Patience and Confidence

I think a lot of what an angler is patient about is what they are confident in.
Captain Robert McFarlane

This is an excellent quote that I read in an article about the fishing couple the McFarlane's. I can't say that I have ever heard anyone say this nugget of wisdom before. It really does not make a whole lot of sense for a person to be patient fishing something that they lack confidence in though some people certainly will do it. There are probably times when you will be fishing and you won't have any confidence in anything. Usually this is when you have been at it for a few hours and nothing that you try is working. Sometimes the fish do give you reason to not have confidence. I think in this respect I am luckier than many because the bass fishing in Minnesota is so good. Because we have such healthy populations of bass up here in the North country you still have a pretty good chance of coming across fish even if you are totally fishing the wrong ways. This is not to say that I never get skunked in a day of fishing but thankfully that is a rare event for me where I live. I know in other area's of the country the potential for a skunk is far higher. I have sympathy for those who live where getting bites are hard to come by.

As a general rule I think it is a good idea when things get tough for anglers to fall back on things that they have the highest confidence in even if that security blanket isn't the textbook solution to the problems presented by the scenario on the water that you are faced with. I think when you go with what you are confident in you can have a little more satisfaction when things don't work out that at least you took your best shot at it.