The Art Of Teaching Fishing And The Power Of A Good Quote

I don’t know if you think the same way I do, but I feel a great quote is as (or more) powerful than a great work of art. There’s just something inspirational about how words are sometimes strung together. I was reminded of one such powerful sports-related quote the other day, and saw such a correlation to bass fishing in the message that I felt the need to share it with you. It’s baseball related and reads: “The definition of a good player is one that has prepared himself to react better on the field.” Digest that for a sec.

Before I get into my interpretation of the quote, let me say this first. Once in a while, I have a reader ask if I could be more specific about a topic. To be honest, figuring out how much or how little to offer when teaching someone about fishing can be a difficult task. If you give an average angler a golden nugget of information too prematurely, they never learn to appreciate the methodology and time it took to get to the level of capitalizing on that nugget. In fishing, they could be given the magic spot and catch a bunch of nice bass, but conversely, to use baseball as an example, you just can’t get on the field and hit homers against MLB pitching even if you’re given the best tips. You’ll get lucky sometimes, but when that magic spot is off (or a better pitcher steps up), there a good chance you won’t know what to do.

So, its not necessarily that I’m ambiguous on purpose all the time when writing a post or giving a seminar, it’s that in some cases I (or any teacher) would prefer the student of the game be prepared to react better on the water by trial and error rather than never having to react independently to achieve the same positive outcome. That’s the real message of the quote, and in many respects the key to all sports. You have to be prepared to react better yourself, by doing the work and applying a spoonful of good experience/knowledge/info/practice here, and then a little more there until you have the most potent potion for success. But it’s your duty to mesh all that stuff together. There is no one answer to all the curveballs that are thrown at you on the water, but there’s always your own spin on how to handle them. And as good or bad as the outcome may be, that’s the never-ending learning curve in bass fishing.