We have all heard the quote from Chinese philosopher Lao
Tzu: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and
you feed him for a lifetime”. What a great quote, but clearly, he was a
philosopher and not a fisherman. You can teach someone how to tie a knot, or
what to look for in the water, but you can not teach someone to catch a fish.
You can only provide someone with a chance, it is the attempts and experience gained,
that does the teaching.
It is, therefore, easier to start small. Grow your skillset and
learn more before attempting to catch the big fish. Part of my journey of
fishing here in the United States is to try and use different baits and lures
that I probably would never have used back in South Africa. I would thus like
to share my thoughts on some of the things I started using out there for
fishing. Starting with the fairly simple; the Trout Magnet.
As previously stated, South Africa has some stocked rainbow
trout in some areas. It is expensive to host and catch these fish, thus it is only
available to a small select group often preferring fly-fishing. This had been
my only contact with trout and I was excited to try something new. The Trout Magnets
consist of a small weighted hook and some plastic one-inch worms or tubes. The
worm has a forked split on the top end of the lure.
My first few trips I used this lure as a tiny swimming fish. I did catch fish like this but it seemed rather inefficient. I then used the little hook with baits, and that produced more fish, but no longer trout. Only when I started to think about what it is that I was trying to imitate, I started fishing it slow like insects on the bottom. This had a massive impact in the trout I started catching. I had to learn how to fish this new lure, but at the end of the day, if it looks like food and acts like food
Comments
Post a Comment