Monday, January 15, 2018

Listen But Don't Listen

New year and pretty much the same outlook on life. Try to survive, provide for the family, and find a little happiness sprinkled in here and there. Fishing took a real hit last year and I can't really say why exactly. What I do know is that I didn't go fishing for the wrong reasons. The excuses are the usual kids sports, family obligations, weather, vacations, not wanting to drive far. In the past none of these would have deterred me from fishing and it shouldn't have now. The other thing was hearing bad fishing reports from places I was thinking about hitting. I realized that was the part I regret the most. Fishing is such a fickle thing that the reports almost don't matter. The next day could be the exact opposite of the day before and results could be from how a person is fishing or their location. There's so many factors involved. My advice is to listen but don't listen. If someone tells you a fishing report of a place you're thinking about trying don't take it at face value. Go verify for yourself. You might regret the decision or it might be the best fishing day of your life. If you've fished long enough you know that's basically how it goes.

My tying last year was pathetic. I tied maybe five flies. My attitude about the importance of what fly fishing means to me really was re-prioritized. At one point I even tried to sell all of my fly tying materials. It was my video on the Eno that really brought things back into perspective. I could tell in the video I really was genuinely happy and I need more of that in my life.

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful and heartfelt post Kevin. As an older guy, I can tell you that we all have to periodically re-prioritize things in our lives. Things change; family, jobs, etc. whether we want it to or not. Fishing is waiting for you when you are ready. I don't know how I missed seeing your video, but it was great! Thanks for that as well!

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  2. Kevin
    I seldom pay any attention to other individuals fishing reports concerning a particular stream or body of water. If I did I would probably not fish as much as I do. Most of the time negative fishing reports come from waters that are pressured daily.
    The Sipsey Tailrace and a couple of lakes I fish here in Jasper are fished heavy from spring through fall, but fish can still be taken especially with the fly rod, as you so well noted in your great video.
    Hope you and the family can make a trip to the Eno once spring and summer arrives. Thanks for sharing

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  3. I can't imagine that 'fishing reports' are the issue. I'm in the same boat as you, so many reasons to "not" go. I sense that if you are like me, once you are out there, weather the fish are hitting or not, it's just being out there that really matters.

    Thank you for the blog posts, I look forward to them.

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  4. Thanks guys, appreciate the comments.

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