While bird-watching may be one of the most mainstream activities of nature lovers, fish watching is an individualist’s choice. The interesting yet rare hobby is thoroughly presented in the book Fish of the Rockies by Sullivan et al. (2009). The idea of fish-watching is that instead of the trophy hunters’ habit of targeting few large predatory species and the largest possible individuals, a fish-watcher attempts to observe as many species as possible, especially those that are not easily caught by standard fishing methods e.g. due to very small body size. For this purpose, the book presents a range of methods to catch different fish types or to observe them even without a capture for example using underwater cameras or binoculars with polarized lenses. Therefore, one thing remains common between both fish- and bird-watchers: binoculars hanging on one’s neck.
Sullivan MG, Propst DL, Gould WR (2009) Fish of the Rockies. 1st edn, 223 pages. Lone Pine Publishing.
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Fish-watching is called “fongaus” in Finnish and there are even fish-watching competitions organized. The most famous one is in may. Maybe next year Egru should participate – we at least know where to get ninespines and threespines and the gigantic salmons.