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Fishing revenge

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I don't need a gun or a knife, but from time to time I really need payback, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one.

 

THe other day my brother and I had a really sad day of fishing on a spot that normally pays off big time. We both caught a few fish, but the fact is, it was unsatisfying.

 

When this happens to me, I get really irritated, and I need to go back and lay the smack down on the fish in order to erase the stain from my memory of the ill fishing day before. I am totally confident that I can, because I know what changes I need to make for success, and I need to do it, or esle it's really gonna bother me.

 

Am I the only one who gets this way?

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I welcome the challenge of figuring out what is going to work, makes you a better fisherman. But yea, I get absolutely pissed at times, particularly at carp. And in the case of carp fishing, sometimes what works best for revenge is my bow.

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I know just what you are saying. Sometimes it doesn't bother me too bad if I miss some strikes or watch a trout take a drifting dry and then miss it, but sometimes it drives me nuts. I will almost always go back and try a lot harder the second time just to prove something to myself I guess. The weather is driving me crazy now instead of missing fish. The creeks will start to improve and almost get fishable and then here comes a couple days of pouring rain and take them back to flood stage. I went off a steep bank a few weeks ago and took almost half an hour just to get to the water only to find it was much too deep to think about wading it. The water looked fairly clear from the bridge but really fooled me. I planed to put in there and wade upstream but only made it about fifty feet or so and was almost chest deep and it was only getting deeper. I will return when the water level drops and as you said, "lay the smack down" on them. Although it is right beside a highway, I think I found a honey hole because only a crazed fly fisher or a mountain goat would attempt to go down there. I think the last people that was down there was the fellows that built the bridge years ago.

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I fish from a jon boat and use a paddle to scull around. No trolling motor, so I do get a bit upset when the wind gets to much. But as far as catching fish ... I never get upset by that. I am on the water, enjoying the fishing. Catching is just a plus.

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The only thing that makes me angry when fishing is getting a late start; having to quit too early; and the occasional encounter with slob fishermen.

 

Rocco

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Ditto Mikechell and Rocco. I know guys who just about have an aneurysm if a fish throws the hook or breaks them off, even if it's me playing the fish and not them. They seem to feel that a fish doesn't "count" unless they get to grab it with their hands. For me, the challenge is in getting the fish to take the fly. That is the essence of fishing to me, and it's that moment--when the fish takes the fly or refuses it--that marks the line between success and failure. Don't get me wrong, I love the feel of a good fish throbbing on the end of the line as much as the next guy, but if the fish comes unbuttoned before I can land him, so much the better for him. I was going to release him anyway, and he's far better off being released sooner rather than later, and without being lifted out of the water and handled.

 

To answer the original question, yes, I used to get angry when a piece of water that I expected to produce didn't live up to my expectations, but eventually I came around to the idea that the fish, the bugs, the water, the weather and all the rest of it don't actually owe me anything, and if they don't do what I expect them to on any given day, they're not malfunctioning; rather, it's me who had things figured wrong for whatever reason. Nature does exactly what it's supposed to do based on all the variables in play at any given moment.

 

I think this is a really good question in that it is actually asking (or at least implying) a larger question: what are we looking for when we go fishing, and why? Are we looking for recreation, stress relief, competition, self-validation? The answer to that question (different for each of us, surely) would likely teach us something about why we think, feel and act the way we do "out there". Or, to paraphrase Norman Maclean, the response we make to character on any given day depends largely on the response fish make to character...

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I hit a section of the St. Johns River today.

I have the day off, so I thought I'd go to a stretch of the river that's usually muddied by boat traffic. I had a great time, and caught lots of red breast sunfish. None of the other types of sunfish or bass were hitting, but these made for a fun day. But I was reminded of another thing that does get me a little angry.

Boat traffic ... although much lighter than weekend activity, was still rather heavy. And the lack of consideration most boaters have today just ... Oh!!!

