In The Shadow

A few industry friends who are guides/teachers were exchanging emails about the students/clients that we interact with. This rambling came across the wire. What do you think?

Each student has different aptitude, coordination, concentration level, patience, physical makeup plus a whole host of unique barriers preventing them from satisfying their own(and my) definition of “progressing to become a better angler”. Each student can be given the same written, verbal or mechanical instruction, but their ability to interpret and perform is markedly different. It is only after identifying the nuance of individuality, and in turn having the student recognize the barrier that is preventing them from achieving their goal, that incremental progress can be made. Once the student can truly recognize the problem they can usually fix it and move on. Yes, the simple answer is that we are all individuals.

I imagine the fish are similarly individual. Some will eat anything, anytime. Some are picky. Some like their food a special way. Some are extremely reclusive. Some of these fish are spooky, others not so much. Some will rise frequently whether bugs are on the water or not. Others will not rise in the heaviest hatches, but will only nymph and so on. Anglers lump them all together as “fish” and don’t give them credit for their individuality. Understanding that they are individuals can open the anglers mind up to explore the methods necessary to achieve incremental success at becoming better anglers. Compound this by understanding that every situation is an individual and can change with one step up-stream or a second of time and you have yourself one hell of a puzzle to solve. How can the learning ever stop?

Different species of fish kind of represent different cultures and one must recognize there are individuals within each culture as well. There is much to learn about each culture to understand their habits, and then adapt.

I think I will write a new book called “Fish are People” -Eventually, they all can be caught !

I believe teaching and learning are synonymous, and they exists in a tight interdependent circle. The best teachers are always students because they allow their minds to open enough to recognize it. Conversely the student is always a teacher, their minds just do not recognized it yet. Fish are my students and my teachers, so are people.