like, you know, it’ll be a single digit day and they’re just standing at the back of a giant pool fishing or run like all day, like I can. Maybe you’re going to pull one or two out of there, but I guarantee if you walk 50 feet up into this hole and fished that all day, you’d you’d be touching the fish constantly.
Brien Hansen
So that’s kind of I mean, you think it’s common sense to somebody who’s kind of been fishing for a while, but some people don’t really take that into account. So, you know, especially in the fall, especially in that early winter and definitely a drop back season faster water better and slower water cooler water is always best when though the winter.
Brien Hansen
So whatever doing it right now. Yeah just go to the big holes. You’re not going to be pulling them out a little gravel bars at this time of the year.
Newbie
So yeah. So reading water. Reading water depending on the temperature of that water, not just right. Yeah. So like I think a lot of people, they think about reading water or they’re thinking about their riffles or thinking about this in their truck. But one of the two main things to, to look for, to to think about is it’s cold.
Newbie
They’re going to be in the slower water. If it’s warmer, they’re going to be in the faster water. So that’s that’s a great, great, great, great. I mean, like you said, it’s there’s people that would think that, you know, they should know, but they don’t, you know, I mean, you see it all day long. I see it all day long.
00;10;29;26 – 00;10;36;16
Newbie
People are in the right position. They’re in the they should know, but they’re in the wrong place. You know, they should know. Right.
Brien Hansen
So. Exactly. Yeah. So, I mean, it’s not huge, but it just adds in there. You don’t want to be wasting your time just in the opposite of what’s going to be good at that exact time of year. I mean.
Newbie
Exactly the.
Brien Hansen
Next one. Yeah, one of the next one. All right. Now we’re getting these are the top three. Okay, three right here. This my biggest thing when people always ask me like like what? What is really differentiating me from all the people that are fishing. And I think the biggest thing I always say to when somebody asked that question is put in the miles and the Salmon River in the middle, even in the middle of winter.
Brien Hansen
Like I’ve had days where I’m post falling through two feet of snow and I check my phone at the end of the day. And I just walked like eight miles in, you know, post all snow the whole time. And I mean, you never like it could go a whole day. And I don’t touch a single fish, but, you know, I just walk the extra mile down to a hole that either a boat hasn’t made it to yet.
Newbie
Or a boat.
Brien Hansen
Left it a while ago and now it’s had time to sit and stuff like that. Yeah. So put in the miles, not only put in the miles, but put in the miles to places where you’re going to get on pressured or less pressured fish. Because especially in the winter, like you’re looking, you’re looking either to force feed them.
Newbie
Yeah.
Brien Hansen
You know that pretty much. Then you’re sitting on top, you know where they are, right? You’re just force feeding them eventually or the other side. You don’t know where they are and you just got to find a, you know, a non pressured one that’s going to eat that first, second drip that comes bottom. And that’s a bit like it.
Brien Hansen
It sometimes happens that fast. It’ll be, you know, first drip, second drift through a brand new spot that hasn’t been sometimes even pushed all day, even if it’s set for 2 hours, a boat that that that whole you know all morning and then they left it and you show up 2 hours later and it’s like they didn’t want anything in the morning.
Brien Hansen
But now you got 15 fish in a hole that nobody has drifted by while they were hungry. So it could, you know, can be the difference of catching one fish a day or, you know, walking up on a hole where it’s just like, holy crap, they’re in here thick, and it seems like nobody else has gotten to them.
Brien Hansen
Yeah, okay. Well, that’s definitely a big thing. Like, people love to do that, especially now in the winter. Like, think about how many gods put in at the lower fire zone and float down to Pontville. Mm hmm. Think about how many boats just do that top section, and everybody just kind of follows the boat. They go fish out there on the air is where you’re gonna like.
Brien Hansen
If you go mid river or even lower river, you’re going to have the whole place to yourself. Yeah. And you may not have as much confidence that there’s fish there because nobody else is there. Nobody else is there to show you that they’re hooking fish, but I promise you, they’re there and they’re going to be way less pressure down there.
Newbie
Well, that’s that’s.
Brien Hansen
That’s always the big.
Newbie
That that that point right there. I mean, like, there’s just so much that you’ve just, like, laid on us right now. I mean, this is like like this is like like like a protein bar full of it. Like it it’s like there’s just so much that you just, like, have given here. I mean, we.
Brien Hansen
Like to more.
