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.
