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Just an Observation

PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:51 am
by Stan Wright
An Observation

I've noticed a lot more people we fish with.... especially kids.... are fishing like they were competing in the Bass Masters Classic.

Let me explain. When a fish strikes, they set the hook (cross the fishes eyes) and then skip the fish accross the top of the water and swing it up into the boat. If the fish is a little larger and tries to jump.... the angler thrusts the rod tip into the water and sweeps hard to keep the fish from jumping, all the while screaming. No! No! No! The "fight" with these fish might last every bit of 3 or 4 seconds.

Maybe it's just me.... but this isn't my idea of fun fishing. I'm thrilled if a fish is large enough to pull drag and make the reel sing. The best part of hooking a fish is to see it come out of the water, head shaking, gill rattling, tail walking accross the surface. Wow. Then after a few minutes of back and fourth tug of war.... reaching down and gently cradling the fish in your hand or grabbing the lip.... now that's what memories are made of for me.

We've scaled down our tackle to match the size of the fish. (our average fish is 2 pounds, with a 3 to 5 pounder not that uncommon) Using 4# and 6# test spinning tackle adds a little challenge and skill into the mix. When you finally get a 2 pound peacock or largemouth to the net, you feel good. And it took a lot longer than 3 or 4 seconds to do it.
(the last 8 pound peacock bass on 4# test took 35 minutes to land. That fish weighed twice the breaking strength of the line, something few anglers have done.)
And since we're using lighter line and smaller lures, we tend to catch more fish.

The average tournament fish weighs less than 2 pounds. Most tournament anglers don't even catch a full limit of fish. Look at how thrilled Mike is on that City Limits fishing show to catch a limit of 5, 12 inch fish.

Now if your fishing in a big money tournament, that's one thing. For the other thousands of anglers out there,... relax, have fun.... slow down and smell the roses.
Just a thought,
Aloha,
Stan