Fish like a Child
Yesterday I had the chance to take my Son and my Father fishing. We are very lucky to get to do this a few times a year. It is nice to see that the old man can still out fish me, and that my Son is catching up very fast. At times I can hear my Father’s words coming out of my mouth when trying to help my son to improve on a particular tactic, and I can see myself in my Son when he says ok then keeps doing his own thing and swings a fish in the boat. This brings me to my point.
Yesterday we had intentions to fish this new to us thing called a ned rig. However my Father is an avid crappie fisherman and casting repeatedly to the bank or underwater cover drives him nuts. Fishing with live bait vertically drives me nuts. So we compromised some bass some crappie. We pulled up to a crappie hole my dad and I grabbed a crappie rig my son grabbed his ned rig. Almost in unison my Dad and I ask if he didn’t want a minnow. He said no I think I am going to try this. Dad and I grinned at each other as if to say wait till we start pulling in fish he will change his mind, then it happened. Lane’s rod doubled over and he said yep got him! He then pulled to the top of the water a very nice and fat KY bass, following that fish up was about 10 of his twins. In Lane’s youthful exuberance he had fired up a school of KY bass. For a solid hour we caught bass after bass doing something my Dad and I thought would never work. Once that bass came to the boat it was as if we were all thirteen year old boys, and excited laughter and chatter filled the air.
You see what Lane did right and what we as older fishermen often do wrong is he wasn’t afraid to try something new, and he trusted his gut. I am very guilty of getting a new technique give it about ten cast then go back to my tried and true methods. Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with our tried and true methods when they are producing the results we want. As fishermen, however we all know that is not always the case. That is when it is nice to pull out something different from our bag of tricks so to speak. Also if your gut tells you to try something try it and give it a real chance to produce. If that thing produces then keep refining. To me one of the most fun things about fishing is figuring out what the fish want to eat and the more offerings we have the better off we are. In closing I challenge you folks and myself to fish like a child each time you are on the water. Don’t be afraid to try something new even with an old bait. That is how different techniques are born, just like yesterday Lane came up with a new technique which he will refine all week with his Grandpa.
Good luck and God Bless,
Josh
