A Lesson Learned

My oldest son learned a valuable lesson yesterday and I thought that it was something that we as fishermen could relate to and maybe be reminded of.  While fishing a farm pond yesterday, I noticed that my son was standing in the same place from about 15-20 minutes.  My youngest son and I moved around the pond during this time.  Sometimes we caught fish and sometimes we didn't.  Eventually, we found a spot that held a large number of fish so I called my oldest son over to join in on the fun.  He refused and kept casing.  We caught a few more fish and I implored him again to come to our spot.  Again he refused.  After the third request, he stopped responding.  I knew there was a problem.

My youngest with one of the stunted bass we found.

As I got closer, I realized my son was crying.  He's an emotional kid and this didn't surprise me.  When I asked him what was with the tears, he said "I'm not catching anything.  I just keep casting and I'm not getting any bites.  Stupid fish!  I know they are here but I can't catch them."  He was frustrated and confused and I could relate.  I think we all can.  The fish are apparently biting for others, but not for you.  You've caught fish here before, but why not now?  This lure worked last time, but why not now?  My son was experiencing the frustrating feeling of fishing water that looked like it should produce some strikes but wasn't. 

After some venting of frustration and ridding ourselves of some stubbornness (on both of our ends I am embarrassed to say), I convinced him to try another spot.  Five casts later he landed one of the bass clones that my youngest and I had been hooking. 

So what did we learn here?  My son learned that even if water looks "fishy,"  maybe it isn't.  He learned that you need to adapt to changing conditions.  He learned that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.  I also learned that in fishing, as in life, you sometimes need to accept life for what it is and not beat your head against a wall out of frustration.  I think we, as fishermen and humans, sometimes get son entrenched in what we perceive and expect, that we refuse to adapt to a changing world.  I haven't looked up the definition for stubborn, but if I did I bet fishing could be used as an example.  While I strive to be more flexible and less stubborn in fishing, I also realized yesterday that I need to be that way in life as well.  Hopefully my son learned the same lesson.  It's funny how you learn so much about yourself, when teaching others!