Fishing is quite a good metaphor for life. You do your prep, you do your thinking, you put your bait out, and you wait, confident that you've done your groundwork. But a lot of life is luck.

- Jeremy Wade -

They say, necessity is the mother of invention, and I assume the caveman and his cavegirl who came up with fishing were hungry (necessity) which led to working out how to get fish out of water, (invention). I imagine them standing there scratching their heads at first though, thinking what the fuck. I relate to them as I was doing that exact thing recently.

---

---

I do, "being an outdoorsman," pretty well.

I'm capable and know a lot of things that make time I spend in the wilderness and faraway places more comfortable, safe and enjoyable. I can build shelter, make fire in various ways, navigate, trap, track, stalk and hunt, forage, do first aid, can read nature and the many other things required to be away from civilization. I enjoy being there and doing those things and love being self-reliant and that guy who can be relied upon. It brings a certain confidence.

Some things I do much better than others: Shooting stuff, stalking and hunting with firearms for instance, I'm really good at them. Navigation also, situational awareness, problem-solving and such things...making fire. I've worked hard to acquire those skills and am proud of them. Yet, there's other aspects I'm not so great at and fishing is one of those.

I'm a guy who recognises I'm not good at something, or at least not content with the level at which I do it, and seeks to improve, and recently I decided to get better at fishing - whether I actually will get better, remains to be seen but, of course, I always set out with the intent to improve and that led me to evaluate my fishing gear.

• Fishing rods: Check (two actually)
• Assorted tackle and tackle box: Check
• Fish scaler and fileting knife: Check
• Legal size-chart/bag limit guide: Check
• How to fish book: Check
• Skills: Check Not many at all

It wasn't a bad start I guess, I had some of the things I'd need and I've been marginally successful with them over the last couple of years. Could I feed myself with my fishing skills...yeah, I'm confident I could...even if that meant throwing a hand grenade into the water and waiting for fish to float to the surface but it's not always viable to do that, and so begins the journey of building better skills.

It's easy

I went to a local outdoors shop called BCF (Boating Camping Fishing) to research whether I actually had the right gear and to look into what I needed if I did not.

This is where I bought my fishing gear in the first place and I figured if I was going to improve I'd need some expert advice. I walked in and recalled something a couple friends had said to me, it's about time you learned how to fish properly G-dog, you'll be fine, it's easy.

Easy?

There were a gazillion things in that shop...four aisles of fishing rods and reels, hundreds of them, along with entire wall-fixtures filled with sinkers, hooks, jags, fishing line, swivels, floats and things I don't even know how to describe. I wonder what that caveman and cavegirl I mentioned above would have thought of it. They caught fish with their hands, stunning them by throwing rocks into the water, herding fish into the shallows, transitioning to a crude net made from weaving vines and then a rig, a stick and line made from vine with a bone hook on it eventually I guess.

I wonder what they would think about the rows and rows of products I was standing amongst. I know what I was thinking though for sure, is any of this going to make me better at fishing? Questionable. I knew what it'd certainly do though, empty my wallet.

I forged ahead though, spoke to one of the lads who seemed to know what everything was and how to use it and I was surprised to hear him asking questions about what I'd done, where, and with what: my as-is position. Most retail shop workers have no clue how to do that, this guy did.

I explained, and he told me I have most of what I needed although he felt I needed a smaller rod to add to the two I had. We talked and wandered around picking up a few little things talking about technique, bait, casting, (casting is one of my major malfunctions and I know one day I'll stick a hook in my ear by accident), and other such things. He isn't a shooter, and wants to be, so we chatted about that too, which made me feel less of an idiot considering how much I know about it.

He charged it up, (I didn't get the smaller rod just yet), I paid and walked away without having spent a pile of money and I had a couple leads on a book or two about estuary, lake and jetty/pier fishing. I was enthused and feel like I'm on the righteous path.

It's not easy

There's a lot to know, that's pretty obvious, and I feel like a novice. I don't mind that though, it's an opportunity to learn and get better at what I already know, which is a tiny bit.

I recall learning to do what I do with firearms; I didn't know what I didn't know, and now...well, I'm proficient...and humble enough to know I'll never stop learning. I believe that's the way fishing goes and why there's so many products available, people seek improvement. Is it all required? No, certainly not, but human progress often means we develop more and more stuff to make things easier or better...a situation I don't completely agree with, and, in my opinion, this is a good example of humans creating things for commercial benefit rather than necessity - I don't think the fish mind too much what hook they get caught on.

A decent hand-reel, line and simple hooks will feed myself in the wilderness without having to take a thousand other things and I think a lot of what I saw in the shop was superfluous...but I bought some.

That caveman and cavegirl I mention above...I think about their simple life.

They ate when hungry, hunted and gathered when they had no food, ran away from danger, faced it when required, communicated, enjoyed the environment, had sex, slept...I'm a simple guy and their life seems attractive to me; no modern conveniences, but do we really need all that we have around us? Life isn't so simple now, even for those who live off-grid or nomad-lifestyles - life is more complicated. I wish it wasn't...and I wish fishing didn't seem so complicated.

Fishing seems so simple at first; bait a hook on a line tied to a stick and throw it in the water, but it's not that easy really, it seems we need a million products to fish, and of course, some knowledge and skill, which leads me to wonder if we've progressed at all. I mean, the caveman and his cavegirl managed ok without all the stuff right? If they had not, we'd not be here today.

---

Do you fish and if so what was the learning process like? Do you feel you need loads of stuff or do you look to keeping it as simple as possible. Where do you fish, for what and is it for pleasure, food or commercial purposes? Are you good at it or bad? If you don't fish why? Have you never had the opportunity and if given the chance would you give it a try?

Feel free to comment below if you're keen, I always respond.