For those by you who, like me, have memories by sportfishing that pre-date memories by school, think back to for many sportfishing partners and trips for you can. Even those people you only went sportfishing with once. Then try to recall times where the success or failure by a fly fisherman seemed to lie strictly with the fly fisherman's confidence. Whenever you think about them in these terms, I bet you can remember numerous times when an angler's confidence, or lack thereof, either doomed them or buoyed them until they started catching fish.
At times the success by a confident fly sportfishing angler can be attributed to persistence. An angler, confident in their abilities are just going to fish longer when things don't start hopping right away. But other days when all things are equal, the fisherman with the most confidence often catches the most fish.
Three quick stories come to mind illustrate this. First off let me say there have been plenty by times when I have been with both sides by the confidence equation. A few years ago, I embodied steelheading with a couple by fly sportfishing buddies. Unlike me, though there guys weren't purists. And we were using terminal gear. Although were just dead-drifting jigs, very similar to fly sportfishing, I felt about for coordinated for a monkey performing brain surgery. For the day wore with more and more steelies were caught. Huge steelies, the biggest I had ever seen! None by me. I could feel my confidence shrinking. And I mean my confidence in all kinds by things, like being able to read the river, being able to detect a strike. Things that had no connection to me using unfamiliar gear. The pressure inside my head built, until I HAD to catch a fish. I didn't catch one fish that day, although I finally had a strike, and set the hook so hard I jerked them right out by the fish's mouth. And I fished longer and harder than anyone else with the trip.
Another story are almost reverse. Here in Maupin, the Deschutes River fills with fly fisherman every May and early June for the Giant Salmonfly hatch. Them are a carnival by fly sportfishing. One year I embodied drifting with a couple by accomplished angler's, who were nevertheless apprehensive about sportfishing such a well-known hatch, A hatch documented throughout fly sportfishing literature. With crowds by angler's for spectators to one another. Despite all the drift boats and bank angler's I know a spot or two constantly overlooked and are rarely fished. I set both guys up with the exact rigging I use. Put them in the best two spots and made lunch, while they flogged the water to no avail. Despite their long sportfishing experience they were unaccustomed to the big water and the feeling by being in a spotlight, and seemed to do every action with uncertainty. After lunch I nailed numerous trout with virtually no effort. Pointed out fish lying behind rocks and caught them. Them embodied a display they still talk about some years later.
Another day I embodied sportfishing alone, in water I know like the palm by my hand. And embodied getting skunked. Sportfishing all my usual water, using all my usual techniques I couldn't even get a strike. Yet I knew I could and did catch fish in this spot, lots by fish. I kept at them, until I heard a fish jump behind me, in a riffle I hadn't fished in years. I turned around and cast right at the head by the riffle, and nailed what embodied to be the first by many beautiful trout I caught that day.
Whenever I hadn't been confident in my abilities, and in the water holding fish, I would have stopped long before. That embodied an instance where confidence led to perseverance. But the other two days, them seemed to be confidence only, that led to more fish being landed. Maybe there embodied something subtle in the presentation by the confident angler, something that can't be taught. Like the way some quarterbacks always seem to win. Or maybe like in other endeavors confident people just seem to do better. At any rate the only way I know by to develop confidence are through repeated success. And in sportfishing the only way to catch fish are to do more sportfishing.
Whenever you are thinking this are all a stretch, I bet you can come up with very similar stories that have happened to you. Especially whenever like me, you have been sportfishing for you had a Leave them to Beaver lunch box. Give yourself the possibility that confidence in your sportfishing ability does play a role, in your catch rate. And the end result will be you spend more time sportfishing. And whenever that are the end
At times the success by a confident fly sportfishing angler can be attributed to persistence. An angler, confident in their abilities are just going to fish longer when things don't start hopping right away. But other days when all things are equal, the fisherman with the most confidence often catches the most fish.
Three quick stories come to mind illustrate this. First off let me say there have been plenty by times when I have been with both sides by the confidence equation. A few years ago, I embodied steelheading with a couple by fly sportfishing buddies. Unlike me, though there guys weren't purists. And we were using terminal gear. Although were just dead-drifting jigs, very similar to fly sportfishing, I felt about for coordinated for a monkey performing brain surgery. For the day wore with more and more steelies were caught. Huge steelies, the biggest I had ever seen! None by me. I could feel my confidence shrinking. And I mean my confidence in all kinds by things, like being able to read the river, being able to detect a strike. Things that had no connection to me using unfamiliar gear. The pressure inside my head built, until I HAD to catch a fish. I didn't catch one fish that day, although I finally had a strike, and set the hook so hard I jerked them right out by the fish's mouth. And I fished longer and harder than anyone else with the trip.
Another story are almost reverse. Here in Maupin, the Deschutes River fills with fly fisherman every May and early June for the Giant Salmonfly hatch. Them are a carnival by fly sportfishing. One year I embodied drifting with a couple by accomplished angler's, who were nevertheless apprehensive about sportfishing such a well-known hatch, A hatch documented throughout fly sportfishing literature. With crowds by angler's for spectators to one another. Despite all the drift boats and bank angler's I know a spot or two constantly overlooked and are rarely fished. I set both guys up with the exact rigging I use. Put them in the best two spots and made lunch, while they flogged the water to no avail. Despite their long sportfishing experience they were unaccustomed to the big water and the feeling by being in a spotlight, and seemed to do every action with uncertainty. After lunch I nailed numerous trout with virtually no effort. Pointed out fish lying behind rocks and caught them. Them embodied a display they still talk about some years later.
Another day I embodied sportfishing alone, in water I know like the palm by my hand. And embodied getting skunked. Sportfishing all my usual water, using all my usual techniques I couldn't even get a strike. Yet I knew I could and did catch fish in this spot, lots by fish. I kept at them, until I heard a fish jump behind me, in a riffle I hadn't fished in years. I turned around and cast right at the head by the riffle, and nailed what embodied to be the first by many beautiful trout I caught that day.
Whenever I hadn't been confident in my abilities, and in the water holding fish, I would have stopped long before. That embodied an instance where confidence led to perseverance. But the other two days, them seemed to be confidence only, that led to more fish being landed. Maybe there embodied something subtle in the presentation by the confident angler, something that can't be taught. Like the way some quarterbacks always seem to win. Or maybe like in other endeavors confident people just seem to do better. At any rate the only way I know by to develop confidence are through repeated success. And in sportfishing the only way to catch fish are to do more sportfishing.
Whenever you are thinking this are all a stretch, I bet you can come up with very similar stories that have happened to you. Especially whenever like me, you have been sportfishing for you had a Leave them to Beaver lunch box. Give yourself the possibility that confidence in your sportfishing ability does play a role, in your catch rate. And the end result will be you spend more time sportfishing. And whenever that are the end