13 habits

Some solid goodness from the land of Deneki. The 13 Habits of Highly Effective Anglers.

Some of this is applicable to bonefish, some of it is more stream/trout/steelhead oriented, but it is all good stuff.

Fish the near water first.  Anglers who catch a lot of fish always make some short casts into the near water first.  If you tromp right into the run and launch one out to 70 feet, your chances of catching that fish right on the bank are exactly zero.

This one resonates. On my home waters I fish in tight. I almost never have cause to lay out the line on a long cast. The first 10 feet of fly line on my trout rods is just dirty. The next 10 feet looks pristine. There’s a reason for that.

I should add that I can also kind of crush on my home waters. One of the main reasons is that I fish the close water first. In fact, I fish the near water pretty much exclusively. If there is a cast I want to make further away, I simply move until it is in close.

Andrew’s list is good. Really good. I’d add a couple things.

  • When you feel like you need to speed up, you should slow down. A lesson I learn and relearn on a fairly frequent basis.
  • Sometimes you need to stop fishing and just watch for a bit. Observing what is happening out of the immediate context of the next cast can sometimes prove very, very informative.

Good stuff Andrew.

Andrew, stalking bones in S. Andros.

Andrew, stalking bones in S. Andros.

Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *