For those of you who, like me, have memories of fishing that
pre-date memories of school, think back to as many fishing
partners and trips as you can. Even those people you only went
fishing with once. Then try to recall times where the success or
failure of a fly fisherman seemed to lie strictly on the fly
fisherman’s confidence. If you think about it in these terms, I
bet you can remember numerous times, when an angler’s,
confidence or lack thereof, either doomed them or buoyed then
until they started catching fish. At times the success of a
confident fly fishing angler can be attributed to persistence.
An angler, confident in their abilities is just going to fish
longer when things don’t start hopping right away. But other
days when all things are equal, the fisherman with the most
confidence often catches the most fish.
Three quick stories come to mind illustrate this. First off let
me say there have been plenty of times when I have been on both
sides of the confidence equation. A few years ago, I was
steelheading with a couple of fly fishing buddies. Unlike me,
though there guys weren’t purists. And we were using terminal
gear. Although were just dead-drifting jigs, very similar to fly
fishing, I felt about as coordinated as a monkey performing
brain surgery. As the day wore on more and more steelies were
caught. Huge steelies, the biggest I had ever seen! None by me.
I could feel my confidence shrinking. And I mean my confidence
in all kinds of things, like being able to read the river, being
able to detect a strike. Things that had no connection to me
using unfamiliar gear. The pressure inside my head built, until
I HAD to catch a fish. I didn’t catch one fish that day,
although I finally had a strike, and set the hook so hard I
jerked it right out of the fish’s mouth. And I fished longer and
harder than anyone else on the trip.
Another story is almost reverse. Here in Maupin, the Deschutes
River fills with fly fisherman every May and early June for the
Giant Salmonfly hatch. It is a carnival of fly fishing. One year
I was drifting with a couple of accomplished angler’s, who were
nevertheless apprehensive about fishing such a well-known hatch,
A hatch documented throughout fly fishing literature. With
crowds of angler’s as spectators to one another. Despite all the
drift boats and bank angler’s I know a spot or two constantly
overlooked and are rarely fished. I set both guys up with the
exact rigging I use. Put them in the best two spots and made
lunch, while they flogged the water to no avail. Despite their
long fishing experience they were unaccustomed to the big water
and the feeling of being in a spotlight, and seemed to do every
action with uncertainty. After lunch I nailed numerous trout
with virtually no effort. Pointed out fish lying behind rocks
and caught them. It was a display they still talk about some
years later.
Another day I was fishing alone, in water I know like the palm
of my hand. And was getting skunked. Fishing all my usual water,
using all my usual techniques I couldn’t even get a strike. Yet
I knew I could and did catch fish in this spot, lots of fish. I
kept at it, until I heard a fish jump behind me, in a riffle I
hadn’t fished in years. I turned around and cast right at the
head of the riffle, and nailed what was to be the first of many
beautiful trout I caught that day.
If I hadn’t been confident in my abilities, and in the water
holding fish, I would have stopped long before. That was an
instance where confidence led to perseverance. But the other two
days, it seemed to be confidence only, that led to more fish
being landed. Maybe there was something subtle in the
presentation of the confident angler, something that can’t be
taught. Like the way some quarterbacks always seem to win. Or
maybe like in other endeavors confident people just seem to do
better. At any rate the only way I know of to develop confidence
is through repeated success. And in fishing the only way to
catch fish is to do more fishing.
If you are thinking this is all a stretch, I bet you can come up
with very similar stories that have happened to you. Especially
if like me, you have been fishing since you had a Leave it to
Beaver lunch box. Give yourself the possibility that confidence
in your fishing ability does play a role, in your catch rate.
And the end result will be you spend more time fishing. And if
that is the end result of you reading this article, then it was
time well spent. Now let’s go out there and build up our fly
fishing confidence!
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