Concentration and attention

“There are not many men who can fish all morning without seeing or feeling a fish and not suffer some deterioration in care or keenness that is likely to retard their reaction when at last the moment comes.”  Arthur Ransome,   Rod and Line, 1929

Who have you have lost a fish, because you weren’t expecting it?  A fish chased you fly at the end of the cast as you lifted off, and you were not focused enough to halt your rhythm and leave the fly in the water.

A fish took your dry, but you had allowed such a bow in the line since last casting that you couldn’t connect.

You walked up on a pool, and realised too late that there was a lunker in the tail end, as you saw him scoot off.

You were holding the line tight against the cork grip in your left hand, and something hammered the fly so hard and so fast that you didn’t have time to let go, and your tippet parted.

 

Do these things sound familiar?

It seems that they were familiar back in 1929, but we all still do them.

Upper Umgeni River-16

Solutions?  Well, I think you have to beat human nature.  Accept that this is something you WILL fail at.

Here are some ideas that might make you fail less often:

  • Change fly, tippet, or strike indicator, just for the sake of doing it. We all refocus and elevate our expectation when we put out a new offering
  • Take a rest. Our sport is one of concentration, but I am guilty of hardly ever just sitting on a rock to rest. Try it
  • Begin with the end in mind.  You end goal is to catch a fish. Don’t forget that. When you start enjoying the curve of the line and the pull of the rod tip in the cast, you have probably gone all esoterically mushy on yourself. Cut it out!
  • Imagine a fish following your fly, as often and as long as you can. That’ll fix it!
  • Mix things up by casting into “crazy places”….like 2 inches from the shore, in behind the cattails, in a side pocket smaller than a side plate.   If you are fishing a Brown trout water, you may be in for some surprises. Even if not, your next cast, into more obvious water, will carry more hope. Hope = concentration.
  • Slow down. Stop. Think.  Re-work a minor strategy for each spot you arrive at, rather than moving faster and faster, and ever more mindlessly.

Riverside-30

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2 Responses

  1. All absolutely true, expecting fish is perhaps the key and it is amazing how often a client will catch a fish directly after lunch, the mental refocus of a rest has huge benefits.

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