![\"snaevarrthirdcatchsmall\"](\"http:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/files\/2016\/03\/snaevarrthirdcatchsmall.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
B<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Regardless of your motivation, there are in fact things you can do to improve your chances of catching a big fish. \u00a0And some of those things may be non-intuitive. \u00a0This isn’t going to be your typical ‘throw streamers’ top ten list (although, yes, throwing streamers will help you catch bigger trout). \u00a0These are more like life philosophies — observations derived from two decades of trying (and often failing) to pull off the big fish trick. \u00a0In most of these cases, I am not speaking about myself — rather, these are things I’ve seen quality anglers do, and thus they are things I consciously try to imitate.<\/p>\n Successful trophy anglers all uniformly have one thing in common: time on the water<\/strong>. \u00a0You can luck your way into a big fish just as you can luck your way into a big deer on your first-ever hunting trip, but at the end of the day, you are playing the slots. \u00a0The more you pull that lever, the better your chances of hitting the jackpot. \u00a0That means you have to put in the time and pay your ante. \u00a0There is such a thing as fishing karma, and bad luck will eventually regress to the mean and even out.<\/p>\n Fish live underwater, right? \u00a0They don’t care if it’s raining, and they generally like it when it’s gray, when the sun is rising or setting, or when temperatures are below freezing. \u00a0A lot of big fish are (again, like big deer) more or less confirmed night owls. \u00a0Successful big fish anglers know these things. \u00a0You won’t usually see them slogging away when the sky is\u00a0bluebird, high and bright, and the rivers and lakes are full of playboaters. \u00a0Instead, they’re getting up at 4AM, or fishing until<\/em> 4AM. \u00a0They own gear that allows them to do this comfortably, so they suffer once<\/strong> (at the cash register) rather than every time they go out.<\/p>\n Large fish get that way for a reason; they are more elusive, more wary, more\u00a0paranoid\u00a0<\/em>by nature than their brethren. \u00a0This is how they survived when all their classmates ended up fileted on a plate with a side of lemon. \u00a0 In order to fool fish of this type, quality anglers recognize the need to maximize their opportunities by minimizing or eliminating their own limitations. \u00a0That means they work on their casting; they study different tactics, and when they do get beat, they learn from their mistakes<\/strong>. \u00a0It’s one thing to fail to set a hook at a distance a few times, but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way over and over and expecting a different outcome. \u00a0This is a skillset which has been studied in sports science; it’s called deliberate practice<\/a>. \u00a0Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and Jeff Gordon all follow principles of deliberate practice, whether they know it or not.<\/p>\n Stealth is underrated in fishing, by a lot. \u00a0After all, most anglers are trained on fish which have never had the time to learn to be wary — your standard stocker rainbow has probably only been in the river for a month or two before falling afoul of your hunchback scud. \u00a0This gives most anglers a false impression\u00a0that stealth is irrelevant<\/strong>. \u00a0You see it all the time; boat anglers blazing in on a gas motor then immediately trolling in as fast as possible. \u00a0River anglers wading to within thirty feet of a target, sending a cloud of debris down and across with their flies. \u00a0Even spring creek anglers fail to appreciate just how important it is to avoid lining a fish with false casts. \u00a0Stealth is a critical part of trophy hunting, and it is an equally important part of trophy fishing. \u00a0Silence. Slowness. \u00a0Stillness. The essence of surprise. \u00a0These factors matter.<\/p>\n This is a component of stealth, but it’s something any angler can adopt no matter what the circumstance is. \u00a0Too many of us approach a likely fish lie as if we were shelling a golf course green in order to set up a short chipshot. \u00a0We just want to get in the general area, and then when we get closer we figure we’ll seal the deal. \u00a0This is a terrible strategy in golf (since you blow a stroke getting on the green instead of putting for birdie), and it’s equally bad in fishing. \u00a0Trophy fish aren’t stupid, and if you slap a fly down ten feet away, they are going to slide under that bank or rock and hide, even if your second cast is right where they were feeding. \u00a0So make your first cast your best cast; get close enough, don’t line the fish with false casts, and hit your target<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I have asked a lot of good anglers what they think separates them from the pack, and they all eventually circle around to one key factor: persistence. \u00a0Trophy anglers power through failure; they put in time on the water when conditions are good, and they keep going<\/strong> even if they don’t get immediate results. \u00a0Persistence is a character trait. \u00a0Its essence is based on confidence, the surety that if you just keep doing something correctly, you will eventually get a good result. \u00a0It takes a while to build up that confidence, but it takes even more mental grit to ward off the feeling of failure when you know you are doing it right and the results just aren’t coming.