Fishing luck has to do with people who watch what is happeing, adapt to conditions, and are aware of what the fish might want at the time.
I have alot of folks tell me that I am lucky to catch alot of fish, but they think you can just throw anything into the water and catch fish.
Rick
Bad luck is when everyone else on the river is catching fish but you!
Good luck is when no one else on the river is catching fish but you!
Kidding aside, ability goes a long way and a skilled fisherman is usually going to outfish the less skilled.
But, even when everyone is on a even playing field, sometimes luck is the great seperator.
I think this is evident not just in fishing.
Just my opinion.
Rob
Rob, honestly it is not “evident” to me. Can you cite some examples where “luck” is evident in either fishing or life?
Jim
Luck,… happenstance, … coincidence, …conjunction …
A “good” or experienced angler isn’t “luckier” or “better”, … they just arange to have the best chance to take advantage of situations.
When friends have the chance, … instead of doing 5 days in a row on the river here, … they’ll do 3 or 4 trips of 2 days fishing, spread over 3-4 weeks.
A “Lucky” fly ??? … You catch MORE fishg on the lucky fly, … imho, … we have more confidence in our “lucky” flies, … so we fish them more often and for longer periodes. Means there is MORE chance to catch something on it.
I guess I’m lucky, … I usually have water to my self or just me and the family. We fish over LOTS of salmon and trout. We catch some.
The only place you NEVER rely on luck … is in health and safety at work and play.
Christopher Chin, Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://flyanglersonline.com/travel/quebec06fishin/:efdcd]2006 FishIn Ste-Marguerite River[/url:efdcd]
[url=http://pages.videotron.com/fcch/:efdcd]Fishing the Ste-Marguerite[/url:efdcd]
A good example of luck has been mentioned concerning weather and timing.
Most people I know who come to ski here at Grand targhee want to ski powder. They usually plan their trip ahead of time and usually they pick dates that have produced powder for them in the past.
Sometimes they hit it right sometimes they don’t. I call this luck.
Another example would be the guys who every year plan a trip the same week on the Henry’s fork to fish the Salmonfly hatch.
This year I doubt if luck will be with the ones who have scheduled trips around the 3rd week of May which for the last number of years has been about the right time.
I think with the high cold water it will be at least a week later this year.
So these guys hoping to luck out, hitting the hatch right, are probally not going to be so lucky this year.
I can come up with more examples if you like but I think that I have made my point?
So I think that timing is a great example of luck.
Rob
Fishing the Salmon River and not falling in, now that’s luck.
So, if I understand your examples which had to do with variations in weather patterns, if someone makes the same decision, year after year, and some years it works, and some years it doesn’t, the outcome is determined by luck?
So if someone else was astute enough to follow the weather patterns more closely, and actually try to DECIDE on a best time, his luck would be better?
Jim
[This message has been edited by nowindknots (edited 10 May 2006).]
If you hit the same bad golf shot and one day it goes under a tree and the next day it doesn’t…is that bad and good luck…or is it just “rub of the green”?
If you fish a seam in the river and you hook a twenty inch trout as opposed to a six incher…is it luck?
Jim, not if you are picking dates a year ahead of time. IMO that falls under the category of luck.
I do not think I could ever change your mind-set just the same of you changing mine?
I guess luck is subject to one’s own interpretations.
The answers posted on this thread I think concur this concept.
Rob
Well, just for the record then, I think luck is probably non-existent, and vastly over blown.
I think the millions of conscious and unconscious decisions we make in life determine what we call “luck”. Change your decision making algorithms and you change your luck.
I totally accept and endorse the existence of random chance, but feel it is only bound to mechanical and other natural processes.
Anything in which a thinking organism has decision making power need not be random. That is to say, with perception you can “pick” your “luck”.
All MHO.
Jim
Yes…luck is a factor.
Even the most experienced fisherman needs some kind of luck…as you stated, sometimes the fish are bitting and sometimes they arn’t…even if your throwing the exact match for the hatch or whatever…On a good day when the fish are cooperating then the fisherman can reduce the “luck factor”, but sometimes days it is a large factor in catching fish.
McQueen
I was once told and believe it…
“In order to carry on an intelligent conversation we have to define our terms?”
nevermind. i am wrong. dont ever listen to me
[This message has been edited by Anthony (edited 10 May 2006).]
"Everything happens for a reason. "
Anthony are you sure???
That is my opinion and I am sticking with it. There is no sense in argueing over it and thus hijacking the post
[This message has been edited by Anthony (edited 10 May 2006).]
“There are many factors that determine whether a fish will bite. It is impossible to take into account all of them, so there must be luck or chance involved.”
Now there’s a leap.
There are many factors that we don’t know about how the sun works. We’ll be d*** lucky if it still shines tomorrow!
Jim
Mr. webster can help us here…I like the intransitive verb for this column. Hard Luck, Poor luck, some luck…
1 : to prosper or succeed especially through chance or good fortune – usually used with out
2 : to come upon something desirable by chance – usually used with out, on, onto, or into
We all know the noun definition of Luck, you will conjour up meanings of the singular…like, Chance, which in a way is what we are doing when fishing anyway…taking a chance. I belive it was Don Carey who was once heard to mutter on a stream bank…Do you feel Lucky?
Duksterman I completely agree with your quote, but I also think thats what were doing: deciding what we collectivly agree upon, or experience as, luck. While I also agree with Mr. Websters definitions, it still seems to me that we all have our own subjective definitions. Here is an interesting question. If, on a good fishing day we have good luck, could we just as easily say that those fish (fooled by our fly) had bad luck? After all they are designed to discern, on and below the surface, food from debris?
Interesting concept.
Proposed- the conservation of Luck theory:
There exists a fixed and balanced amount of Luck. For one entity to experience good Luck, an equal and opposite bad Luck must be visited upon some other entity.
Are changes in Luck (Luck flux?) what we mortals perceive as karma?
Jim
Luck is how you figure out where the good spots are on a new body of water…