Fishing is not always about the lure, spot or technique. Instincts are key.

Consciously developing intuition and instinct in fishing — can help unlock results and provide new insights.

I fish and guide a lot of anglers and I’ve been staggered by some of their observations. They were able to make an intuitive leap by somehow connecting a bunch of random dots that were all around us on the water and putting them into a cohesive pattern that worked.

Simply amazing.

I was very lucky to have mentors, including coaches, who taught me to internally process what I was doing, seeing or saying in all my decathlon training.

We trained to build my mental resources and training insights to consciously ingrain all that I was learning and store it in my subconscious so I could use it later, when under competitive pressure.

I had one experience back while training for the 1976 Olympic Trials that still sticks with me - when I was having major technical problems with throwing the discus. I was completely lost.

I went to bed one night haunted by my problem. In the middle of the night, I woke up — and “ the solution” just hit me! Somehow, I could “ see” what I needed to fix! Excited I woke Elaine at 2 a.m.and told her I had figured it out.

She didn’t share my enthusiasm.

I got out of bed — put on my shoes and practiced.

Perfect!

The next day at practice my discus throwing took off — I was thrilled.

Most anglers know how powerful our instincts can be, but I’ve noticed that many fisherman live on a diet of just following their instincts. But just like any other tool, it needs to be fed, trained and sharpened.

In my experience, for my intuition to kick in I’ve found it important to try to make every trip one where I try to observe everything as impartially as I can.

Soaking it all in like a sponge seems to be the right mode for my inner mind to accept what I’m seeing and then process it to provide me with insight.

Mine is that small little voice that’s easy to overlook if I’m not listening for it, or am distracted. I don’t like to ever fish when something is on my mind - I can’t focus on two things at once. I want my mind to be fully and singularly engaged in what I’m doing.

I know there are a lot of good anglers who use this part of their mind very efficiently and successfully in their fishing and you can usually catch the drift that they had a hunch about their success. They have piled up decades of experiences, sensitive to the conscious and unconscious factors( seen and unseen) that were important and critical to their success. No accident.

I think that developing your instincts and intuition is a discipline where your improvement is your only competition. You should not be trying to keep up with or copy others.

That path leads down a dead-end street. It’s not all about the lure, spot or technique, it’s about working to become the best you can.

Build and learn to trust your intuition. How it works is a mystery. But then again, so are a lot of things.

Never give up.

Roger George: rogergeorge8@protonmail.com, Rogergeorgeguideservice on Facebook and @StriperWars.

This story was originally published September 26, 2023 at 1:17 PM with the headline "Fishing is not always about the lure, spot or technique. Instincts are key.."