Aonther forum I visit frewuently had a poster talk about being a failure because he had a nofer day. My response follows and I thought it shareable as several have responded and a few PM's. We have been chatting a lot lately about fishing slowly so it brought back some fond memories.
Everytime I go out, I learn something new. Maybe a nofer day is a failure to some, but for me it is a learning experience. One of my favorite memories was using a black jitterbug under a full moon. Cast it out as far a possible. Let is set for 2-3-4 minutes then a slight twitch repeat 3-4 times. Maybe crank it about 10 feet then start all over again. I'll never forget hearing my fathers voice in the background, He he comes, then seeing the wake and dorsal fin come up out of the water and almost having to rod pulled from my hand.
Several evenings we fished that same lake and it seemed like the longer you could wait, the more productive the evening. That is a sure way to develop patience.
A couple weeks back, fishing with a suspending 110+1, not having much luck, cast one out, opened a cold soda, lit a smoke, just relaxed and watched. one small twitch. Stopped and waited, tried another twitch, after 3-4 minutes, another twitch, something seemed off, took up the slack and fish on. nice 21". Mind you, this was after 7 hours on the lake, and nothing to show for it.
My buddy, decided it was luck, but we both cast out and since it worked for me, he decided to give it a shot, lost his patience, and fished the old way, I waited until he made a second cast, one twitch. when he made his third cast, I gave another twitch and bang. Lost one at the boat,
He decided maybe I was on to something and mimmicked my presentation. We caught fish but ran out of daylight and for safety reasons called it a day. 5 fish after 11 hours of fishing is that a success or failure. Sure was fun and any day fishing beats almost anything I can think of. The more I fish, the more I think its about an open mind and willingness to try something new or different. Just because it did work today, does not mean it wont work some other day.
The fish are actively feeding, but not aggressive. From what I see at brookville, there is still a ton of baitfish and you gotta wait it out. Ive fished from the bank and fished from a boat. a fish an hour is good if the gods are smiling on you. No fish and you just gotta wonder what could I do differently.
A good friend got me into musky fishing years ago but warned me, 40 hours of fishing per fish. He was seeking a trophy 60" musky and had been for years. With his guideance, I caught several in the 40 -48" range but never got the elusive 50". He was always telling me I was fishing too fast. I moved away but one night 5 years later I got a call, He finally got his 60" musky. By his recollection, he had 10,000 hours in pursuit of that fish. When I asked about getting it mounted, His reply, catch and release!
That man was a true sportsman his endless pursuit finally paid off. I still think of him and the patience lessons learned. Trying new things and fishing differently are valuable lessons.
Everytime I go out, I learn something new. Maybe a nofer day is a failure to some, but for me it is a learning experience. One of my favorite memories was using a black jitterbug under a full moon. Cast it out as far a possible. Let is set for 2-3-4 minutes then a slight twitch repeat 3-4 times. Maybe crank it about 10 feet then start all over again. I'll never forget hearing my fathers voice in the background, He he comes, then seeing the wake and dorsal fin come up out of the water and almost having to rod pulled from my hand.
Several evenings we fished that same lake and it seemed like the longer you could wait, the more productive the evening. That is a sure way to develop patience.
A couple weeks back, fishing with a suspending 110+1, not having much luck, cast one out, opened a cold soda, lit a smoke, just relaxed and watched. one small twitch. Stopped and waited, tried another twitch, after 3-4 minutes, another twitch, something seemed off, took up the slack and fish on. nice 21". Mind you, this was after 7 hours on the lake, and nothing to show for it.
My buddy, decided it was luck, but we both cast out and since it worked for me, he decided to give it a shot, lost his patience, and fished the old way, I waited until he made a second cast, one twitch. when he made his third cast, I gave another twitch and bang. Lost one at the boat,
He decided maybe I was on to something and mimmicked my presentation. We caught fish but ran out of daylight and for safety reasons called it a day. 5 fish after 11 hours of fishing is that a success or failure. Sure was fun and any day fishing beats almost anything I can think of. The more I fish, the more I think its about an open mind and willingness to try something new or different. Just because it did work today, does not mean it wont work some other day.
The fish are actively feeding, but not aggressive. From what I see at brookville, there is still a ton of baitfish and you gotta wait it out. Ive fished from the bank and fished from a boat. a fish an hour is good if the gods are smiling on you. No fish and you just gotta wonder what could I do differently.
A good friend got me into musky fishing years ago but warned me, 40 hours of fishing per fish. He was seeking a trophy 60" musky and had been for years. With his guideance, I caught several in the 40 -48" range but never got the elusive 50". He was always telling me I was fishing too fast. I moved away but one night 5 years later I got a call, He finally got his 60" musky. By his recollection, he had 10,000 hours in pursuit of that fish. When I asked about getting it mounted, His reply, catch and release!
That man was a true sportsman his endless pursuit finally paid off. I still think of him and the patience lessons learned. Trying new things and fishing differently are valuable lessons.