Trending
When the high-fives are easy and the hoots and hollers are echoing off the water, the fishing is fun and the catching is even better.
Anglers live for the days when good fortune smiles on their efforts. But it's not always fun and games out on the water.
Veteran anglers know the good times can be interrupted by long streaks of tough luck and frustration. That's when good anglers rise to the occasion and find the way to catch a few to save the day.
Fishing, in fact, is not so much about catching as it is about solving the day's riddle. Where are the fish? What is their mood? What will it take to tease them into biting?
Sometimes, the puzzle comes together easily. Often it does not. But the best anglers have as much fun on the difficult days as the easy.
Fishing is a learning experience - or it soon becomes tedious.
The diverse lakes and rivers near Youngstown and Warren provide us anglers with an amazing array of learning opportunities.
From warm-water fishing for bass, catfish, sunfish and crappies to cold-water fishing for steelhead trout and ice jigging for walleyes, anglers have the perfect schools to earn advanced degrees in freshwater fishing.
We are taught from our earliest years that learning should be fun. So the high-fives can be unapologetically jubilant even during the tough days on the water.
I think back to a day in September on Shenango Reservoir. The sky was a little murky and the water had not yet cooled enough to trigger the uptick in the bass' feeding behavior.
But I had time on my hands and an itch to fish, so I hooked up the trailer and towed the boat to the lake.
Some days on Shenango deliver oodles of situations where I can call my shots. Drag a crankbait alongside a water-logged tree trunk and "crash." Pitch a jig to the fork of a broken branch, and "bang." Rip a spinnerbait through the shadow of a flat-top stump and "boom."
The crash-bang-boom days are awesome. My buddies and I high-five and pose for pictures to celebrate and chronicle our catches.
But sometimes the outings are less than spectacular. Such was that recent day in September.
We caught a couple early in the day, then settled into a monotone kind of morning. Cast and wind. Cast and wind. Cast and wind.
After two hours, it was clear we were more or less going through the motions. It was apparent we needed to get focused on fishing. A quick conversation resulted in a suggestion we endorsed. We changed our location and adjusted our tactics.
Crash, a bass snapped up my crankbait.
Bang, a smallie attacked my buddy's jig. Boom, a bruiser bass ate my spinnerbait after it ricocheted off a snaggle-root stump.
We reaped the rewards of smart fishing with fine catching.
The high-fives were well earned and the glow of success lingered all the home.
Jack Wollitz's book, "The Common Angler," explores the fun stuff that makes fishing a passion for so many people. He appreciates emails from readers. Send a note to jackbbaass@gmail.com.