Sunday, April 22, 2018

Patience in Fishing




Hello to my favorite audience in the whole world.

“But we’re your only audience! You have to say that!”

Yes, that  is true. But since that’s true, doesn’t that make it more wonderful to hear? Certainly better than ‘hello to my least favorite audience...’

With the formalities out of the way, tonight’s post and picture is one that I took a few years ago, from the stern of our big red Old Town canoe, at a popular fishing lake near my home.



It seems that in my middle (ish) age, I have taken quite a shine to fishing. In particular, I enjoy cat fishing. (No, not the type of catfishing that involves scamming innocent people of their money; though doing that type of catfishing would be easier than actually doing the real life catfishing to which I am referring )

Catfishing; again the real thing is being blogged about here; is more about patience and understanding of how catfish live than it is about the actual act of catching one of those pesky creatures.

I do have pictures of me catching them; in fact quite a few exsist. And I am positive you will come across one or two of them in my posts to come. But catfish are exceptional at avoiding all types of bait I  have placed on my (CatDaddy) rod and reel and line. When I first got into it, I started small. I would fish at small lakes full of bullhead catfish. Now I fish for bigger and bigger catfish. I dream of huge flatheads (which my husband has caught) nowadays.
The most important lesson that I have learned in my catfish hobby though is patience. I have come away from a fishing trip more than sad that I had gotten “skunked” on more occasions than I like to admit.
That’s why they call it fishing, not catching- or so my handsome husband has said to me on multiple outings.

The picture posted here is a bed (what I call weeds, but what some fish call home sweet home) full of magic fish. I see them swim in there, but then they disappear once I start snapping pictures or trying to fish for them. I casted near there many times, but have yet to hook one near these weeds. Hasn’t stopped me from trying and trying though. And inside those tries, loads was learned when it comes to life lessons (and learned in fishing too of course)

Many bullhead catfish live in the lake where this photo was taken... and I have caught and released probably dozens of them from this tiny little lake. But it wasn’t without trying to learn all about how catfish live and hunt for their own meals. That takes much YouTube-ing and Googling (both are verbs likely to hit Webster Dictionaries any day now).
And I must say that John and I have gotten to know one another on an entirely new and fun level since we have started fishing together.
Many deep conversations have been had with my main man both inside a boat and on the banks of any waterway whilst waiting for our reels to bend in half-waiting for the elusive catfish to strike. Bullhead catfish are smaller, but not any easier to catch, but I have had such fun learning how to wait for them to strike than any other hobby I have enjoyed.

So while enjoying the evident beauty in my posted picture, remember to practice breathing while waiting for your next strike; whatever it is you’re fishing for in this life.

No comments:

Post a Comment