walk-in fishing – Fishing on Foot

Walk-In Fishing Spots

To me, there’s something special about a bank-fishing or wading spot that can only be reached by a bit of a hike.

I hooked and landed a fish on my first cast, but the morning’s reward came even before that. Reward came the moment my daughter Autumn and I stepped out of the woods to descend the final slope to the edge of the Chattooga National Wild & Scenic River.

We’d hiked a little less than a mile down a lightly used trail after driving a few miles down rough Forest Service roads and had ducked through a rhododendron tunnel to get to the river.

Walk-in spots are special, from my perspective, and even modest effort reaching a fishing location adds a value that’s hard to rightly quantify. There’s a bit of extra ownership of the spot and the day, and every fish feels a little more earned.

Don’t get me wrong. When I can hop out of the car, walk a few steps to the water and start catching fish, I’m always thrilled to do so, and I’m not trying to make some snobby claim of walk-in fishing trips or catches somehow counting for more.

For me, sometimes the hike in and out are part of the adventure, and an added value comes in finding little or no company at water’s edge and finding an area that seems lightly fished. Autumn and I fished all morning and never saw anyone else.

Of course, the spot we fished has its own set of rewards. We reached the river beside a fabulous green pool, flanked by a 200-foot cliff, with rapids upstream and downstream and car-sized boulders to climb and fish between. I’ve fished a lot of marvelous spots on the Chattooga but can only think of one that might rival where we were from a scenery standpoint.

We also caught quite a few fish, which never hurts. I can truthfully say, though, that I would have very much enjoyed our morning adventure even if we hadn’t caught a fish.

If you’d to check out our morning of fishing, I shared a video on the Fishing on Foot YouTube channel.

Hike-In River Bass Fishing Adventure with my Daughter
https://youtu.be/Tcc56ma3k_I

Steps Toward Better Fishing Experiences

A few extra steps can go a long way toward tapping into a better fishing experience.

Boating anglers commonly race right past good spots that are near the boat launch. Anglers Fishing on Foot too frequently do the opposite — selecting a spot to fish based on little more than its convenience to a parking area.

Granted, the first easy access spot at any given waterway could happen to be a good spot — even a great one. That said, the most convenient spots almost invariably get the most fishing pressure, and my experience suggests that walking a few extra steps can go a long way toward tapping into a better fishing experience.

Fewer people fishing naturally equates to less pressured fish and in cases of fish that people commonly keep, more fish available. Beyond starting with less-fished waters, a willingness to walk lets you try more spots to search for active fish.

Even beyond fish-catching prospects, for most types of fishing, I simply prefer a little less company. I’m not anti-social overall, and there are a few settings — like a popular public pier — where the community aspect even adds to the experience.

Typically, though, I like to at least feel like I have an area to myself when I’m fishing. That’s extra true for any fishing that has me standing in a stream.

The nice thing is that most people don’t like to walk and don’t equip themselves well for a mobile approach. From my experience, you don’t have to walk far up a creek or along a lake’s bank to have spots to yourself. Even in popular trout streams that have regular pull offs along them, simply wading the stretches between pull offs instead of fishing next to them can make it feel like you’ve stepped into wilderness.

Because I like to start away from the easiest access and to work a section of bank or wade up a creek, I tend to pack light, and I carry only stuff I can put in a backpack or clip to a loop. With less total weight and nothing I need to set down and pick back up, I’m far freer to walk more steps to find the best fishing experience!