Good Karma

In the discussion of becoming a more proficient angler, we often get so hung up over where we fish, how we cast, and what equipment we fish with, we often neglect one the greatest tools at our disposal. Our positive mental attitude. "Good Karma"

Positive Mental Attitude (PMA), Good Luck, Zen, Karma or whatever you want to call it, seems like an unlikely subject to talk about in fishing, but let me assure you, it is real and it works.

Question: How many of you hardcore steelhead flyfishers get this kind of "funny feeling " shortly before you get the pull from a fish?"

I am not going to even to try to analyze the anatomical, physiological Zen between man and fish. I am going to discuss how to get it and how to keep it.

The other day I was fishing with a client and an outdoor photographer/ writer, who came along to observe. About half way through the day she says, " You know what you do, Dennis?" You coach." I thought about that. She was right. A big part of my coaching, is positive mental attitude.

There are some definite do and don't when you fish with me. First off, if you try to tell me how "unlucky" you are, I will probably cut you off in mid sentence by saying, "But not today".

I can't count the number of angler who have come to me almost apologizing, saying they have fished for steelhead for X number of years without any luck, and as a last resort, they come to me. I am not sure if this is a complement or not. You see, every trip this guy has gone fishless, he has become more convinced, he can't be successful.

Bad Karma.

Example. About twelve years ago, I was fishing couple of guys on the Sauk River for native steelhead. The fishing had been quite good that week and I was optimistic. In fact, the pool we were headed to, had held a fish for me every trip, for the last two weeks! Those were the good ole days! Anyway, as we float down to the first pool to fish, all I heard from this man was, how this trip was going to be waste of time, there is no steelhead anymore, and yada, yada, yada. (Why did you come?)

I decided to jump-start this outing so I didn't even fool around, I rowed him across the river to fish the sweet spot, right off the bat. Of course I was bragging how never miss this little pool was, and to make a long story short, he didn't do jack. So back across the river we go to where his buddy is fishing another piece of water. I promptly dropped him off and told him where to fish. I put his partner in the boat and headed back across.

He says," Where you going?"

"Back to the other side." is all I said.

His partner didn't hook one either, he hooked TWO. Landed them both! The skeptic did a big turnaround and ended up finding a fish later that day, himself.

How do I teach "Good Karma?" Key word: Visualization. After I teach them the cast and presentation and I feel they are covering the water effectively, I play a mental game with the angler. I tell them to visualize steelhead in the pool.

"Now tell yourself "I say,"There is forty steelhead in this pool and all I want is one." The client will generally start fishing as if he expects to get one. Ever notice, especially in athletics, successful people expect to be successful?

Then I will do silly little things while his fly is swimming across the pool, like I will say, " OH, oh, he's looking at it, here he comes. Joe client doesn't know I cant see the fish either, so boy he is ready! More than that. He is learning to be mentally successful, and he hasn't found a fish yet!

The other day I was fishing with Hal and his girlfriend Suzy. She works with kids and reading. I hadn't seen her in a year, but after maybe 20 minutes on the water, she was fishing really well. I told her I was impressed how quickly it all came back to her. She said she just laid awake for a while the night before and visualized the fishing and instruction we had worked on in the past. It worked AWESOME. It wasn't long before she spanked a big fish. Now interesting,

After this fish she says" I think all the fish are now scared of this fly, Dennis".

I said, "No Suzy, now they will Fight for it". Four casts later she hooks the largest steelhead we have seen all year. See, just by taking a negative and making it a positive.

Look in some old timers flybox sometime. He will have an assortment of flies, but One fly, will be in little sizes to big sizes. Only fly he ever fishes, he admits. Magic fly? No, but it is the one that brings him "Good Karma", because that's the one he is successful with.

Fish with "Good Karma" and good things happen. Count on it.

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