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When I was a kid, I'd get extremely frustrated, but kids tend to rate their fishing days by the number of fish caught. Nowadays, the greater the challenge, the better I like it; consequently, there are plenty of opportunities to strike out. No point in getting mad; there's more than enough to get upset about in real life. Figuring out how to solve the puzzle is half the fun. The fact that THESE *(&*^&)&&^$@(^$# FREAKING REDFISH ARE MAKING ME CRAZY doesn't even figure into it.

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i fish to get outside and enjoy nature

 

i dont count the number of fish i catch

 

i dont fill a freezer full of fish

 

if i dont catch a fish today, im still alive to fish another day

 

i sleep good at night :)

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I don't get irritated any more.

Those are the days that teach me more about how to get fish to hit than the days when they hit anything.

I tend to rationalize and say the fish will be bigger next time.

Being in a canoe most of the time, it is rare not to finbd fish.

 

Rick

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Flytire, I am good with that UNLESS I've paid good $$$ to hire a guide and his boat and he is not able to produce the fish he advertised in his website. I can sit on a bank, wade a bit, throw some casts, watch nature unfold around me, and it's on my nickel. I'm fine with this if fish don't cooperate. One of my favorite statements when people ask me how fishing was on a bad day is..."Fishing was great, catching not so much so". I've driven down to the local ponds and helped some kid with his Mom get his stuff setup, then hooked fish and handed him the rod. If I never landed a fish on days like that but he did my day is a success.

 

But when a guide just does not provide a good day on the water with some productivity, it is a disappointment to me. Sorry guides but you get my money anyway, and I always tip regardless of the fish as long as guide is at least personable, but a good day of C & R will guarantee a better tip than a good day of conversation about fish you've caught on trips before.

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I agree with you vicrider, the only time that i have never tipped a guide was on my honeymoon in South Beach after hiring "the best Tarpon guide in Miami" for a trip; we didn't catch anything at all and had Tarpon jumping all around us it even got to the point where i stopped fishing to increase my wifes odds of hooking a Tarpon. I let my mom fight a trout on a fly rod after i hooked it just to see if she liked fly fishing at Lower Mtn Fork last month so i commend you for doing the same.

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IMO when you pay a guide for a guided fishing trip. Nothing garuntees you to catch a fish.

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To get angry because of no fish and to be driven nuts because of no fish are two completely different things. Getting angry and loosing your cool just because a trout wont take a fly is something that I don't practice. To be driven nuts because a trout wont take a fly is a whole different ball game. As it was already mentioned, getting a late start or encountering bone heads tends to irritate me but not catching fish just makes me come back and try harder the next time. After my days of getting skunked I wont let it go because I know that I could have probably done better. A lot of factors make up the equation and in the end it all boils down to the fact that I don't like to loose. When everything seems right and you think you have it figured out and then the trout refuse any and every thing you offer them, then it is enough to drive you a little closer to the fine line between sanity and insanity. I will admit that I have said a few choice words to the mountain laurels for reaching out and grabbing my flies but I think they do it just to mess with you. When you catch a glimpse or see a rise and you lay out a good cast and just before it gets to the trout that you know is there and then a chub comes out of no where and grabs your fly, it tends to raise my blood pressure a little, but you just bring it in and look at it while unhooking it and call it a little s_ _t! and then go about your day. When I have a jumper on the end of my line and it throws the fly while doing an out of the water back flip then it just makes me proud of it because it wants its freedom and did whatever it took to achieve that goal. If I break of, and I try not to do that too often, I realize that I pushed the limit a little too far or didn't cinch my knot down good and then I do get a little upset because now I have left a fly in the little fellows mouth and hope that it can get rid of it soon. Usually, I am the only guy using a fly rod in a lot of places that I fish and I have seen some of the spin or bait fishermen get totally mad and have seen a rod get thrown down because of a lost fish, but I just keep on casting and quietly laugh at them all by myself. Pond fishing with all the trees and weeds is a different story altogether and I think I have been on the verge of having a stroke a few times.....

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But as far as catching fish ... I never get upset by that. I am on the water, enjoying the fishing. Catching is just a plus.

 

Yeah...I felt like that for a short while, then it went away. Now it's WAR!

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