"Keep
your promise - Try something new this season!"
Author - John E. Brady, Hanover PA-USA
Copyright 2001
e-mail - jeb@jebswebsite.com
Spring has arrived. The cold morning air doesn't seem to be as cold anymore. With excitement we start planning our first fishing outing for the new year.
All throughout the winter we spent the dark evenings and dreary weekends reading every fishing book we could get our hands on, watching fishing videos and TV programs. We went to every sports show and flea market in a one hundred mile radius, attended seminars, exchanged knowledge with other fisherman just for the opportunity to gain some new insight into our favorite sport.
It's time. You called your buddy earlier in the week when you saw a stable weather pattern forming for the weekend and planned your trip. You've double checked your equipment, inventoried your tackle once more, and went through a sleepless night just waiting for morning to arrive.
The day is here. You arrive at the lake, launch the boat, head to your favorite spot and start fishing the same way you always have in years past.
Sound familiar? Why is it we spend all that time to absorb as much new information as we can, only to end up fishing just like we've always fished.
Unfortunately, we're creatures of habit. We like our lives to be constant and predictable. It's easy to learn new things. Quite another to put them to practice. The world is full of people that claim to know everything. But a much smaller amount of people that can put what they've learned to practice.
Let's make ourselves a promise this year. Let's go out and try some of those new tactics we read about in the magazines. Let's practice some of the techniques we learned at the seminars. Don't pass up the opportunity to improve on your fishing by getting back in the same rut from the past.
I got a phone call the other night from Bob Jacoby, a good friend of 20 years. He proceeded to tell me his latest fish story.
Bob is one of those fisherman that is constantly putting his new knowledge to practice. He's not one to follow the crowd. He not too interested in catching quantities of fish, he likes to fish for big fish. Big bass in particular.
While on an outing St. Patrick's Day on lake Marburg, Bob hooked and landed a pike that measured just shy of 50". As he always does, he immediately released his trophy. With the season being closed, he couldn't have kept it if he wanted to. And as is always the case when we catch a big fish, Bob was by himself, and didn't have a camera.
Well you know what they say about fisherman and their stories you say. However Bob's a credible fisherman. I've seen pictures of some of his big fish. He doesn't need to exaggerate. If he says he caught a 50" pike, he caught a 50" pike. Congratulations Bob!
Good luck to everyone this fishing season and don't let another season go by without trying something new. Remember the new tips you've learned throughout the winter and work at putting some of them to practice. That goes for those new safety and boating tips as well as new fishing tactics. Let's make sure the events of this year we recall a few years from now are of great fishing experiences and not tragic ones.
Putting all those new techniques to practice may just help you catch more fish this year.
"After all they call it fishing, but the goal is catching."