"Expert" anglers

[KCRIVERRAT]

I have an aquarium. I know exactly what they eat and when to throw it.

[MOPanfisher]

I am a "lucky angler", some days it's good luck some days it's bad luck, but even the bad days I enjoy.  I have absolutely no illusions about being an expert at anything.  When fishing stops being fun I will stop fishing.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

You guys really made me feel alot better about myself....   coom by ya my lord... 

[Al Agnew]

Some of you touched upon some of the things that make somebody a better fisherman, and some of it is just some kind of sixth sense, in my opinion.  I call it being in the zone.  When I'm in the zone, I can just about call my shots...I just KNOW a particular cast to a particular spot is going to produce a good fish.  A lot of that, though, is experience, doing it so much or so long that somewhere in the back of your mind is the memory of catching good fish in those particular spots under those particular conditions.  You may not consciously remember it, but it's there in the software somewhere.

I've fished with a lot of people over the years.  Some (well, nearly all the guys I fish with regularly) are at least as good as I am, or at least at the same level.  Others, I knew going in were not as experienced or as knowledgeable...or just not as proficient.  A guide friend of mine says that nothing frustrates him more than putting the boat in the perfect position for his client to make a cast to the perfect spot, over and over, and having the client miss most of the spots.  It's the only thing that makes him want to pick up his own rod...he hates "wasting" water.  I feel much the same way with some of the guys I fish with.  The canoe will be in the perfect position, I'll even tell them, gently, that spot is a big fish producer, and yet they cast five feet away on purpose, or miss the cast completely because of equipment problems, or just make a bad cast, or decide to pick up a different--and wrong--rod and lure right then.

So part of what makes the good angler is recognizing the spots, and seeing the best angle to make the cast, and knowing which lure will most likely fish that spot the best.  And the second part is the sheer efficiency...being ABLE to make that perfect cast when you come to that perfect spot, over and over, with seldom a misfire.  And not missing a good spot because you have some problem with your reel or whatever.  And being able to control your boat or canoe or kayak or whatever to keep yourself in a good position to hit all the spots.

There's a beauty to watching someone who is a good bank-shooter.  When I'm in the zone in the solo canoe, I can go down a bank, making a cast every 6 feet or so, every cast within 6 inches of where I want it, the canoe never out of position.  And with one of my fishing buddies in the tandem canoe, or the jetboat, we go down that bank, the guy in the front hitting most of the best spots along it perfectly, the other guy hitting all the secondary "best" spots or hitting the best spot from a slightly different angle.  Every possible fish along that bank gets a chance at a lure.

At the same time, I find it interesting how often, when I'm fishing with a buddy that I know is a good angler, that they don't make the same cast I would if they are in front, or they don't position the boat the way I would.  We all have our own techniques and ideas.  Some are a lot closer to me than others, though.  With a select few, we're almost always on the same wavelength.

I still get so wrapped up in the actual, physical action of fishing, though, that sometimes I'll realize I've gone several hundred yards down a bank, ran through a riffle, fished through a long run, and come to the next pool, without ever lifting my eyes from the water.  I'm mellower than I used to be...I've told myself so long and so often that I don't have to catch every fish in the river, that I now usually take the time to stop, look around, actually WATCH that turkey flying across the river downstream and climbing the hill on the other side for a while, instead of glancing at it and turning my attention back to the water.  I noticed the spectacular mats of bluebells on the low banks of Big River yesterday, and the redbuds on the hillsides, and the eagle soaring overhead.  I saw the caves in the bluff.  It's one of the great things about Ozark streams, especially when floating them in a paddle craft...there's simply a lot more to the experience than the fishing.  Running tricky riffles is a great break from concentrating on the fishing.

[Chief Grey Bear]

 

 

I'm still amazed by that river tagging study...50% of the fish tagged were caught in the first few weeks. So don't be so hard on yourself!??

The word I got was the vast majority were caught by one man. Contact was made by the MDC to as to whether he was releasing them or keeping. He kept every one of them plus others. So on the money tag research, one person for all intent and purpose, messed it all up.

[Flysmallie]

 

The word I got was the vast majority were caught by one man. Contact was made by the MDC to as to whether he was releasing them or keeping. He kept every one of them plus others. So on the money tag research, one person for all intent and purpose, messed it all up.

I guess he was an expert at catching tagged fish. And hungry. 

[Guest]

Deleted.

[joeD]

I like to golf. The fact that there are others better than me, never interferes with my enjoyment.

Al, you are suffering from advanced age and vanity.

Where is it written that catching the most and the biggest is the apogee of fishing success?

That having the most money and being famous is worth striving for. 

Life judged by numbers.

Then we are surely lost.

 

 

[Chief Grey Bear]

 

Doubt it... Had to specify whether they were caught or released when the tag was submitted.  I caught quite a few myself from April to December of that year.

 

 And nothing would illustrate vulnerability to angling better than a single person traveling around the multiple watersheds catching "the vast majority" of the hundreds of fish tagged.  

Doubt all you want. I'd have to go back and get the particulars again, but I believe it was from one area. I shouldn't have made it sound like he got them from all watersheds. That was my bad. But it was enough that I believe they asked him if he would quit and he said no. But again I'll have to go back as it's been some time sine they told me that.

[Flysmallie]

 

Where is it written that catching the most and the biggest is the apogee of fishing success?

 

 

I rarely agree with JoeD but he nails it here.