Newbie
We could just we could just camp right here on what you just thrown down. Man, this is rich stuff. Like, you know, putting in the miles you know, which people here all the time, putting in the mild, you know. And of course, you know, people know, oh yeah, you got to put in the mile. But not everybody likes to put in the miles.
Newbie
But this whole thing with the boat that is like really, really. I mean, that, that is rich right there. That is rich understanding because along with the cold, which, you know, we talked about and with layering stuff, that’s something that’s not talked about, but also the fact that you have boat traffic does make a difference when you’re fishing, you know.
Brien Hansen
Absolutely.
00;14;40;12 – 00;14;51;09
Newbie
And that that’s just and then also the fact that you just talked about how not seeing another angler, which had lots of people want that. But then when.
Brien Hansen
It gives you confidence, yeah, it makes you have a little peace of mind.
Newbie
Yes, yes. But then you’re like, oh, I don’t want to see anybody, but I want to see somebody, but I don’t want to, you know? So I mean, that is rich right there. I mean, like that right there. I could I think most people should just take that right there and not and if again, like understanding that whole the interplay between the time of day, the guides coming in with the boat and the fish, and that’s just that that’s really good.
Newbie
Really good. So. Okay, right. And we could sit.
Brien Hansen
On that and we could we could sit on that for like you, you know, we could talk about this for another 30 minutes like that. Yeah. But even just thinking about like, all right, you know, where, okay, boats are coming in from the top. I’m obviously not going to go up there. Let me go down to the lower end of their float, start there and then we’ll just hopscotch throughout the day and even little stuff like that kind of made a big difference in, you know, finding fish, even if even if you’re going to stick to the pressured, pressured water.
Brien Hansen
Yeah. Just, you know, finding a fish that had a little bit of a break will help you out a lot, but beautiful.
Newbie
Beautiful.
Brien Hansen
That was number three. Right?
Newbie
So number.
Brien Hansen
Number two. So yeah, I was kind of iffy about even putting this on here. But number two is not even a steelhead thing. But people ask me just about fishing in general. Like what? You know, what do I think is, is kind of my key to success. Yeah. And yeah, I pretty much always say confidence is key. If you can if you can fish something confidently, it may not even work for you at the end of the day.
Brien Hansen
Like it may not actually end up helping you in the long run, but if you push something confidently, you’re going to have a like more peace of mind. At the end of the day, you’re either going to catch a ton of fish, all that stuff that you’re confident in, and then you’re just going to have more confidence or you’re going to not catch that many.
Brien Hansen
But you fish something, you’re really confident. So at the end of the day, you can pretty much just be like, All right, well, I’m not like, I’m not overthinking this to be like, Oh, what if I switch to that? Or What if I switch to like, no, just just pick something and if you’re confident in it, go with it.
Brien Hansen
Yes. I mean, you kind of need experience for stuff like that. Like I definitely have two or three rigs that I know are when all else fails, I can put on one of those and I’m going to be like, all right, if there’s fish there, I know they’re going to eat that. Yeah, things like that. And it may not even help you in the long run, but at least gives you more confidence at the end of the day.
Brien Hansen
And even to make that next trip that like, hey, like, oh, they, they just weren’t there then. Like, I’m confident they would have eaten that. They just weren’t there. When I go next time maybe they’ll be there and do that not oh, maybe I was floating over like, you know, 20 fish and they just didn’t like what I was throwing.
Brien Hansen
Yeah, like that kind of double think of second guessing your choices is just going to make you unconfident and then not want to get back on the horse when you have a bad trip. That’s definitely.
Newbie
That is good, man. That is rich. So so you’re you’re saying it’s not just about the the technique. It’s not about the equipment. A lot of this has. It’s a mental game. It’s it’s having confidence in yourself, having confidence in what you’ve known and then not being not not second guessing yourself. And I really like that. I really like the way that you put that with like when you don’t question yourself when you’re out there, that you’ll come back the next time around, you know, whereas when you’ve done that.
Newbie
So if you’re I mean, your mind beat you up even more than the fish will beat you up, right? I mean or the weather will beat you up out there.
Brien Hansen
So absolutely.
Newbie
So what happens is like you don’t want to come back. You don’t want to try again, you know. So no, no. That that that is good. That is good.
Brien Hansen
Right. That’s and and that’s like, obviously, it’s just going to it’s just going to dry out. Like it’s just going to drive you to stay out there longer. And yeah, like that is really, really all that accomplishing. It may not actually put more fish on the bank for you because you could just be pigeonholing yourself with something that’s not working that day.
