Keith, I can try to teach you and some other fishermen something right here w/o having to take you out and show you some boating/fishing intracacies. I gave it a poorly worded shot up above (please pardon that - it was a mood thing) so I will try to lend some learned wisdom about fishing that will make you a better fishermen. It took me many years to learn this secret and I will share it with you now (at the risk of sounding condescending or hypocritical - but it is for effect of the point; not to brag). ....

The best fishermen on the river are the ones who truely get the maximun enjoyment from the experience. This can mean different things to different people. One of the common denominators is success at catching fish of course. Another is enjoying the beautiful outdoor scenery. Many enjoy the fun and company of good friends. Relaxing your way into fish is another. ... Now here's the big secret one that I learned in recent years that has pushed my enjoyment level way up; getting over the 'competitive, outfish the rest, prove myself' mentality on the river! ... You see, I was very much like you Keith at your age. Because I learned good uncrowded productive places for bankfishing, and because I was an eggcuring fanatic in addition to other tricks learned, I often caught and released more salmon and steelhead by myself than most guide's boatloads had on a given day. It is a tougher gig having to get doughballs into fish on crowded river sections as guides must do though. I can tell you that being on the river almost every day and being able to dial in on the several different intracacies of what's taking the fish any particular week is a real advantage; for both guides and hardcores like yourself. Like a lot of the rest of us Keith, for a number of reasons I can only fish typically a couple times a week now. That's not enough to really dial in as I used to; or you do now. I still have the occassional double figure days when the fish are in on the day I'm able to go and I make the right educated guesses of where the fish are and what will work best on them that day, but not nearly as often as I used to when I was 'dialed' in and fishing competitively hard almost every day. Yet I have a much better fishing knowledge base now! BUT, I enjoy my time on the river so much more again. Remember how exhilerating it was to go fishing for steelhead the first couple of years, as you caught a few fish in the learning process. Well, with the right attitude and proper appreciation of what you are getting to do out there, fishing can become exhilerating again. And a whole lot more relaxing and satisfying by just fishing for the shere joy of it and not even thinking about 'kicking everyones @$$' or focusing on getting the biggest numbers you can to tell the world about. It took a lot of time and soul searching for me to earn this mindset and shere enjoyment back again. I wouldn't trade it for any amount of big numbers to brag up or tournament trophy's on my desk to show off. The best fishermen find this realm. I hope you do too someday. - RT


[This message has been edited by Reel Truth (edited 12-27-2000).]