I?d like your opinion/comments on ?confidence and why it?s productive? when fly fishing. This really is a two part question, but I?m going to skip the first part (Does confidence work when fly fishing, yes or no?) and for the sack of time, and the fact that I?m only interested in the title question, assume everyone is in agreement, that confidence does work and it is productive when fly fishing, as in most any venture.
I have proved, or I think I have proved, this over and over again. If I?m in the river, a river I am familiar with, I have my favorite fly rod, rigged with line, leader, and tippet, which I have used a hundred times, my favorite fly, etc., etc., etc. I believe I have more hits and catch more fish than someone of equal experience that is fishing with equipment that they are familiar with BUT they have little or no confidence in their ability. Hope I am stating this so it’s making sense. In other words: If all things being equal, “confidence” will produce strikes and fish, where no confidence will produce less strikes and fish. I believe this to be true, and if you agree please tell me ?why do you think it?s true??
:arrow: And here is something else I have always wondered about, and believe me folks I?m not psychic, but have any of you had this experience; You’re fishing in your favorite spot, a spot you have fished hundreds of times before, and your not getting hits like you want, but you?re getting one every now and then and you?re bringing in a trout every now and then. Again, not the amount you would like, a very slow day at best. But then you make this one cast (with the same equipment you have been using all day) and this cast has a certain feel and ?YOU KNOW? you?re going to get a hit before your retrieve is finished, and more times than not, you get that strike. I?ll take a SWAG at the percentage and say between 70 and 80 percent of the time I get that strike, when I get that feeling. Do I need a sit down with :lol: Freud, :lol: or does this happen to anyone else?
Confident anglers are more focused on what they are doing. Typically they are familiar with their gear and tactics. They will work their gear without thinking much about it and are more focused on what their bait/fly/lure is doing and where it is doing it. Because of this they are more likely to get their offering in front of the fish and detect strikes that otherwise might be missed.
I can’t really give a valid comment on the reasons, but my experience has been very much the same. I can give my fishing buddy (who has been fly fishing longer than I have) the same flies as I am using and I will catch several fish to his occasional one. I’m not really a better fly fisherman than he is, I just have confodence in the pattern. There are many times when I make a cast and I simply know that I will get a hit even if I’ve been casting to the same general area for some time. I will be the first to admit that I am (usually) a lot luckier at fishing than I am good. It has been that way since the first time I went fishing at five years old.
Of course confidence works. Why would we use the same techniques, the same flies, and go to the same places if we did not have confidence in what we were doing. Confidence works because we have proof that it does. Lack of confidence in our abilities is lack knowing what to expect. There are times that I just know when a strike is going to happen, usually when day dreaming or at least when I am absent minded.
Confidence works in tennis, golf, basketball, and baseball because it leads to better follow-through with swings and strokes. I bet it’s the same with a cast.
My opinion is that the confidence is more with the fly we are using then the equipment. I know exactly what you are experiencing. I can use a “confidence” fly of mine with anyone’s equipment and I “know” I will catch a fish with it. I really think when you have confidence with a certain fly you will fish it slower, giving it time to get to the fish. You will concentrate more on the line and detect those strikes that most miss. You will mend your line more to get the fly down to the fish because you “just know” the fish will take it. I have worked with new fly fishermen on the river and have showed them how I am fishing the fly and have told them when I was going to get a strike just before I got it. Maybe a sixth sense. I am a nymph/wet fly/streamer fisherman and do not really fish hatches. I just have my “go to confidence” flies and I know I will catch fish with them. I have drifted my fly through an eddy and not had a strike and keep casting until I have made the fly go through the area exactly the way, in my mind, I thought it should and will get the strike. I have had fisherman tell me they have been standing on the bank and watching me fish for half and hour and I never knew they were there. My opinion is if you have confidence in the fly you are using you will apply a lot of concentration while fishing it and you will give the fly the time it needs to do “it’s thing” in the water. You will let the fly do your fishing instead of you fishing the fly and this makes the fly look more natural in the water. Too many fisherman hurry their fishing like they were fishing a crank bait. The fly must have time to “look alive” which means you need to fish each cast slowly. I have seen people make a cast and while the fly was drifting, they were looking around to see where they would make their next cast. If you have faith in the “fish catching” abilities of the fly you are using, you will concentrate more and fish slowly and give the fly the time it needs. Just my opinions on a very good subject and question.
Confidence only comes from practice and experience.
If you have the ability to focus on your task, then confidence will help you do a quality job.
Confidence is only part of a fishing trip. You have to have the proper rod, reel, line, fly, luck and good weather and moon. I can say that when there was a full moon, I didn’t have very much confidence in catching fish.
