“Just Do It”—commit to your fly fishing journey! We’ve all heard this saying from Nike for many years, and it motivates us on many levels. One of my favorite aspects of instructing since 1987 is taking away what I learn from each lesson. Often, that role reverses, which happened recently while working with Charlie Nichols from Greeneville, SC. You can tell he excelled in sales over many decades. Check out fly fishing four stages of successful training!
It’s exciting to meet so many wonderful people from different walks of life, and it motivates me to bring my “A-game” to every lesson. Whether my role is coach, teacher, instructor, friend, or motivational cheerleader, I’m committed to sharing information about fly casting, fly fishing techniques, strategies, and fly tying.
Intent—What Are You After?
Regardless of what role a coach takes on any given day, you as the student need to establish your intent and baseline goals. What Charlie shared with me recently was a powerful lightbulb moment. It helped me break down many facets of instructor and student teamwork. Egotistical positions fueled by pride have existed since the sport’s inception, from rank beginners to iconic experts. This is human nature in every sport and discipline.
Donut Pie Chart Illustrates 2.6% Anglers (outer ring) Catching Over 1/3 of Total Fish (inner ring)
Motivational Creel Survey Pie Chart!
Good Enough Mentality for the Majority
This is the most difficult area to help folks with. You have to have the drive to move forward because no one can give that to you. The tools and techniques are available, but you have to seek them out. Most people never rise above this level, which is why many businesses in the industry cater to the “good enough” crowd.
So for the traveling angler who fishes one day a year—be all you can be for that one day! If you enjoy it, you’ll find yourself at the water more often, learning many intricacies of the sport along the way. It’s the same as making “widgets” in the corporate world. Do you want to be the top widget maker? It will require a roadmap to success!
We see the “good enough” crowd and fluffies here on the Delayed Harvest. Probably 95% of visiting anglers fall into that category, including clubs from all over the East Coast. NCWRC evidence-based studies back this up (see pie chart above). It’s good for our area’s economic impact, but what will you do to move forward?
Deception from the Fluffies
Abraham Lincoln had a saying about deception: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” This carries powerful meaning when identifying the fluffies and wannabes in our sport today. Show promoters, clubs, and fly fishing gatherings owe a commitment to the sport to promote talented communicators at their events who can convey and share real knowledge.
Be wary and shy away from the fluffies. Their tendency is to teach “principles” or “fundamentals” from their tiny “flat” world revolving around themselves. Seek mechanical truth because it will always prevail. The world is full of fluffies, and no matter how many hashtags, tweets, and followers they have, they remain shallow and bring nothing to the evolution of the sport.
We live in a strange time when self-promoting “fluffies” who bring nothing to the table are ranked above peers who are living legends! I’ve witnessed this more in the past decade than ever before at big events. Perhaps that makes me old school? Good people doing good things in their areas and raising the bar higher earn my vote over social media verbiage any day. Evolution over stagnating tradition is the correct direction.
Truth Matters Still
Regression reflects a lack of promoting true knowledge. I could compile an entire book entitled “Fly Fishing Fallacies.” One-line quotes from icons are still repeated to this very day. What does a student think when hearing descriptions like “let the rod do the work”? “The anchor loads the rod”? “Shorter rods cast further than longer ones!” “The line goes where the rod tip goes”? “The fly line loads the rod”? If you believe all of these things to be true, find out why they have major flaws! It takes a long time for a sport to clear up fallacies. Question everything before believing! Phrases accepted by the majority have nothing to do with the truth.
Thanks for reading, and happy fly fishing to your own self-discovery of new things!
“Just Do It”—Commit To Your Fly Fishing Journey!
“Just Do It”—Commit To Your Fly Fishing Journey!
“Just Do It”—Commit To Your Fly Fishing Journey!