Brien Hansen
But at least if you’re if confidence is key, like, if, yeah, if I’m confident and like, you know, clipping off a little piece of mask that everybody’s gonna clip off a little piece of plastic mask and throwing it all my hook if I’m confident in it. Hey, I might still have a good day with stuff like that. Like it’s it all comes down to this it with confidence and you’re probably going to end up better than fishing, something that you just keep being like.
Brien Hansen
That’s probably not working.
Newbie
Yeah, yeah.
Brien Hansen
Moving on.
Newbie
Yeah.
Brien Hansen
Yeah, yeah. That’s, that’s a big one. And like ice cream, like when I’m not fishing, I stream or fish or brown trout down in Pennsylvania. And people ask me about that all the time, well, what do you kind of streamers you that’s like did it does not matter where the streamer is I pretty much fish one or two streamers the entire time and fishing it confidently putting it in every little spot where a fish could possibly be sitting.
Brien Hansen
Yeah. And then and then move and being like, all right. I didn’t know, you know, a fish didn’t eat it in any of those spots. I’m just going to assume that there is no fish in there. Yeah. And then move on. And then the next time you come around, you can try it again and hopefully there’s a fish in that time.
Newbie
So, so I think like one thing that I’ve always talked about is that it’s not so much the, the, you know, the offering that you that isn’t important, but it’s the technique of that drift of of how you’re offering it, you know, that makes the difference. So you’re you’re yeah, you’ve got it down to two different streamers you’re using.
Newbie
And so there’s no there’s no questions about like am I am I got the right, you know, how much am I matching the hatch? Am I doing all this. Exactly. You’re concentrating on getting your offering going through that whole but the right speed at the right depth. I mean, that that’s basically what you’re concentrating on. Right?
Brien Hansen
Right, exactly. And it’s kind of like narrowing down, you know, it’s narrowing down your variable. Yes, you can. Yeah. If you can fix one of your variables, which is the three year pattern, and then you can just worry about how I’m actually fishing and then you can dial that in. And now you’re completely confident in the way you’re fishing.
Brien Hansen
Now you can jump back onto the fly, sort of be like, all right, let me maybe that, you know, maybe that black deceiver isn’t the best flier to be using. Let me switch up that. Now that I know I’m fishing correctly. Let me jump back to that. And it’s kind of, you know, separating what you’re going to change.
Brien Hansen
Don’t change. Don’t you change three things and then have go to the water, have a good day. And then then you’re like, all right, well, what did it what what was the reason that it was a good day? Because you just changed three things. You can’t point to it. If I go, I’m still fish in the same streamer but the same fly.
Brien Hansen
And now I just try a different technique, a little bit more weight, a little bit less wine. And I started hitting along, be like, Oh, well, that’s what’s in it for me right there. You can, you know, take that and move all of it.
Newbie
So I think I think I think you have an engineering background, right?
Brien Hansen
Right. Yeah, I’m a I majored in mechanical engineering in school and I’m a process engineer now.
Newbie
Okay. So does that help in your fishing? Like because like the world view of fishing that you’ve just dropped on us, it’s it’s very precise like that. Like that phrase narrowed down your variables. Like like that’s that’s that’s good stuff. Like, I mean, like, you know.
Brien Hansen
That definitely the engineer and me speaking. Yeah, I didn’t I didn’t I didn’t even really think about it until it came out of my words that I just said. Fixed variable about something in fishing.
Newbie
Yes.
Brien Hansen
I think that’s a pretty, you know, quote unquote scientific term to be talking about in fishing. But yeah, it’s it’s definitely I mean, that’s just that’s just who I am. So it’s not even that I apply it to fishing. It’s just that that’s how I think about everything.
Newbie
So I think that that’s an important distinction to make. Now. I love guides. I love professional guides, and I’m hoping to have guides, come on. But my initial I guess my initial purpose and getting people like yourself to come on, you know, and do this podcast with us is to is because you talk from a different discipline or different paradigm, because when you talk to a lot of people that are fishy, you know, and are in the industry, they, they have a lot of industry jargon and industry industry talk and, you know, like they’ll tell you, do this, do that and this stuff.
Newbie
And again, it’s good stuff, but I just like the way that you just said, hey, you know, narrow down the variables because, of course, that it’s the truth, you know, and and then for a lot of us that do fish is that we don’t live in a guide’s world. We don’t live in a fishy world. We live in our occupations.
Newbie
We live in our disciplines. And, you know, so for me, that really made sense. I mean, that drove it home for me because, you know, narrow down your variables and fix what you, you know.
