By: Capt. Tim Ramsey
Over the years, I’ve found that the issues of life can get in your head and not budge, like someone plopping down on the last seat in a game of musical chairs and taking a death grip on the sides. Thoughts rattle around. Images swarm in and won’t fly out. Little problems fester and turn into big ones. Songs you haven’t heard recently annoyingly pop in the old noodle right after you get out of bed, and you can’t seem to get them out. Few things in life can help you flush out the headgear. For me, two things Trump everything else in the cause of forgetting your troubles, even for a little while. Those things are surfing and fishing.
Forgetting your troubles while out surfing is easy. Put on your ankle leash, leave your problems on the shore, paddle out and do it. Think about surfing and nothing else. Enjoy the sun, waves, and hopefully, your fellow surfers. Simple. Leaving your problems on the dock, however, can be a bit more difficult. Here’s how you crack that nut.
Your first option is to skip the dock. Go surf fishing. Go wade fishing. Just tie on a lure or a hook under a rattle float, get a bait bucket with some shrimp and have at it. Tie a little floater/diver lure on your rod and walk the beach. Simpler is better.
Next, if you tow your boat, get out early. The pressure at the ramp is lower and the parking spots are better. Buy yourself a set of wheel chocks. You’d be amazed at how much calmer you are when you know your vehicle won’t roll backward into the water as you launch the boat.
When you leave the dock, forget the problems at home, the stock market, current political events and so on and concentrate on the activity. Don’t think you can leave your problems at the dock? Here are some topics to fill your head and aid your conversation so you can help others forget their own issues for a while:
· The weather, tide, current, wind direction, temperature, time of day, and how they all influence your fishing destination
· The species of fish you are targeting, the fishing regulations, the last time you caught them, the other species around, catch and release, eating or not eating fish, how you like to prepare them, etc.
· Your tackle. The rod you like to use and why. Length, class, and tip. The leader type and size, knits you tie, rigs, lures, hooks. Your favorite rod, where you buy your gear, how you started fishing, your first fish, past fishing bloopers, etc.
· Casting techniques. If you find yourself with a newbie who holds their spinning reel on top of their rod and reels backward, you have material for at least an hour.
· How to properly fight and land a fish. How to revive them if you are releasing them.
· Sun protection
· The Grandfather Paradox
· The complete works of Monty Python
· How much wood a woodchuck chucks if a woodchuck could chuck wood. (Answer: Just as much wood as a woodchuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood)
· Anecdotes about the boat ramp, times you got stuck in the backcountry or on a sandbar, interesting fishermen you know.
These are but a few of the things you can concentrate on or discuss during a fishing day. Let your troubles wait for you to immerse yourself in fishing, have fun with America’s favorite pastime, and return with a new attitude. After all, isn’t that part of the reason why we fish? See you out there!