Fishermen are forever trying to divine the secrets of fish behavior in an attempt to fool them into taking our submissions of fur and feather, lures in a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors or live offerings of their favorite prey.
Conversations on anglers’ boats revolve around declarations like: “They should be coming into those pot holes as the tide rises,” “This cold weather will have them warming up over dark bottom,” “The action will slow down as the tide slacks” and “All we have to do is stay on this edge until an hour into the falling tide and they will pour out of the bay.”
The more time you spend on the water mindfully observing the interplay of tides, wind, weather and fish behavior, the better your chances of success. It’s the best chance we have of divining this intricate interplay of causes and conditions in an attempt to “think like a fish.”
Some anglers catalogue their experiences in their head, while others keep logs to document fish activity and others just go to spots where they’ve found fish before.
Fishing guides, whose profession centers around putting their anglers on fish, develop some of the clearest insight into the behavior of fish. They have the advantage of watching fish behavior from day to day.
While more “mindful” time on the water will improve your odds at success, the truth is that when you think you’ve hacked the secret you’ll discover it’s more complicated than you know, and really more complicated than you can know. That’s what keeps it interesting and that’s why there are so many lures, flies, lines, rods, reels and “experts” out there.
Some “truths” about fishing I’ve observed over a few decades come from friends, experience and even songs. Captain Rick Grassett coined a phrase that’s obvious but prescient: “You don’t know until you go.” Experience has shown me that you should give any spot that your intuition draws you to some time. You definitely won’t catch fish if you’re running constantly; your line needs to be in the water.
Songwriter and singer Bill Withers’ lyric, “Good things come to those who wait, but not to those who wait too late,” also resonates. We need to give any spot a chance, but we also need to realize when it’s time to relocate.
That’s what we love about fishing. Experience definitely improves your odds, but we’ll never actually “hack” the solution to finding hungry fish that are willing to accommodate our passion.
Still, never give up trying to “think like a fish.”