Brien Hansen
So exactly. If you can cut one out of the equation completely and then just worry about one thing and it’s just going to make your it’s going to make your truck. It’s not obviously going to give you the answer right away. It’s going to it’s going to shorten your trial and error for a while. Exactly. You’re not going to be playing around for two years, two seasons before you finally feel like you’re dialed.
Brien Hansen
You may dial in, you know, a year and a half, you know, halfway through the season.
Newbie
Beautiful. That is beautiful.
Brien Hansen
Stuff like.
Newbie
That. Good stuff. Good stuff. So what’s your last year?
Brien Hansen
Yeah, that was number one. Number one kind of this kind. It wraps up like kind of all of these. I’ll even wrap it up back to the layer up point. The layer up just makes you comfortable. If you’re uncomfortable out there, you’re not going to want to, you know, retire, rig, you know, switch, fly, you know, change your leader, change your weight.
Brien Hansen
You’re not going to want to do any of that stuff. So that’s the biggest thing I always tell people is it’s kind of convoluted with what I just said about confident with the key and kind of stick with something. But when you’re playing with the Hey, I, I have the mechanics of it down I can cast, I know where to put everything.
Brien Hansen
Now I got to deal with my rig switching floors, retyping often like even if you you stick stick yourself in a tree once you get a little bit of ice on your line, read often and then just changes stuff with that. So switching floors which even the size of wise like if you got if if you know a fly work for you and it’s not working that day try to make sure you got you know a size up or a size down from that pattern.
Brien Hansen
And even little itty bitty changes like that have, you know, switch days around for me and then for the Salmon River specifically, especially in the middle of winter, people seem to get scared about using £4 for pound fluorocarbon.
Newbie
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brien Hansen
But in the middle of winter, it will it’ll be the difference between a two hook up day and a ten fish hitting the net day. Wow. Like I definitely I’ve I’ve even in early season like early steelhead fishing, I’ll be sitting there trying to, you know, float fish with six and £8 thinking, all right, these fish are served.
Brien Hansen
They’re doing bright, they’re hungry, they’re ready to eat it. Like, if they’re not going to eat this, they, you know, they’re not going to eat in general. But then they’ll be somebody right next to me. This is beat them up and I’ll go ask like, what the hell, man? Like, what are you doing? I’m using £4, like, holy crap.
Newbie
Yeah.
Brien Hansen
I like it. You know, when all else fails, go like go low light and play with your weight a lot. If you’re if you’re whether your bottom bouncing your indicator thing or just float fishing with a center pin switch around your, you know, your shot pattern on your center pin, take a split shot off if your indicator or bottom bouncing with a fly Rob take a shot off.
Brien Hansen
You don’t want to be dragging bottom, but you definitely don’t want to be, you know, up in the first foot of water. You kind of want to play around with all that stuff. Yeah. And eventually all it’s going to take is, you know, one, one positive thing to happen. You know, the monotonous casting and be like, Oh, wow, that work.
Brien Hansen
Let me try that again. Let me see if I can do that again and maybe do it again and it works again and that’s you’re just dialing in and stuff like that. But for pound I’ve saved a lot of days on for pound people love to use six and eight up there. Yeah. If you want to get real biters and you actually want to start beating up on a ton of fish that are pressured for pound will be will be your savior.
Brien Hansen
I know there’s going to be a lot of guys out there that are going to scoff at that and be like, oh, if you catch them on six, you don’t deserve to catch them all. Okay. Yeah, like I guess I love like I don’t like the fish for but yeah. When all else fails. But on that white line, you may have to chase that fish forever, but yeah.
Brien Hansen
You’re gonna, you’re going to at least hook them.
Newbie
Yes.
Brien Hansen
But so don’t be afraid. Definitely. People get lazy with changing and just switching your regs up. Yes. Flies later, length and later and like what pound later that is if you can switch those up and just keep doing that all day, kind of have a rotation of flies or beads or you know. Exactly if you’re confident that I’m just keep flying around because generally they want one thing one day.
Brien Hansen
Yeah, they really are picky.
Newbie
So, so too to kind of just sum up the highest priority would be that and again going back to from the first thing that you said is that you you got to be you got to you got to commit to being out there. That’s that’s what you’re trying to say by layering, being comfortable, you got to be able to withstand the cold, withstand, be be comfortable out there, be be ready to go out and not come back until, you know, it’s time.
