I relearned an important lesson today while steelheading. Confidence is crucial to one’s success and yet it is easily eroded by doubt, logic, and lack of success. To be on one’s game is to be into each drift knowing that a fish will be there. It doesn’t matter when there isn’t a fish, but when there is, it is the natural outcome. Today, I battled all day with my confidence. There were times when I felt on my game, but there were large portions of the day when I did not. Persistence, a newly found technique, and not wanting a skunk were the things that saved the day. After going all day without a hit and nearing the end of the day I decided to try indicator fishing. I’ve done a bunch of it trout fishing, but I hadn’t tried it while steelheading on the Salmon River. To further complicate matters I was lazy and just placed my indicator on my leader still attached to my running line. It didn’t cast worth a dam, but it didn’t matter, as I only needed to get it out 30 feet. Well this worked surprisingly well. I lost one steelhead after a 30 second battle and I landed a nice Brown Trout. I was sad to see the day end as I was totally into watching the indicator, expecting a fish on each drift. My confidence was reborn. Staying in the hunt, being flexible in my approach and believing was the lesson of the day.
hi wrh,
i thought that was a phenomenal “fish-tale” especially sine my confidence was brought from an all time high to an all time low over the last 3 days. i am now sitting back in maine with my tail between my legs and licking my wounds…. i am going to post a “fish-tale” that elaborates a bit more on my personal fall from grace. put it this way, the steelhead and the river beat me up bad. real bad. thanks for a great read – i found comfort in knowing that i am not steelhead addict feeling the affects of a good ass-kicking.
Some days you get the chicken and some days you get the feathers boys.
Well said Whippa. Great read WRH, Wish I coulda been there with you, sounds like fun.
I have a gentleman friend, must be 70 plus years, been fishing that river for 25 years, 3 times aweek. I have seen him fish through thunderstorms, gails and blizzards and go through a fishless week. But hey, he says, one or two hook-ups a day on the river is a GOOD day, he reminds us that they are not minna’s. every cast can produce the fish of a lifetime, and even the small ones continue to amaze us.
That’s why we go, that’s why we can’t sleep and that’s why we love it.
ANyways, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be fun.
thanks for the replies. it’s nice to know that one is not alone in the never ending steelhead mystery.
my only question is when can I get out there again?
Excellant story wich I am sure we can all Identify with. This story would make a good tip/tactic on all the other sites. How to overcome attitude.
staying focused is an essential key to success. sometimes its hard to do when weather, water conditions or other influences which you can not control take over. Best thing to do is pick ourself up dust off and go back at it again. Nice read, we have all been there.