Attention: You’re Missing The Bite

I was walking a beach the other night with another anonymous angler, and we were suffering. We had been out late getting beat up by the surf, it was hot, my achilles ached from too much hard-bottom surf bootie walking, and he had fallen and twisted his ankle. We had said everything that needed to be said, and were slogging along in silence to a new spot.

Yet, even though I was in a low, nagging amount of discomfort, I kept my eyes up and my brain tuned to what was happening around me. I kept the water to my left perpetually- and literally- out of the corner of my eye. That part of my brain was partitioned out, on a routine level of surveillance, and it’s so automatic at this point I don’t have to monitor it.

Ignoring that part, I was just day dreaming about something- probably the soda and potato chips I had in the buggy- when suddenly my awareness snapped back like an alarm went out. I slowed just a little bit (I had actually got more than a few rude steps in front of my partner), and I stared at the surf. It looked about the same- but just a little bit…different. It felt different- had I stood there for 3-minutes I could have told you what it was, but in that moment it was a nebulas sensation.

And as I opened my mouth to say we should stop and fish, my partner beat me to it. “We should stop here,” he said, and with no explanation or discussion of what I had just felt, I said “Without questions.” He had felt it, too. No explanation was necessary.

Turns out it was the far edge of a shallow point where waves were stacking on a hard drop of a bar. We only pulled one fish- and it was only about 10-pounds- but the whole time we were fishing we just kept repeating to each other, like we were in an echo chamber, “this spot is so fishy right now.” So much so, we skipped our original plan and our back up plan and camped out.

The point of this story is that you should foster an autonomous part of your brian that is always “on.” There should be a piece that is vigilant to opportunities or changes at all times, no matter your mood, what you’re doing, or who you’re with. There has to be a machine in the mush jammed in the circular bone of your head that is devoted to making sure you don’t miss anything.

Two essential steps to make this happen. First, fish a lot. It’ll take some anglers a year, it’ll take others a decade or more. Just hope you’re the former. It just takes pattern repetition and recognition to do it automatically. You need data to build the model. Next, you must be intentional in doing so even if it’s automatic. What I mean is, for me at least, I have to flip that switch and get the process up and running, and then it will self-monitor. Saying to myself- sometimes out loud- “ok as I walk these rocks I just want to make sure I don’t miss any bait signs” or “keep an eye out for any cuts in the bar as you walk” triggers the system to come online, then I can ignore it while it does its job.

Random thought: we were talking about Brendan Richards today and I think you should go back and listen to his episode, Season 2, Episode 34!