“Fine margins make for exciting fishing, but it’s tough to fall short”
IT’S ODD how form and fortune seem to work in cycles in our sport.
For all our trials and tribulations, there are spells when it all comes together, sometimes several times on the trot. For the last few weeks, however, I’ve found myself agonisingly and repeatedly just shy of success.
I wish I could put my finger on why. In today’s world of instant judgment, it’s always tempting to put it down to misfortune or the wrong conditions. But the truth probably lies elsewhere, because while I’m not exactly fishing like an imbecile, my confidence feels shot.
Whether it was a pike session with just one large lost fish, or being just ounces shy of decent points in my recent club matches, it’s been a case of ‘close but no cigar’. Fine margins certainly make for exciting fishing, but it’s tough when you keep falling short.
Has something deserted me in this process, then, or is it more a case of keep plugging away? I’m not a superstitious person, but sometimes it feels as if fate likes to even things out. Every time, for instance, I lose a good pike, part of me feels like this is payback for my PB, which was hooked by the merest sliver of its snout! Right until the second that the net bulged, I was convinced she’d come off.
Or there were those matches when just one streaky ‘lump’ or a bonus fish in the last few minutes pinched the win. For the record, I don’t believe any angler is inherently lucky or jinxed. Just as you accept the best of fortune, you must also accept that your luck will sometimes stink.
Why these spells of good and bad angling seem to come in groups, though, is harder to explain. I’m convinced that confidence plays a huge role.
It’s not that the fish are bothered in the slightest by your gut feeling, but your belief, or lack of it, plays a massive part in how well, or badly, you fish.
Be in no doubt about it, success makes us sure-footed, at least for a while. Belief gives us the focus and resolve to make the right changes at the right time, or keep the faith. A couple of poor sessions or mishaps, on the other hand, and we can start to wobble. I tend to get twitchy, moving spots too soon or changing tactics to force a bite.
As for putting my current sequence of near-misses right, the only recipe is to go steady and keep the faith. ‘Steady’ being the key word, because it’s one of those angling paradoxes that often the harder you try, the harder things become. But experience tells another story – even the poorest trip will usually reveal something, if we’re tuned in. And the wonderful thing is, we’re only ever one bite away from turning fortune on its head. Suddenly, we’re fishing confidently again.