By Eddie Hudon
I recently went on a fishing trip with four friends. At the end of the day, we were deciding were to eat dinner. While we were thinking about were to go, one friend said, “I got about 8 or 10”. Another friend said, “I got close to 15”. I chimed in and asked, “Why do you guys count your fish?” I want to share some of their answers.
Gary: Well, I sort of count. I try to measure how good the day was.
Mike: I usually start to count, but then I loose count, or forget. Especially, when I get to double digits. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if I’m satisfied.
James: I don’t count. I don’t care; however, I know if it’s less than 5. I’m more concerned about catching. It’s a challenge to find out what fly is working.
Austin: Well, I do fishing competitions. So, I’m used to counting, not only how many, but sometimes how long, too. Also, if I catch 20 one day, I want to beat that number and try to increase my catch rate.
I fished a father and son combo in March this year. As soon as the father caught the first fish, he yelled out to his son, “One to nothing.” As I continue to guide, I realize that counting will always be a part of the day. I came up with a fun way to count fish, and be ACCURATE at the same time. I use baseball players by identifying their uniform number with their names. Here are some examples: My clients get a kick out of it. FIRST fish caught is Billy Martin. SECOND fish is Derrick Jeter. THIRD is Babe Ruth. FOURTH is Lou Gehrig. Here are the rest:
5. Joe Dimaggio
6. Stan Musial
7. Mickey Mantle
8. Yogi Berra
9. Ted Williams
10. Phil Rizzuto
11. Luis Aparicio
12. Gil McDougal
13. Dan Marino (ha)
14. Gil Hodges
15. Thurman Munson
16. Whitey Ford
17. Carl Eskine
18. Ted Kluszewski
19. Jr. Gilliam
20. Don Sutton
21. Roberto Clemente
22. Johnny Podres
23. Micheal Jordan (ha)
24. Willie Mays
Here’s Billy, Derrick, Babe and Lou
Eddie Hudon is the Owner of Blue Chip Fly Fishing headquartered in Whittier, NC.