Wildside - The Red Baron's Outdoor Lessons

Keep hunting & fishing strategy simple

© Zane Mirfin, Wildside Column, Keep hunting strategy simple, Nelson Mail, 2 January 2010

A dreadful Christmas song gets a man thinking about hunting lessons from a German wartime legend.

The Baron’s tactical skills are just as important in modern day fishing and hunting excursions

Spoils of War: Ash Mirfin’s souvenirs include an Iron Cross and letter written on piece of a plane.


This Christmas my children discovered music. Unfortunately they also discovered the song Snoopy’s Christmas and have been thrashing it at volume ever since.

Out on the river lately, guiding anglers in the Rainbow and Molesworth stations, I found myself singing the words of the
Snoopy song over and over again. Walking up river, I thought about the song, the Red Baron, my grandfather’s involvement in World War I, and how it all relates to modern fishing and hunting success.

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, was a master fighter pilot and perhaps one of the most mythical and iconic figures of modern warfare. In doing some research for this story I couldn't validate the truthfulness of the Snoopy song and toasting his enemy behind enemy lines, but it sure makes for good folklore. One thing is for
certain, with over 80 confirmed planes shot down during his career, von Richthofen was the best in the business, becoming a celebrity and legend in his own brief lifetime.

Watching TV’s History Channel recently I was transfixed by documentary footage on von Richthofen’s legacy, as the Red Baron and as a hunter of men. The baron’s strategy was simple – attack from a position of surprise and advantage, getting in so close that it was almost impossible to miss when the shooting started. These are the same fundamental elements adopted by successful outdoors people throughout history in their pursuit of game and fish.

Von Richthofen had technical mastery when flying his Fokker tri-plane, but first and foremost he was a hunter flying an aeroplane, one who understood the machinery, habits, and capabilities of his prey – allied airmen. Indeed, he often hunted wild boar and red deer after ‘‘work’’ throughout the war and enjoyed extended hunts during leave back in Germany.

One of the highlights of the war for my grandfather, Ash Mirfin, was watching the Red Baron fly over him in the trenches of northern France, occurrences carefully noted in his extensive war diaries. Fortunately the Mirfin family was spared the
tragedy of the battles for Passchendaele, with Ash and his brother George held back a few weeks to face disciplinary proceedings after a hand grenade exploded accidentally in their UK barracks, injuring some of their West Coast comrades.

Interestingly, according to my grandfather New Zealand ground troops were specifically instructed not to shoot at the
baron on fly-bys, such was the esteem and mana in which the man was held.

The baron’s tactical skills are just as important in modern day fishing and hunting excursions. A major tactic of truly successful outdoorsmen is the ability to avoid detection by species that they are targeting.

With deer, hunters need to sneak around inside bush edges looking out into the open at the change of light, stopping
frequently to look, listen and observe, and above all making sure the wind direction is favourable to a successful stalk. Animals that are harvested without knowing the hunter is present always taste the best too, as they have no adrenalin laced through the meat.

With snapper, fishers need to be in fishing position before daylight to get the best results at the change of light. Small boats with small engines and low revs are the way to go with less engine noise allowing you to ease into position without disturbing fishy residents. Avoid clanking anchor chains or dropping stuff on the bottom of the boat to minimise noise. Depth sounders left on while fishing can scare off wary snapper and we prefer to ease into premium positions before daylight with GPS to be ultra sneaky.

Big boats with larger surface areas scare a lot of fish with wave slap, and by casting a larger shadow on the seafloor of shallow Tasman Bay; while onboard large motor batteries can give off a negative electrical charge around the boat, repelling snapper.

Never roar around with a big motor looking for that perfect reef or selfishly around someone else’s setline, because you will just herd all the sensitive fish further out into the bay.

When fishing is over check out new places that you can GPS for another time, so you can use stealth mode when next you fish. Bait too is important, and fishers should attempt to ‘‘match the hatch’’ and use bait that complements the berley that they use. It’s not rocket science but it makes sense to use bait that the fish are expecting to eat.

With trout, avoid heavy footfalls and splashing about like a wading elephant, or thrashing or ripping the fly line on the water – an activity known as casturbation. My angler on Boxing Day, Jamie from Canada, joked that back home they call it  "fish conservation through incompetence’’.

Be delicate and gentle and think about where the best locations to fish are, perhaps avoiding over-pressured waters, public holidays, or bad moon phases. If a trout refuses to eat your fly, retreat out of sight to eat your lunch and give it a
break. It is amazing how often such fish will take first cast when you sneak back into position with the element of surprise on your side.

Your brain is the most powerful fishing and hunting tool you will ever own and you can train yourself habits and strategies that will allow you to locate and get closer to game and fish without detection.

My friend and outdoors mentor, Dave Heine of Dobson, is one of the best outdoorsmen I know and while Dave may get a little ornery sometimes with me talking too much or having trouble getting out of bed on early starts, I have learnt many lessons on how to be more successful outdoors by careful planning and most of all, the use of stealth.

For fishing guides, every day is a win or lose scenario, with the fishing world being small and guides who develop ‘‘the stink’’ quickly sinking into oblivion. Nelson’s Tony Entwistle, to my mind, is the Red Baron of New Zealand fly fishing guides, still flying high after 30 years in the cockpit, while all around wannabes crash and burn.

You can’t win every day though, and even the Red Baron’s luck ran out when the hunter eventually became the hunted. Shot down by Australian ground troops in 1918, his plane and clothing were stripped within the hour as trophies of war.

But the strategies of the Red Baron have stood the test of time.

This summer, whatever you are hunting or fishing for, make sure you do as the Red Baron did – come out of nowhere and whack’em before they know what happened.

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