Newbie
It’s it’s and while you’re out there to be confident in the things that you have used, but also to be able to intelligently kind of change up things if they’re not working, you know, and. Right. You know true in a you want you used a word monotonous there which is which is a really interesting thought you know, because you do have to put in a little bit of work with what you’ve got on try it.
Newbie
And if it’s not working, then switch that up. But you got to you’ve got to get your you know, you got to get your cast and you got to get your fly in the water basically. Right. Right. And then go ahead. Yeah.
Brien Hansen
So I like what you said there with kind of summing all this up in a bit. Yeah, that is a good way because I was trying to I’m looking at my kind of like chicken scratch list here. Priority is unlike I mean, they’re kind of all over the place. It’s kind of like a shotgun pattern, but no committing.
Brien Hansen
Like, if you’re just just you got to get out there. Yeah. These fish aren’t going to fall into your lap. Yes, you’re going to. Because a lot of people think that, you know, so many people just you know, they’ll ask people that they know fish a lot. Yeah, I’m trying to get up there for the first time like I could I could write you, you know, a a ten page letter, what I think you should do.
Brien Hansen
But until you just get out there and get accustomed and, you know, confident in what you’re doing.
Newbie
Yes.
Brien Hansen
Not not really many people going to help you. So. Yeah, commit. I like that. And you want to you definitely want to commit to it because there’s no half assing. Yeah. Winter steelhead fishing on the Salmon River, that’s for sure.
Newbie
And you’re committing and then you’re like again because of your engineering background, you’re, you’re switching one thing, casting, seeing if that’s going to work. And after a little bit, you’re, you’re going to change something else. So you’re being very intentional in your in the things that you’re doing rather than just haphazardly, you know, seeing somebody else is doing that.
Newbie
I’m going to try that, you know, and right when it and then when it all comes down to it, I mean, you’re basically like going back to your narrowing down the variables, you know, like if something isn’t, you know, in the engineering background or something isn’t working, one that you’re just narrowing it down to coming down to the absolute solution, which is in a lot of times, like you’re saying, £4 fluorocarbon is going to be one of the key things, you know, that is going to make that a huge difference.
Newbie
Right.
Brien Hansen
Right. And even if like like even going back to the £4 thing, like I’ve done that where I’ve a lot of people want to be like, I’ll put the heavy line on person to see how it goes, but I kind of like to do the opposite and I put four to put on the light stuff first. Yeah. If you hook a fish right off the bat and break them off immediately.
Brien Hansen
Yeah well there it was. Yeah. At least I know there. Fish in there when if you did the opposite and had six down on that, didn’t touch a fish for 3 hours, you’d be like I’m out of here like I’m leaving like little stuff like that. But definitely the methodic kind of if you can, if you can try to choose one thing to work on the time rather than the whole.
Brien Hansen
Yes, that’ll definitely help new people. I mean, as somebody that’s new into still that fish in they may not know where to start with first like you know what what to fix what to not yeah. Stuff like that. Yeah. And I honestly wouldn’t know where to start either, but kind of just pick one and go with it. Yeah, I would.
Brien Hansen
The best thing you want to do or whatever you feel like don’t really.
Newbie
Yeah. And then just, just just work your way through. Just try to be methodical, try to not like because I mean, steelhead fishing is a lot like golf. I mean, I see a lot of people get upset out on the golf course and I see a lot of people get upset. And I’ve seen a lot of broken rods and broken golf clubs, you know what I’m saying?
Newbie
Yeah. But people get frustrated, you know, and. Yeah, and I think that that’s the cold waking up early, having too much to drink the night before, you know, and all of that. And then just like going out there and just I’m going to, you know, and and, but being methodical, thinking it through, committing to that day, committing to that process.
Newbie
That’s excellent. Excellent. Right. I think that.
Brien Hansen
Yeah.
Newbie
I think that those are really great keys. I mean, like, again, I’m really thankful that, you know, and and like I said, it’s like I, I wasn’t just looking for like, well, put this or pad or on put this egg pattern on. And I’m sure there are there’s room for for all of that. But they can get they can get that from any other place, you know, any other problem.
Newbie
I think that the real this for me is the real deal. Like you’re out there, you’re working this thing, you’re working this thing out in your own angling life. So I’m like, Man, this is good stuff. This is gold right now. This is like, you know, they should they should pay you the sorry guides.
Brien Hansen
I don’t. So take the money straight out of the pockets like that.
