"Expert" anglers

[bfishn]

 

Agreed, but I started this thread to talk about what makes an expert,...

According to Websters;

 having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience

I know from experience that you can't catch a fish if you don't go fishing.

"Look Maw, yer baby boy's an ekspurt fishurman"!

Whodathunkit

[ozark trout fisher]

 

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.

Wow.

Whoever that guy is better keep his license up to date and play by the letter of the law. I have no doubt he has the MDC's attention in whatever county this occurred in. 

[Norm M]

I am a guy who has been blessed with the time to fish more than the average guy and has 5 decades of experience on my home flow . I taught myself to pay attention to what is going on around me and to use what my senses gathered to catch a few more fish . I have learned that figuring out what the fish are going to be doing when is better based off natural cues than man's calendar . I try to learn as mush from my failures as I do from my successes . I am willing to think outside the box, granted sometime way outside the box . I have no problem with learning from others regardless of their level of experience .I have read about fishing a lot and have learned how to not only adapt that book learning into on the water but have learned to adopt what was written about one species and apply it to other species as well . When I was obsessed with catching 20 inch or better river smallmouth , I learned to do that . That came at the price of becoming a complete posterior during that process . 

 

I don't think any of the above makes me an expert fisherman . There is just so much that I have yet to learn and I am sure there is much I will never learn .

 

I am just a guy who likes to fish and has a bit more success later in life following a lot less success earlier in life . 

 

I don't worry about who I am better than or who is better than me . I fish because I love to and it brings me joy, peace and serenity in my life . That is all that matters to me .

 

I agree with most of the criteria brought forth in what could be considered an expert .  I just don't concern my self as to whether I am or not at this stage in my life . Why take the chance of adding stress to what is supposed to be fun , in worrying about something that with 6 or 7 bucks will get you a cup of coffee at one of them fancy joints 

[MOPanfisher]

OK, to me a "good" fisherman is one who can adjust to moment.  I know guys who can go with me and won't adjust to how I am catching fish, they will stick to their method and never adjust.  Good fisherman can analyze and adjust to what is needed to catch fish.  How good they are at that makes the difference between good and expert.  I have been the guy who absolutely refused to change how I was fishing because I just knew my way was going to pay off, all the while watching a buddy whacking fish after fish.  Any more I am pretty quick to copy them if what I am doing isn't working. If what I am doing is working for me and theirs is working for them, I will probably stick to my way as I  usually prefer my own style.

[ozark trout fisher]

 

I don't worry about who I am better than or who is better than me . I fish because I love to and it brings me joy, peace and serenity in my life . That is all that matters to me .

This basically summarizes all of my thoughts on this. 

Too many people are worried about who is better than them at any given thing. It's at least a little understandable when you are talking about job performance or something along those lines, but on the river, well, I don't get it. I know some fishermen who always have to catch more fish than you and if they don't they'll  be sulking by the end of the day. And I'm always just like, why? There are so many other things that are better suited to competition than angling. Or, alternately, go compete in a tournament where everyone agrees the size and number of fish is the point.

But please for the love of all that is good and holy, do not act like that in the front of my canoe. I have a very good friend who is just awful about this; he's a good enough fishing partner in every other way that I mostly put up with it. But I don't get it, nor do I pretend to. 

[Jerry Rapp]

about 15 years ago I took a couple of co-workers out on Mark Twain Lake.  It was mid June.  We got on the water about 5 pm after work.  The good fish were biting.  All you had to do was drop a tx rigged black/blue tail 10 inch power worm around big trees.  I caught 4 in the first 30 minutes that were 3 to 4 lb chunks.  The guys with me were decent fishermen, but they wanted a buzz bait bite.  But the fish were suspended, post spawn, around those big trees in about 10 feet of water.   Pigeon Roost and Ely Creek for those familiar with Mark Twain.  They stuck with their buzzers for an hour with a couple of short fish.  I just ran the TM and enjoyed a couple of cold ones.  Then I couldn't stand it anymore, and slid the worm down around a few big trees and caught a 5 plus within 15 minutes.  I said here is the rod if you guys want to catch a good one.  They kept slinging their buzz baits because they expected an evening buzz bait bite was suppose to happen.  It never happened because the fish weren't there.

[Al Agnew]

Some interesting food for thought above...

I'm asking myself right now how important it really is to me to be a better angler than I am.  I'm not really competing with anybody, and I don't mind in the least if the guy in the boat with me catches more or bigger fish than I do, I just try to figure out why.  I don't really care if that guy in the other boat is better than me, either, but I'd like to know if he caught more or bigger fish than I did, and how.  It's a matter of just wanting to improve.  It's the way I've always been with my "real job"...I've never been satisfied with my painting.  Happy with it, yes, but always trying to figure out how to do better.  Not for competition, just for my own satisfaction.

On the other hand, I also like fishing the way I fish, and if I have to change considerably to become better, it ain't worth it--I'm good enough.  For instance, I don't throw the Ned Rig, nor do I own an Alabama rig.  Neither appeals to me as a fishing method.  There are a lot of other things I like about the act of fishing besides catching fish.  I love casting a baitcast outfit accurately and efficiently...far, far more than I enjoy using spinning tackle.  So I seldom use spinning tackle.  I'd much rather sit in the canoe and fish as I drift along than to get out all the time and pound one small area, so that's what I do.

So this started out as a thread on, perhaps, how to become a better angler.  But it's always good to examine one's attitude toward what is, in reality, recreation.  Unless you're a tournament angler.  I've fished enough tournaments to know that I don't really like the mindset it puts me in, where catching fish is everything and the fish themselves are just the score, not the wonderful critters they are.  I've found myself being less gentle and careful about releasing undersized fish in tournaments simply because I want to get back to casting as quickly as possible, and that should be unacceptable.

[KCRIVERRAT]

I feel blessed to live in Missouri. Far as I'm concerned we have the most floatable clearwater streams of any state in the nation for family floats up to experts at certain times of the year. I'm an expert at enjoying my surroundings.I look above and look below while floating. Catching fish is secondary.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mitch f]

I find myself enjoying and creating a higher quality of food than when I was younger. I'm also a gourmet coffee freak to the point that I use the Melitta pour over method...which takes forever, BTW, But it tastes so darn good. I guess my fishing has evolved the same way, I enjoy going after larger fish, I'm not satisfied with little fish, that's just me...catching little fish is like drinking coffee from a BP gas station.

[ozark trout fisher]

 

I find myself enjoying and creating a higher quality of food than when I was younger. I'm also a gourmet coffee freak to the point that I use the Melitta pour over method...which takes forever, BTW, But it tastes so darn good. I guess my fishing has evolved the same way, I enjoy going after larger fish, I'm not satisfied with little fish, that's just me...catching little fish is like drinking coffee from a BP gas station.

Well crap, I'm exactly the guy that drinks crappy gas station coffee on my way to go catch small fish, with my PBJs packed away for lunch. And maybe some Fireball if it's an overnighter, if we're being honest.

I thought had that was a phase and a result of not having two pennies to scrape together...but one respectable job later, I guess I honestly just don't give a monkey dodo.

(EDIT: I endlessly am impressed at how curse words get corrected on here. WAY better than the original version)