Originally Posted by
marinate
I totally hear where your coming from. I use to think the same way and still do to an extent. I would be standing on shore watching boaters trolling while they sit back shootin the breeze with buddies, havin a beer, listening to the radio, etc...while pulling line. Didn't seem very sporting to me. I thought to my self, "How is that fishing?" On shore I'm casting, retrieving, feeling the weight/lure on the end of my line, and finally feeling the tug from a fish. To me that's fishing. Then I buy a kayak/float tube and now I'm beginning to like trolling as a method of fishing, but I don't feel disconnected to the "mechanics" of fishing because I'm pulling the line, varying the speed, changing the direction of the lure I'm pulling with my own arm power (not a motor/machine) and visual cues relative to my kayak. To do this effectively, you have to focus on what your doing while watching your rod/line/lure. So now I'm enjoying the benefits of trolling without getting too far away from the "connectedness" with my equipment and technique in the same way that I experience when fishing from shore or casting from a boat. Hope that makes sense.
More thoughts: But then again, how is bait and wait different than trolling? If you question the legitimacy of trolling, I guess you'd also have to question bait and wait...and this technique probably represents a majority of people who fish.