<\/p>\n A lot of anglers can maintain focus for a couple hours. \u00a0They start the day out honed in on target, making clean casts and keeping the fly in the zone. \u00a0Then, they flag. \u00a0Whether because they get tired, or because they catch fish and get satiated, or because they\u00a0don’t\u00a0<\/em>catch fish and get frustrated; it all ends up in the same place. \u00a0A beer gets cracked, then three or four more. \u00a0That swivel chair starts to look comfortable. \u00a0Pretty soon they’re not even really fishing; they’re just killing time (as well as\u00a0whoever is on the sticks trying to keep them in place for a nice cast). \u00a0Trophy anglers go fishing to go fishing.<\/strong> \u00a0They may know how to have a good time, but while they’re angling, they keep at it.<\/p>\n The irony of guide culture is that guides usually wind up taking people fishing at the worst possible times. \u00a0Think about it; when did you last launch a boat on a guided trip before daylight, so you could be in place when the rise started? \u00a0When did you keep fishing through full dark, so you could take advantage of both crepuscular periods in the day? \u00a0Probably never, because guide operations are more about showing people a good time than about catching big fish (which is perfectly fine). \u00a0Anglers who have only ever fished during banker’s hours may never even have realized that they are leaving the best low-light periods on the table<\/strong>. \u00a0Meanwhile, trophy anglers are up early, back home in time for a late breakfast, and probably stringing that rod back up as the sun is going down in flames so they can also catch the back half of the day.<\/p>\n Every fishable river in the country has at least one quality fish in it. \u00a0No matter how over-fished, how blasted by pollution, how public the river may be, chances are there’s a state record down there somewhere. \u00a0One<\/em> of them. \u00a0Trophy anglers know that is a slot machine you want to avoid. \u00a0Instead, they make the time in their schedules to hit rivers where big fish opportunities are actually numerous enough to provide a reasonable chance of success. \u00a0Arkansas’s White River has produced<\/a> more epic<\/a> brown trout<\/a> caught on flies<\/a> in the last<\/a> 4 months<\/a> than most rivers<\/a> in the Southeast<\/a> will produce<\/a> in the next ten years<\/a>. \u00a0Guess where the trophy anglers are spending their time? \u00a0And you know what else? It’s not even that expensive<\/strong>. \u00a0Gas prices are at all-time lows, and hotel and license fees on the White River are as cheap as they get. \u00a0Driving to Arkansas is more of a mental obstacle than a financial one for a very large swathe of the country, and if there’s not a White River in your vicinity, chances are there’s something similar.<\/p>\n Trophy anglers who figure out how to catch big fish rarely share that information with any but their closest friends. \u00a0Often they will share misinformation<\/em> on the internet. \u00a0The sneakiest of them will mix the misinformation in with otherwise solid advice<\/strong>, generously directing the crowds to go catch fish successfully someplace other than wherever the big fish angler is targeting. \u00a0The irony of this is that many anglers now believe you can learn just about anything on the internet with enough sleuthing. \u00a0Truth is, nothing will ever surpass simple exploration and burning through gas and boot leather when it comes to locating big fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" B IG FISH. \u00a0It’s why we fish, right? \u00a0An old truism holds that new anglers just want to catch a fish, then they progress to catching lots of fish. \u00a0After a while, “lots of fish” loses ground to “one big fish.” \u00a0Eventually (so I hear) the ultimate angler ascends, in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ten-tips","column","onecol","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/files\/2016\/03\/snaevarrthirdcatchsmall.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4036"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4050,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions\/4050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}IG FISH. \u00a0It’s why we fish, right? \u00a0An old truism holds that new anglers just want to catch a<\/em> fish, then they progress to catching lots of fish. \u00a0After a while, “lots of fish” loses ground to “one big fish.” \u00a0Eventually (so I hear) the ultimate angler ascends, in a moment of religious enlightenment,\u00a0to merely enjoying the experience of fishing. \u00a0Personally, I’ve found that I sure tend to enjoy the experience a whole lot more while I’m\u00a0catching lots of big fish, but I admit I’m still working out that whole Zen thing.<\/h5>\n
#1 They Pay the Ante<\/h3>\n
![\"56centimeterssmall\"](\"http:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/files\/2016\/03\/56centimeterssmall.jpg\")
<\/h3>\n#2 They Fish When Fishing is Miserable<\/h3>\n
#3 They Maximize Their Skills<\/h3>\n
![\"seventeenpoundssmall\"](\"http:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/files\/2016\/03\/seventeenpoundssmall.jpg\")
<\/h3>\n#4 They Believe in Stealth<\/h3>\n
#5 They Make Their First Cast Their Best Cast<\/h3>\n
#6 They are Persistent<\/h3>\n
![\"20081013073352_castingheadonmorningsmall_1\"](\"http:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/files\/2016\/03\/20081013073352_castingheadonmorningsmall_1.jpg\")
<\/h3>\n#7 They Remain Focused<\/h3>\n
#8 They Split Their Days<\/h3>\n
![\"eriesteelsmall\"](\"http:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/files\/2016\/03\/eriesteelsmall.jpg\")
<\/h3>\n#9 They Fish Where Big Fish Are<\/h3>\n
#10 They Are Secretive<\/h3>\n