Do you have Superstitions about fishing? Have you sold your soul to catch a fish? I posed that question to my fly fishing group and found it interesting that there were others out there that had the same beliefs. It may seem there is no basis for a superstition but if you go back in time or research things you may find the basis of it.
For example, the reason there should be “no bananas on the boat” is derived from back in the days when they used ships to transport everything. The banana crates would hold spiders, snakes and all kinds of bad things, so the story goes captains didn’t want them on the ship. So I don’t want them on my canoe.
My Dad and I had our little beliefs about fishing. Some were based on facts. Some were superstitions that we respected, others we would want to disprove, or were just fun. For example, as we would drive to our fishing destination and make observations, we would follow up the observation with the comment, “That’s a good sign!” It was a constant good feeling. Even if it was just the fact that the cows were moving in the fields—that’s a good sign! Now as anxious as we were to catch a fish, we didn’t want to do it on the first cast, or it was the dreaded, “First Cast Curse.” You were doomed to fail the rest of the day. Around the age of 12, it happened to me, so I can tell you it is true, or at least it was. Now I wear a chicken foot under my lucky fishing hat to protect me.
There is time on every fishing trip when it is getting late or you haven’t caught anything in a while and it’s time to go. So you have to announce to your partner and the fish, “This is the last cast.” It never fails—you catch a fish. I’ve often thought about doing a fishing show and just riding around the lake saying, “ the Last Cast,” we would have a ton of action and save a lot of film. (Note to self: enter fishing tournaments and name the boat LAST CAST.)
A friend of mine just told me about his experience with having a trout for dinner and his friend saying, “That is not a good idea, now you won’t catch any trout.” This is a true story, the next time they went trout fishing, he didn’t catch a trout. That was over 15 years ago and he has not eaten a trout or salmon since. There must be a time limit on the eating/catching thing because he has since caught many large trout. He did say that his cow and chicken catching is way down.
The camera, oh the camera dilemma. If I bring it, I will not catch the monster fish of the day. If I don’t bring a camera, chances greatly improve that I will and “That’s a good sign.” However, I will have no proof to show the world how big the fish was. If my friend is not aware of the “camera curse,” I’m in good shape if he brings his. I have a few friends that are excellent photographers and I don’t dare tell them about the curse. They are often surprised that I will catch more fish than them… Is it the curse or the fact they are taking pictures while I make 100 more casts? It’s the curse.
There may be some scientific basis for the cow’s moving in the field. After my 50-plus years of being out in nature and observing, I think maybe Dad did have his finger on the pulse of life. Maybe all the wildlife activity in the field and streams relates to the moon/tide/seasons and cycles that get nature’s critters moving and feeding. He once asked me if I knew why some of the cows in the field were lying down. After some thought, I said, “I don’t know.” He replied, “They are tired.” We would just smile.
Maybe some of our superstitions are based on facts gathered over the years. Maybe they are just ways to justify a situation. Whatever it is, if it is in your mind, your day can be shaped by it. If you give up because you caught a fish on the first cast, brought your camera or had trout for dinner, hang in there. Don’t give up—there is always the last cast.
Rene Hesse’s column, The Casting Corner, appears monthly in the Atlanta edition of The Angler Magazine. He is a Certified Casting Instructor for the Federation of Fly Fishers.