When I leave home to go fishing I do so knowing that I have done everything possible to ensure my tackle and bait are it the best condition to catch fish. EVERY evening I sit with my tackle box and check I have, for example, sufficient tied hooks of a given pattern for the following days fishing. I will have a mental note from the previous outing of split shot of a certain size running low, that a certain float needs to be repainted etc etc. In other words I have total ' confidence ' in my tools for the job I hand.
Having arrived on the bank I will already have in mind where I hope to fish plus an alternative if the swim is already taken, having done my homework on prevailing conditions expected for the day. I will know the expected ambient temperature, wind direction and if it might change direction over my session, plus expected light levels from overcast, sunny or cloudy skies, again over the term of my session.
It is pointless dropping into a swim at 6am to fish for good roach ( with ideal overcast conditions ) only to find the sun pokes through an hour later and you find yourself, and more importantly the swim, bathed in bright sunshine !!
No, I don't have a ' what to do list with tick boxes ' in my hand every time I arrive on the bank as all the above is totally mental and what I have learned will give me the best chance of catching fish over 65 years of fishing. I know from long experience that sloppy preparation and zero thought will not give you the very best chance of putting fish on the bank simply because to my mind, anything worth doing is worth doing well.
No, it doesn't always work out even now, and I do suffer the odd blank, or more often than not a low return, BUT should it occur I will think about why happened on the way home and on into the evening.......Did I miss something ?
When the odd blanks befalls me, or God forbid, one follows another, I can honestly say I don't suffer what is often bandied around as ' a dip in confidence ' because I just don't think that way....I just renew my efforts and look harder at why it might've happened.
All to often I see this confidence word used as excuse for lack of ability, lack of thought about what you're trying to achieve or worse, just plain laziness. Tell someone often enough they are ' lacking in confidence ' and pretty soon they will begin to believe it !!
Chaps walk past me when fishing with the words " They just weren't feeding today " OR " you were obviously lucky enough to drop into a swim loaded with fish " but it would never enter the brain that my skill and thought had anything to do with it....Of course they will race to my swim on the next outing and still catch nowt....
I even hear the odd comment applied to me " he's a damn good angler and always manages to catch " almost as if it's an excuse/reason as to why they don't !
What a load of cobblers !!
I KNOW I'm a pretty good angler with the ability to catch on most days, and if that comes under the heading of ' confidence ' OR EVEN ' over confidence' then I'm happy to live with it.
What I'm absolutely sure of is that it didn't just happen. I LOVE working hard to achieve success, but I still enjoy every minute...
To anybody I say, work hard at your sport, use your brain, think about all you do and 'confidence ' will flow as another good fish slides into the net. We all start from the same point, don't we ??
