Obama's gone fishin' (with his top on)... unlike Putin who is happier doing it bare-chested

By Mail Foreign Service
Updated: 08:04 EST, 5 September 2009

It's well known he's a dab hand at basketball.

Now Barack Obama has proved he's equally as adept with a fishing rod.

Unlike a certain Russian rival, however, he doesn't feel the need to burnish his macho credentials while doing so.

Barack Obama

Reel 'em in: Obama shows off his new skills during a wet and windy fly-fishing trip in Montana

Enlarge   Russian bare: Vladimir Putin goes fishing in Siberia in 2007

Russian bare: Vladimir Putin goes fishing in Siberia in 2007

Vladimir Putin was memorably photographed fishing with no shirt in Siberia in 2007, helping cement the Russian premier's 'hardman' reputation.

But Mr Obama could well have the upper hand when it comes to skill.

Despite being a novice at the sport, he managed to net half a dozen fish during the day trip to Montana.

The president had banned media from the August 14 fishing trip, insisting he simply wanted it to be a learning experience.

However two weeks later, with polls showing his approval ratings plunging, the president appears to have changed his mind. On August 26 he published photographs from the 'learning experience' on the White House's Flickr site.

New poll figures show his approval rating has dropped below 50 per cent for the first time amid growing controversy over his plans to overhaul U.S. healthcare and growing American casualties in the war in Afghanistan.

But those cares appear far from the grinning president's mind in the photographs.

The trip was the fulfilment of a campaign promise to take up the sport. And Mr Obama didn't let thunderstorms and unseasonably cool weather stop him from going on the trip. 

'He insisted that fishermen fish in the rain, so he said, 'Let's do it,'' fishing guide Dan Vermillion said.

'The weather was really horrendous. We were all real cold at the end of the day.'

The president took two-and-a-half hours for the trip after his health care town hall near Bozeman, Montana on August 14.

His guide said the commander-in-chief has become a serious student of the sport.

'I found him to be a real good listener. He really wanted to learn about the whole experience of fly fishing,' Mr said Vermillion, who runs the Sweetwater Fly Shop in Livingston.

Mr Obama had apparently spent time at Camp David practicing in the days before the trip, he said.

Barack Obama

Yes, he CAN! Local fishing guide Dan Vermillion reacts as Obama hooks a trout

It paid off. The president did well for a first-timer by hooking half a dozen fish in an area mixed with brown and rainbow trout - although unfortunately he didn't land any during the afternoon getaway on the Montana river.

Mr Obama used fishing gear he received as a birthday president from some avid fishermen on his staff. His press secretary Robert Gibbs came along for the ride.

While fishing, Mr Vermillion said he and Mr Obama talked about everything from Montana land issues to their personal lives, and the president insisted on being called by his first name.

'We talked a lot about his family and the challenges he and Michelle face trying to keep his kids grounded in the surreal experience he lives in,' he said.

I spy daddy! Barack Obama's daughter Sasha hides behind the sofa as she sneaks up on him at the end of the day in the Oval Office

I spy daddy! Barack Obama's daughter Sasha hides behind the sofa as she sneaks up on him at the end of the day in the Oval Office

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