| Sometimes I like to just kind of write a couple hundred words and see where it goes. A lot of it ends up on the floor, some turns into a column or feature, and the rest goes into a folder simply titled "Random Book???"
I'm still trying to figure out where the words starting in the bottom paragraph are going. I have figured out that the mindset of fishing is something that's really interesting to me; maybe it's because fishing has mental elements (that are often overlooked). And then there's mastering tackle, knots and techniques.
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Ad Lib four-letter expletives and continue reading each sentence: “_____ I can’t get this knot to tie; _____ this, it never works for me; _____ he's on again?”
There’s always a crossroad, an it’s-time-to-try-new-things-and-progress point where you look down at your gear, connections and the way you’ve always done something and realized there’s a better way. Even the most stubborn, picked-up-bad-habit(s)-that are-tough-to-break angler hits a point where they are forced to change and adapt and break those rules they formed for their fishing based on pasts, as in baits, casts, locations, days, seasons and even decades. In the end, everything changes and kind of starts anew with the tides.
You realize there is a better way because there’s someone doing it a better way. A rod and reel suited perfectly for both what’s biting as well as what that next bite could come from; a smaller, most compact knot; a longer cast, one that not only wafts a sardine out, but also makes it land as if the water was lined with Temper-Pedic.
A hook set based on how the fish ate that bait that you knew what was doing every step of the way, pulling back based on what’s around the boat and letting the rod tip and what could be offshore tail beats or inshore headshakes dictate when to do what — they are elements all to their own.
There are a lot of elements to fishing when rules and egos get stripped away and get replaced with the best tackle and an open mind as to how to use it.
The Ad Lib internet thread that goes (insert two competing: brands, theories, rules) "_____ vs. _____" has no answers. That is unless "a) 'it depends', and b) 'standard'" are the two available answers.
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