Bad inner feelings affect my confidence. Distractions, unusual noise, other fishermen.
Maybe there are some flyfishers who have supreme confidence, but being over-confidence is something that I’m superstitous about… that’s a NO NO!
When I have a special fishing trip, confidence might have had something to do with it, but focusing is also a requirement.
My personality is to be under control, so repetition, going to the same fishing spot, over and over, is what I have always done. I don’t feel confidence when I go fishing somewhere for the first time. I have to be willing to lose my confidence for a few trips to new water, before I can get it back.
Doug
Confidence I do have. But I call it my 7th sence. Why does one open his fly box and choose that fly that he or she THINKS will work? Confidence,experience,intuition all come into play. Its all the little adjustments he or she makes to get the job done. I’m really sorry to say this and I don’t want to sound cocky but most of my fishing buddys and people I meet on the water just don’t know how to fish that well. Some have decades of more experience than I have but they just don’t produce the numbers that I do. I also have a buddy that has the uglyest cast you have ever seen and does everything backwards and for the life of me I cannot explain how he catches fish. Maybe he has a 8th sence? The only thing I could say is some have IT and some DON’T. Later.
I don’t know about all that. Sure makes sense that if your upbeat and paying close attention, your “luck” would be better.
On the other hand, I’ve hit the river in a pretty upbeat mood, only to get skunked … and I think that upbeatness gotlowered a notch or two. Then I’ve hit the water to relax a little, all worn out from the world and it’s cares, and some right fisty fish making their presence known on the end of my line … well, you know, my mental stock goes up 1,000%!
I go to the river confident I’ll have a good time fly fishing. During the first 55 years the rest just happened. Well maybe I helped it happen, but I’m confident it will all happen again ! :))
Well, my quick reaction to your basic question, ‘Why does confidence work’, is simple; If you don’t have confidence in something, I’m talking flies, equipment and techniques, you won’t use them. If you don’t use them they will never work (for you). You will never gain confidence, never use them and so on.
I have my ?go to? flies that I seem to fish differently than just about any other fly in the vest. Yes, I believe I put them ?in the zone? with a higher degree of confidence than the others, and I mend more and pay closer attention to the line when using them. I?m also a student of ?The Power of Positive Thinking? by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, introduced to me by my mother when I was in my early teens. Learning to be confident probably was the best lesson learned that I have carried through my life, and one of the most important lessons I?ve passed on to our children. Visualization techniques are also very powerful, and while I can?t explain how they work, I can only attest to the fact that they do work.
Here are a couple of thoughts by W. Clement Stone to help you along:
?Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.?
?I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.?
?Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it.?
Confidence.
I seem to have an abundance of it and even a bit more . I am genuinly surprised when there is not a fish on when I am finished with my retrieve.
That not withstanding please be assured that there is not a fish on with every cast. Frankly there are a lot more casts than there are fish.I love to win. I think of a fish on as a win. I do not think of a strikeless cast as a loss.Its the pursuit of a win.
My creel doth not always overfloweth at the end of the day, and yet there I go, once more into the breech.
Bob,
Interesting point you made. Like some of the posters said, sometimes I’ll approach the water beaming with this confidence, only to be taken down a notch or three. Other times I’ve experienced what you’ve said.
My pretty vague guess goes along these lines. When you’re experiencing one of those “up” days, the fact that you’re not getting fish/takes matters less, as a whole. Your presentations (casts) are better because you feel more in control and everything just feels right. And eventually, when you do take fish, it adds much positive reinforcement!
Such are the beauties of this game. But I’m with you, I really don’t know how it works but it seems to!
I agree that confidence makes for better sport, both in number of fish caught and in enjoyment of the day. One obvious reason why confidence works – Your fly is in the water; that is, you are not constantly changing flies, so you are actually spending much more time presenting the fly to the fish.
Another reason it works is that you will more often put those twent-five casts into the same area, “knowing” that you have the right fly and it is just a matter of interesting the fish. LaBranche narrates an instance of casting the same fly over a somnolent brown, gradually interesting it in food, then in the food he was offering. He brought it four feet up through the water column in twenty-five drifts to finally take his dry.
Hey Gang - Thanks for all the great replies. At least now that you all have replied I can cancel my appointment with Freud. Loufly - loved your comment of; ?There are times that I just know when a strike is going to happen, usually when day dreaming or at least when I am absent minded.? That happens to me all the time, and I usually end up adding a stroke in the number of ?hits? for the day column. In fact sometimes when it?s really slow and I can?t buy a strike, I’ll just let ? of the line out, turn around and start stomping up river dragging the line behind me. Works every time.
Have really enjoyed the replies, some very interesting thoughts and feedback for sure.
May you all get to see your arbor knot, the next time out.
