Sunday, July 24, 2011

Rank of Rookie

When developing this unofficial angler ranking system I knew that eventually a confession of sorts was due to come out about my own skill level or lack thereof. The competition in Colorado is pretty stiff and as soon as I think I am getting close to perfection…someone or some fish shows me just how much of a rookie I really am. Other times my overconfidence after a big fish will drench my next trip in failure causing a big dose of humility to my fishing ego. At the end of the day all I have is lessons learned and honesty. 

Rookie: (‘ru-ke) A person who is entering the first year of a sport or lacks professional experience. Even though I fish a lot my skills are nowhere near what I would like them to be. Still a work in progress.

Sure I may run a fishing blog and catch a decent fish once in a while but that does not make me an expert on fishing by any means. Truth be told, my fishing style comes with many bad habits that seem downright reckless at times. I continue to make mistakes here and there which could cost me my life at some point. These are all signs of a rookie or novice blinded by a lack of patience.

Mentality of fishing is just as important as actual fishing skill or knowledge. Many aspects of fishing come from within more than the things brought to the water. A patient angler with a few basic patterns will always out fish an impatient person with many more patterns. Flubbed casts, dropped items and stumbles on the trail are often derived from a lack of focus. Lack of focus is often the doom of people in the outdoors. Improved focus is something I work on constantly and still not quite there.

The fish gods love humility and maybe they follow me on my fishing adventures more for comedy relief than anything else. One good fish…only as good as my next fish…must fish.

My name is Matt and I’m a fishahoic.

6 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

humility is not a bad trait to have - may the fishing gods smile upon you (or just at you). :)

dead fisher said...

Matt
The beauty of angling is that the hobby (obsession) itself is varied enough to satisfy the expectations of most of the participants, from the can of worms to a delicately presented dry fly. Too much emphasis is placed on results; ie a full limit or trophy. When told on the lake or river "good luck", I tell them "don't need it, I'm having fun"
John Rank: Eccentric Amateur

cofisher said...

Hang in there Matt. When you're 90 years old it won't make any difference to you...just remember the great time.s

Lureapike said...

The sport of fishing is a great leveller....no matter how big your boat or what rods, reels, line or lures you fish with...fish dont see that. When my wife and i started competitive bass angling in south africa we thought we knew all there is to know about bass. Our first bass competition brought us right back down to planet earth. We finished the tournament not doing that great but not disgracing ourselves...but expected to do much better. What made it worse was the fact that it was our home waters so we thought we knew all there was to know. Not so. I have been fishing for almost all of my 40 yrs and i can agree...im still a rookie and learn every day. Great blog.

Lureapike said...

The sport of fishing is a great leveller....no matter how big your boat or what rods, reels, line or lures you fish with...fish dont see that. When my wife and i started competitive bass angling in south africa we thought we knew all there is to know about bass. Our first bass competition brought us right back down to planet earth. We finished the tournament not doing that great but not disgracing ourselves...but expected to do much better. What made it worse was the fact that it was our home waters so we thought we knew all there was to know. Not so. I have been fishing for almost all of my 40 yrs and i can agree...im still a rookie and learn every day. Great blog.

Coloradocasters said...

Love the comments, folks. Colorado has so much diversity in fishing styles and skill. We have master fly anglers, pro-tourney bassers and a few people that should have their license pulled for good (litterbugs, fish poachers, etc.).

Even the best may know a lot about fishing but they will rarely admit they know everything there is to know about the sport. The ones that do claim to be all knowledgeable are greatly delusional. This blog is fueled by your comments.