BLOG: How little we know

Every now and again something happens that puts things into perspective - breakthroughs occur in our sport to highlight just how little we know about our adversaries.

It’s a wonderful insight into the ever-evolving nature of what we do. Almost like golf to some degree, where we continually challenge ourselves against nature, superimposed against the desire to use the most technologically advanced equipment we can manufacture; intrinsically linked in mans’ obsession to dominate his environment. Those who triumph more successfully over nature usually outperform the man next to him.

Yet therein lays the conundrum - keeping pace with the changing nature of our sport combined with the complex behaviour of the fish we seek in an ever-changing environment. At times, it doesn’t seem easy.

Without getting too philosophical, I want to challenge you with this thought: think back to when you were a fledgling angler and how you thought of the mannerisms of a particular fish. I will use bream as an example. If you told me 20 years ago I could catch bream on all manner of lures and bream could quite rightly be considered a predatory fish, I would have been an avid disbeliever. While we all agree they still forage for food, this is by no means the stereotype we now have of them. My perceptions have changed as well as my whole outlook on the characteristics of the species. The once humble bream is now associated with adjectives such as "wily" and "cunning". Changing the game plan has made them a real challenge to catch, and put some genuine sport into it.

I’ll take this even further. My perceptions of whiting have dramatically reversed since the whiting-on-topwater lures phenomenon hit mainstream fishing. The once benign forager has morphed into a calculated predator - under the right circumstances.
While I am grossly overstating the characteristics of a quite simple creature with fairly simple instincts, the behaviour of fish at times can be "revolutionary". By revolutionary I mean a whole subset of tactics and lures and literature are created around these new findings that take our sport into new directions. These breakthroughs attract hordes of devotees who drive these changes to the enth degree. It’s brilliant to stand back and watch this unfold.

I don’t particularly see this trend ceasing either. As we develop far more sophisticated tackle and lures, fish we would never expect to behave in certain ways will shock us, and eventually give us more possibilities from which to ply our trade. Based on this trend, I don’t even think we have scratched the surface. The landscape has changed exponentially in the 30 odd years I have been doing this. The mind boggles at what the next 30 years will hold.

If you think you have unlocked a fishing mystery like catching luderick on blades, I’m sure we would love to hear about it. It’s time to get your name up in lights!