How
to Improve Your Results
By Richard
Carter
You spend a lot of time,
money and effort
to be the best angler you can be
travelling to all environments and locations
to practice your chosen art
waiting out weather
shivering at dawn
roasting on December afternoons
countless miles on nameless waters
all to catch a fish
and one day, with all the fishing gods smiling on you |
weather, time, tide,
even the alignment of the stars too
your presentation is flawless
your technique is perfect
the imitation is taken, the hook is set
the fight is the consummate of years of effort
At last the fish is within reach
It's a thing of wild beauty
and you hold it in you wet hands
remove the hook
then, smiling, you let it swim away. |
(Paraphrased
from a fly rod advert)
A few years ago when guiding
or teaching sport anglers and showing them how to catch the different
fresh and salt water species in SE Queensland. Some of them look
at me with bewilderment, some with horror, as to why after many
hours of work and sometimes more than a few lost flies. The quality
fish just caught is simply photographed, revived and released.
It was stated up front that as
a part time light tackle lure and fly sportfishing guide it was
not my job to fill the client's freezer or to put food on their
table. My role was to put them onto quality fish and educate
the client, not only in modern fishing techniques, but also hopefully
in still the ethics of the modern conservative sports angler.
We have all read about how commercial
fishing practices are raping and destroying our finite marine
resources. Yet we, the recreational anglers, insist on gauging
our fishing success or human prowess on a full esky or worse
yet on a full chest freezer at home or even as bad by hanging
on a hook a large breeding female of a species for all to see,
never to breed again.
How do I gauge a successful outing
(other than time away from the wife). If I did it for the money,
I'd have had no money to buy anything for the last twenty years.
That's why I got into the computing industry. Not for the intellectual
challenge (I got married for that) nor was it my lifelong dream
to work for someone else the rest of my life. The only reason
was to pay for my fishing obsession thus allowing me to fish
as often as possible.
You think about it, add up the
cost of the boat you may have, your fishing gear, all the maintenance
of that equipment, the terminal tackle lost, used and abused
in all the fishing you have done in your life, plus the cost
of getting there and back all those many times. Now against that
add up the market value of all the fish fillets you have eaten.
Not too many anglers can say the cost of your equipment plus
the cost of getting there would out weigh the value of those
fillets. I can't and I have caught a lot of fish in 30+ years
of fishing. (hell, even commercial fisherman have trouble doing
that, according to their tax records anyway).
So I tend to judge my successful
outings on the quality of the fishing not the quantity. Putting
emphasis on the catching not the catch. The value of the catching
and experiences gained while fishing far outweigh any costs involved,
as compared to the 'fillets versus cost' formula.
To improve the value given to
that quality is not to catch the fish the easiest or the hardest
way, but the most enjoyable way. This can be done by light or
ultra light line angling, by lure casting or by the method I
personally now use the most - fly fishing. One average fish caught
under adverse conditions or caught after much thought and activity
due to a given set of circumstances when no one else is catching
any, is an example of a higher return than an esky full of big
dead fish - for me anyway.
At a recent fly club trip when
the lake we were fishing was shutdown due to a rapid increase
in water temperature, for me the weekend was saved by chasing
4 - 8 inch rainbow trout in the lake's feeder creeks. Small yes,
but with nothing else biting, these small fish still required
effort and concentration to catch. I had an absolute ball targeting
these feisty bolts of coloured lightning, well worth the cost,
time and effort to get to the dam for the weekend.
Picture: A little rainbow on
a Royal Wulff in Farmer Creek, Lake Lyell
We spend an awful lot of money
on tackle and boats to pursue our targeted fish. Yet we try to
justify it all for a few very expensive fish fillets. Such a
valuable resource deserves to be caught more than once. This
is the main reason I release most of my catch, I tag a few of
those too. Though I haven't caught any I've tagged, I still will
keep tagging and trying to catch them again after they have grown
a bit, hopefully a lot.
Picture: Kristilee (9) and her first bass on lure
The look on a client's, my children's
or angling companion's faces as they hold their first or biggest
of a species is another bonus to the quality of an outing. My
daughter's first bass on a lure was one of her proudest moments
(and mine). She has caught more since then but that first one
is still remembered, I think what also helps her remember it
was because she caught it on my brand new 2-3kilo custom bait
caster I hadn't yet got to use and I didn't catch any that day
to her four fish caught and released. She is currently plotting
her first bass on fly, flies tied, reading as much as she can
about her quarry, plenty of casting practice every week, hopefully
this next season will see that first bass on fly.
So maybe the best way to improve
your fishing trips is to just re-adjust your rating or standard
view of a good fishing trip. Enjoy the catching not just the
catch. Take in the enjoyment of others fishing with you. Feast
your senses on the wonder of all around you, the scenery, the
bird life or just being there instead of working. Not everyone
in the world, let alone Australia, have the same opportunities
we have. Don't forget the fish, sure keep a few for dinner, as
long as they are not big breeders, and let the rest go after
a photo or two.
Picture: My mate bill and a nice Somerset Dam Golden just prior
to release
Only then will you improve every
fishing outing, when the catch is incidental. Is amazing when
you take this approach, how many more fish you can catch, the
pressure is off to catch lots of fish or that one large fish.
Instead you can enjoy yourself and the fish just come along for
the ride while you are enjoying yourself.
See you on the water soon
LIPS
