Fly Fishing

jeremy · Location: Portland, Maine

Ok - Kray opened the can of worms...so i am going to throw this at you...I am curious to see the responses before I share mine.

Do you believe in luck?

Here is a scenario to set the stage - 2 guys sitting around a campfire discussing what there plans are for the next day. "I am going fly fishing," says one guy. "Me Too," says the other guy. ..................The next night they are sitting by the fire again. One guy caught tons of fish....the other guy caught none. Was one guy "luckier" or "unluckier" than the other...............????????????????????

Pete · Location: New York, NY

Definitely something to it. I've had times where I've made perfect casts with no result and absolutely flubbed a cast and somehow a fish took the fly. I can think of a specific instance last fall when we pulled our boat up to a bluefish blitz and I totally flubbed my cast and my fly line got tangled to holy hell. By the time I solved the mess the fish had moved on. But when I started to strip my in line I hooked into a stray 12-pounder.
Another time my buddy set down his rod to light a cigarette and a striper nailed his clouser as it dangled in the water.
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

RickW · Location: Syracuse, NY

even better to be good AND lucky

Pete · Location: New York, NY

Amen. Although somedays I feel like neither's working for me.

kray · Location: Casper Wyoming

Here is how it works.
There is no such thing as luck, luck is for people who don't think they are good at something.
You work hard, you know what you are doing and good things will happen it is NOT luck.
For example if you are using a fly that for some reason you think the fish dont like then you catch a fish on it, and say that was luck- well it wasn't luck the fish just liked your fly.
Kray trout bum 101

I like this jeremy lets keep it up
thanks

Pete · Location: New York, NY

I think there is such a thing as "dumb luck" as in the case of my buddy accidentally catching a striper. I see your point, though, that by putting in your time and paying your dues on the water, you create your own luck, and good things happen to you.

The thing is, you're pitting your skills against a wild animal that has its own ideas about things, so really at no point are you in complete control of your fate. For every fish you fool, there are many that you don't.

You can hone your skills so that when you happen upon the fish of a lifetime, you can present your fly perfectly, hook it and land it with great acumen. But you really had no control over that fish being there at that particular time. I don't know if that's necessarily luck, but it's something.

jeremy · Location: Portland, Maine

nicely said pete.

like all things - i don't think the answer is black nor white. i agree with kray - much of what some people call luck is infact skill - but that skillfull person still experiences luck....

HERE IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE:

I am not really a big golfer anymore but i did watch the masters last weekend. Now - Tiger woods is by no means lucky. Some people would like to say - he is. But, I believe that it is a result of an almost obsessisive passion on his part to attain perfection. of course perfection can not be attained - but his efforts to attain it simply go beyond the normal pro - golfers efforts to attain their perception of perfection. So, the end result is that nobody on the pro tour attains perfection - however the ones who tried hardest too attain it - dominate the one who tried less hard. Is that LUCK? No way.....and I think it is a dishonor to discredit a persons achievements by saying, "well he/she was lucky." But, again, I think it is an easy way for that person to feel better for having not tried as hard or it's an easy excuse for a reason why not to try so hard.

BUT - when the ball dropped into the hole last sunday for Tiger - after hanging on the lip of the cup for 3 seconds - THAT WAS LUCK!

So - one could argue that everyone has equal amounts of luck - even the most unskilled, unempowered, lazy,, unmotovated person GETS LUCKY! And the same is true for the person with opposing qualities! So - I like to think of it like 5% of all what we do could be attributed to luck or something similiar...but Let's not let the 5% cloud the 95% of hard work, dedication and perserverance.