Hmmm...lots of things.

I haven't been called a cracker for a long time, but I guess being late at the launch qualifies, so I'll take my lumps for that one :p ...I've certainly used a lot worse terms for folks who have made me late to get on the water!

There are a ton of superficial characteristics that can be tagged on a "cracker", but that's all they are...superficial. Things like yellow rods, upside down spinning reels, corkies the size of basketballs, hip boots, and the use of "it'll smoke up fine!" to justify the bonking of a boot.

A more realistic definition, however, is probably better rooted in the attitude of the fisherman, in my book, and how they use the knowledge that they have accumulated.

Ignorance doesn't so much make a cracker as stupidity does...ignorance is the lack of knowledge, and stupidity is the inability to apply readily available knowledge, whether it be intentional or just plain illogical.

For instance, you see a kid with a camo chum salmon, perhaps the biggest fish he's ever caught, proudly bonking it and showing it off to everyone he can get to listen for five minutes.

Cracker? Probably not...excitement or inexperience has ruled the day, for someone who probably doesn't know any better. That's ignorance...and I don't mean "ignorance" to be a bad word, just to be its dictionary definition...they don't know any other way.

Next, you see a dude who has caught lots of fish in his day, bonking the same fish, knowing full well that there is nothing there to eat, that most people won't be too impressed...but doing it anyway. That's just plain stupid...he knows that it is worthless as food, and that it is only done through some wierd sense of what is "impressive" to someone.

Major cracker.

I'll probably step on a few toes with this one, but proving your fishing prowess by showing off all the fish you can catch when you fish with a guide is some serious cracker material.

True, the guide can't catch the fish for you, but he damn near can.

This goes hand in hand with fishing over massive runs of hatchery fish, and somehow equating high success rates with some kind of great fishing prowess.

Big whoop.

I fish over those runs, and catch a lot of fish...perhaps more than most, but it's not really a reflection of what a super star I am... :rolleyes: ...the fish are there, if you do it right, you catch them.

For myself, I'm much more proud of fishing a piece of river like the upper Sauk, which is a brand new river every year, and has a six week window of good fish presence...two trips just to see the changes and try to figure out the "new" river, and a few more to modify that "figuring out", hopefully while catching fish, and then having a few good days...then the season ends.

Hopefully there's not a lot of change in the river conditions over that six week period, or the whole thing starts over.

For myself, that is what steelhead fishing is all about...applying 25 years of experience to something that is new, or changing every day, and being successful.

So you can side drift the same run, year in and year out, and pull fish out from behind the exact same rock, every trip, every year. Yes, it's good on you that you found that rock, and found the fish. However, it's not much of an accomplishment to only be able to catch fish there, if when you go to a new river, where you don't have that specific knowledge, and there is no meaningful experience to draw on that helps you catch fish there, too.

If that wasn't "soap box" enough, here's some serous soap boxing...

If you don't in some way, whether it be through modifying your own actions, educating others, cultivating the next generation of fishermen, or give back to the resource on a significant level...if you don't do any of those things, on behalf of our sport and our fish, then you are a cracker, period...and I don't care how good of a fisherman you are, or how many you catch.

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. I forgot this one...if you wear a pink life vest, you are a cracker!!