You Should Be Reading Dan Smith’s “How to Catch Any Fish”
All photos courtesy of Dan Smith’s “How to Catch Any Fish”
As Half Past First Cast prepares to hit four years of continuous operation, I continue to scour the web for other fishing travel blogs – to inspire me, to develop future travel plans and to meet likeminded anglers. To be 100% honest, there aren’t very many good ones, especially among those that are non-fly-specific. One of the few that I return to time and time again is Dan Smith’s “How to Catch Any Fish” because not only is Dan living out many of my angling dreams, but also because he seems to be doing it for all of the right reasons – a pure love of the sport and adventure.
We published an interview with Dan in the Fall of 2021, but thought it would be helpful to steer new readers to his work. It really is a fantastic resource.
Things I Like Best About Dan’s Blog
There are lots of things that make Dan’s website stand out among the limited herd of likeminded efforts. Here are the five that mean the most to me:
He’s not trying to sell anything – Dan is completely independent, not working for any lodge, tackle manufacturer or other paying entity (he previously had Amazon affiliate links, but they were the softest sell I’ve ever seen). He spends his own money on trips and is blunt about what he likes, what he doesn’t, and why.
He’s willing to fail – It’s easy on a fishing blog to talk about all of the amazing places you’ve been and all of your amazing, drool-worthy catches. There’s plenty of that on “How to Catch Any Fish” because Dan has done a lot of bucket list things, but at the same time when fishing is tough, or something goes wrong, he reports on it plainly and honestly. There should be more of that in this arena.
He's not a species snob – There are blog about GTs and Amazonian exotics, to be sure, but also about crappie and catfish. Not only is there something on his site to appeal to every specialist, but it’s an amazing gateway to expand your options and considerations.
He’ll open your eyes to new opportunities – Before reading Dan’s blog I’d never heard of places like New Caledonia. I didn’t know there were angling opportunities in Oman. In most fishing travel media there’s a constant effort to publicize the same, already-popular places. At some point, part of the fun is going places no one else in your circle has already fished.
He’s not a celebrity – Dan has been to more exotic fisheries than most of us will ever have any opportunity to visit, but it’s not like he’s being paid to go there to film a show. It’s because he’s worked hard to get where he is (outside of the fishing industry) and it’s proof that these places are accessible to just about all of us. That gives us more reasons to dream and to plan.
Constructive Criticism
It’s hard to be critical of someone like Dan who does something purely out of passion, especially when he does it so well, but here are two pieces of constructive criticism:
We need more trip reports – I know that Dan can only go on so many trips – other obligations and perhaps budget limit his ability to be a full-time fishing vagabond, but I’ll admit that I sometimes go on his site and hit “refresh” repeatedly looking to learn about his latest adventure in some place that we’ve yet to fish.
Perhaps more gear reviews – I know that I wrote above that I like the fact that he’s not trying to sell anything, so maybe the site is near perfect as-is, but as a confirmed gear junkie I’d love to know more about what he likes and what he doesn’t like. I’m so heavily involved/invested in bass world that I need others to introduce me to brands from abroad or from other types of fishing.
