500 words about... week two

Regrets are toxic

My friend Mike Garrison made a comment the other day that really hit home, “regrets are toxic and the older I get the more adverse I am to creating more.” Sound advice and it got me thinking about how it applies to where I fish. I’m blessed with lots of fishing option and sometimes I agonize on which one to go fish. If I apply the Garrison formula then I will, at the very least, know I went. It may not be great, the other options may have been better, but I won’t have the nagging “I should have gone” feeling following me around.

Editing

A recent exchange on Notes with Alica Kenworthy brought Twain’s comment, “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead,” got me thinking. I like to write, it’s the editing that’s the work. Same goes for fly-fishing. Working on my cast, presentation, fly selection, reading water, are all part of the editing process of fly-fishing. It takes time to get it right. I’ve explained to clients that they need to work on all the elements of fly-fishing to get better at it. Practicing different casts, studying the water, understanding weather are all part of the program. And they take time, just like writing a short letter.

Sitting while fishing

I enjoy catching fish, but I love fishing. Catching fish, as I’ve written before, is a small part of the experience. But fishing is so much more than catching fish. Take for example sitting while fishing. One of the great pleasures of fishing is taking a few moments to sit. Those moments give me aa chance to gather my thoughts, look around and enjoy the sounds. There are short sits and long sits. Long sits are the breaks in the action to shed my vest, drink some water, eat a snack and have a pipe. It’s all time well spent.

Set a clear objective

One of the things I learned in the Navy was to set a clear objective for what I was doing, and it’s carried over to my guiding and personal fishing trips. Before I get started, I ask the client, “what do you want out of this trip?” Then we make a plan. I do this reflexively with my personal fishing trips. The discipline of setting an objective lets me plan accordingly and set some expectations. I have a plan in my mind so I can focus on the fishing and not on things that I should have thought of before I got started.

Pause

One of the critical elements in making a good fly cast is the pause on the back cast and forward cast. That pause in rod movement allows the line to unfurl. There is another important time to pause. As you fish, it’s important to pause mentally. Take a moment to let your thoughts unfurl and clear your mind. Think of thoughts like the fly line being cast. If you don’t let it straighten on the back cast, then the forward cast will be a mess. Clearing your mind, even briefly, sets you to execute the next thing you are going to do.