Newbie
I don’t really know. But this is really good stuff. I mean, this is really good stuff because it’s like a lot of times people are and again, people are looking for the easy answer, like, hey, just do these five things. And but this is for me, it’s it’s great advice, great fishing advice. And it doesn’t take away from the learning experience that is fishing, you know.
Newbie
So thank you so much. This is this is really good stuff. Anything or. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
Brien Hansen
Yeah, I got it. I got the final word. When all else fails. When all else fails. You tried all this stuff. It’s still not working. But you are out on the river. You know, you may have just failed all day. Yeah, just talk to other anglers. I know. I know. You’ve even brought it up on your page about, you know, just blindly damning people on Instagram and you not really going to get too much info out of just people you don’t know.
Brien Hansen
And that’s true. Like nobody’s going to hand you a free lunch over the Internet, but if you’re if you just spent all day out there and there’s other people with you, and even if they’re seeing you struggling all day, just go ask them why I like a lot of those. Yes. A lot of people are can be very mean and brutal on that river.
Brien Hansen
But that I feel like that really is it’s a salmon season thing. I’ve had nothing but good experience with just chatting up random. As long as you’re respectful. Yeah. Trying to. Yes. Pull them out of their spot or take their fish or anything like that. You’re just being like, Hey, man, like, I sucked it up today. Like, I couldn’t figure it out.
Brien Hansen
Like, what do you mind? Like, is there something that you did today that worked for you? Like, I know, I know. If somebody did that to me, I’m going to I’m going to give it up on them because we’re not doing secrets.
Newbie
So yeah, man, that’s been.
Brien Hansen
All fails chatted up.
Newbie
That that’s that’s really good. I mean just the way that you that you presented your question or your your query like, hey, I’ve just been struggling, you know, and I think that that that along with that is that when you show up to that whole don’t be a jerk to everybody, you know.
Brien Hansen
You won’t get any impulse to do that. You know, you’ll get people snag in your rig on purpose. You’ll get like, I’ll be that guy. You could be super nice to me and I’ll give you all the info in the world, or you can be a total dick and I’m going to be throwing beer cans at you from the other side of the river.
Brien Hansen
I like it if it’s purely how you act on that. A lot of people who are very short fuzes up there. So yeah, don’t give them don’t give them any sort of reason to go off. Yeah. They give people that room they could have for all you know, they were there at 3 a.m. to hold down that spot.
Brien Hansen
And if you walk in at sunrise and you start touching elbows with them, yeah, they’re not going to be happy. I wouldn’t be there. So respect, respect, respect. And generally they’ll pay it back. They’ll help you out if you’re struggling and they’re doing well, so. Yeah.
Newbie
Awesome. Thank you, dude. This is so good information. I mean, like, so good. I mean, just like, you know, and I’m always like, you know, wondering what kind of tips are they going to bring? And bro, you have blown me away with the tips that you get. I’m serious. Like I was. Yeah, I have a I have an expectation that.
Newbie
Yeah. You know, with your experience, that kind of evidence, you know, these tips are just blown me away, honestly. Just like, just blow me. Blown me away. And and whoever people that are listening to this man, it’s like, you know, like, write these things down. I’ve have written I’m going to try to transcribe all the podcasts, so hopefully I’m going, okay, you know, put the points down, clear and concise for people to be able to grasp.
Newbie
But man, these are such great points that you gave. That’s today. So okay, cool. Coming on, man. Thank you again for the all and.
Brien Hansen
Any doubt it man. Any time. I’m glad I’m glad you’re kind of getting this started. I’m anxious to see what this is all going to turn out to be. If this is going to be a reoccurring thing or not, I think it’s going to be. Can I ask you that?
Newbie
I hope so. I you know, the thing is, is that my goal is to, you know, change the culture of the river. In other words, there’s just been a lot of bad stuff that’s happened and in the history of stuff. And, you know, but I think that the better like like the the more people are better at fishing and they don’t have to snack.
Newbie
They don’t have to go out and, you know, do weird stuff out there and be rude and all that stuff. And listening to guys like you and just put a spotlight on you and say, Man, this is a great guy. Not only is a great fisherman ethical fisherman, a good guy, you know, willing to help people, I mean, that actually motivates people to be better.
Newbie
And I’m hoping that people are better. You know, and I’m glad to talk to you. I’m glad to know you. And, you know. So, yes, I hope that is something that we can continue, because, again, the more the better education, the more the better that people are fishing. It’s it’s going to be a better time out there, you know, so.
Brien Hansen
Right. Right. Sounds good. I like it. I dig it.
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