Dedication

I catch a significant number of fish every year. Going back through my fishing notes from 2014, I landed over 90 largemouth bass between May and the end of August. That's an average of 1.3 bass per day. Of course I don't fish every day, though my wife says otherwise. The point being that when you break it down to roughly 3 days per week for 16 weeks its safe to say that I catch two bass every time I go out. When you add in the fact I do nearly 90% of my fishing between 3:00 am and 7:00 am the numbers become much more compact. And that's the whole point. If you want to catch fish, you have to set yourself up to catch fish. People ask me all the time where I catch my fish and what I catch them on? And most of them look at me like I'm either crazy or lying when I tell them I am fishing locally and with a fly rod. Then I tell them I get up at 3am and go out before work and that's when the name calling and four letter words start flying. But its a simple fact. If you want to catch fish you, have to go fishing at the times of the day when fish are feeding. And here's a NOT so little secret, when its 105 degrees F, on a Saturday afternoon, that is not the time.  If you want to go to the lake and sit in a chair, in the hot afternoon sun, drinking beer and drowning worms. By all means be my guest. And people call me crazy. Catching fish of any type requires Dedication. It means tracking sunrise tables, and moon phases a month in advance. It means watching the weather down to the finial hours before bed the night before going out, incase of sudden pressure drops. It means rigging rods and rebuilding leaders the evening before so that you waste no time once you get to the water. Setting an alarm for 3am and actually getting up when it goes off. Packing you lunch for work the night before and having your work cloths ready so you can stay until the last possible second before going about your daily life. And there's more. I'm a fly angler, so I had to learn to fly cast and tie knots in the dark. There is no turning on a flashlight when your standing in the water, unless you want to scare every damn fish in the area away. I had to learn where the shallow flats in the lake were so that I could wade in the dark and not end up drowning myself. This may all seem like a lot of work just to catch a fish. And the truth is your right. But that's just how it is. And I think that dedication is the key to any successful hobby. I don't care if  its golf, or building hot rods, or bird watching, they all require some form of dedication to be good at them. Its also the reason why I have very few fishing buddies and almost always fish alone. But that just makes the lies easier to tell.