A game of chance

No matter how you approach the sport of fishing, it will always be a game of chance. You can use baits, lures, or even a net; all you can guarantee is the chance to catch something. Now there are many ways to improve your odds. Skill and knowledge will be your best tools to try and get that upper hand. Understanding things like weather, temperature, light conditions, moon phases, or just the fish’s behavior in general, can greatly improve your chance of landing a fish. That being said, even getting the right bait out at the best time does not guarantee landing a fish.

The opposite is also true with many things lowering your chances, for instance, that snag you did not know was down there. Even something as simple as the fish’s mood has an impact. Certain fish stop feeding during their spawn, making catches impossible. It is this uncertainty that frustrates many people and, in a way, stops many from trying again. Even when doing the exact same thing as the guy next to you, there are so many factors that nothing can be a sure-to-work-thing.

Where chance plays a role, you will often find superstition just around the corner. Statements like you can only catch fish when it’s a full moon. Or you need a certain piece of clothing when going fishing. In South Africa, there is this idea that you can only catch fish in months containing the letter R. That is all the summer months in the southern hemisphere. And yet, fishing videos, especially ones on YouTube, make it seem so easy to catch all year round. People hardly ever get skunked on YouTube, or is that another superstition?

I for one, often find myself with no fish to show for my efforts. This is particularly true when I set out to catch a specific type of fish rather than going for whatever is biting. After a failed attempt, I will often try something new or different, and end up complicating things more than I should. This time around it was catfish that had me stumped. It is something I have caught many times before but I just could not get one after several attempts. It was only after simplifying what I was doing that I finally got this catfish. There was always the chance of getting a small one, but this fish is a reminder of why we play the game in the first place.