Attitude

ATTITUDE

Before you begin to embark on a fishing expedition you have to get things together, make plans and time yourself, but most of all you have to prepare your most important tool – your brain.

Human beings are the most unpredictable animals on the face of the earth. Born with the ability to learn right from wrong, it’s absolutely amazing to watch people try to catch fish doing everything wrong. Why, I ask, to these animals do this?

Boy, that those fish are smart is a lot of crap! Fish are stupid fish, and that’s that. The only problem here is that ninety percent of the people who pursue fish chose either to be stupid or lazy or cheap.

A fish’s rain, for a fish weighing about fifteen pounds, is about three percent of a normal man’s brain in size, and that brain barely governs three main senses – sight, smell and sound. There three things cause the fish to react to danger if threatened, or in pursuit of food, its main preoccupation.

Hanging around bait and tackle shops al my life I’ve seen them all. Here comes a couple of guys all rigged and ready to go. They’ve got their equipment and they’re ready to get slimed.

We have some conversations and I tell them I came in last night with 18 weaks. They asked what I used and I tell them I was using shedders, what size hooks and where to go.

They pick up an extra pack of the wrong hooks, some squid and minnows and they’re gone.

The next time I see them they tell me they didn’t do too good, and off they go again with the wrong hooks and bad bait to God only knows where.

Fortunately for me, their persistence has given me more room to fish, has kept the price of the bait I use down and left me with more fish to fish for. And I get to buy their old Penn reels at a garage sale. And I would like to thank those of you who keep the trash fish busy while I’m catching the good stuff.

There is one basic requirement to catching large numbers of big fish – the right attitude.

As long as you are intimidated by the fish you’ll never catch them. Any man, women or child who assumes the right attitude can catch as many fish as they want.

Getting the right attitude is fairly easy. First of all you have to realize that you are, like me, a human being of sorts, which makes us smarter than fish. You have to understand that you are smarter than any fish.

The bottom line is simple: I am a so-called human being that has a very large brain compared to a striper bass. I am smart and getting smarter. Fish are dumb and stay sumb.

You don’t have to go to school to learn how to catch fish. You don’t have to be a local to know where to go, you don’t have to own a boat to get where the fish are, all you have to do is listen to experience and put in the time.

My knowledge is strictly based on personal experience. I’ve logged some 50,000 hors of fishing so far, and I’m still learning. The result of our knowledge and measure of success is the final test – catching fish.

Keep an open mind and take the time to learn. Read books, watch the weather closely, hang around bait & tackle shops, watch and listen to those who catch fish, and keep track of the tide and moon phases. Keeping your eyes and ears open and mouth shut when its time to learn what you need to know.

Now you’ve got the right attitude, go out and get-em’ and I’ll see you on the water.