Duckett Golf

I recall one day last year hammering away at some lily pads with a plastic worm. The topwater frog bite was nonexistent, so I would cast out to the end of the pads and walk the worm back toward me, shaking the pads and then dropping into and out of open holes on the journey back to my rod tip. It wasn't a exceedingly productive day with few fish, but still quite amusing nonetheless. I likened it to target practice and enjoyed honing my skills while the cool breeze brought the sunny day to level 11 on the fun scale. There was a good size fella across the cove from me wielding a stark white Duckett micro rod like a light saber and having about as much fun as a pregnant mom on a roller coaster. He appeared to be targeting some Midwest species of Flying Fish given the placement of his lures on the low-hanging branches in front of him. The guy finally decided that Duckett Golf was more his passion than fishing because he started practicing his chip shot with that poor little skinny Duckett micro. He laid into the surrounding waist-high native grass and weeds like a John Deere bush hog until his arms were tired all the while shouting obscenities and cursing the day fish were invented. It didn't take a perceptive person to know...it just wasn't his day. I'll admit that it also took my focus off of my trick worm target practice and made the cool breeze seem more like hot air. This is supposed to be fun, not frustrating. Some days just aren't your day, be it fishing, driving, or surfing your favorite TV stations. It's not worth throwing a toddler sized tantrum and destroying nice equipment, all the while bringing other people down in the process. I believe how we conduct ourselves out on the water during adverse conditions provides a clear window into who we really are as people. I was approached by a young kid one day that was throwing the wrong bait at the wrong time. He asked me what I was using, so I pulled my 2.5" coffee tube jig with jig spinner off the end of my line and gave it to him. "I make these myself and have a ton of them", I said as I handed it over. I never saw if it helped his cause, but seeing his smile when I gave him my favorite bait at the time really brought some camaraderie to the water that morning. I stopped & talked to a couple of kids that were having a rough day about a month ago. The one kid had just lost his new Excalibur squarebill and had no budget to buy new baits. After sharing this with me, I said "I just found an Excalibur squarebill a couple hours ago at a nearby lake, why don't you take it?" I really had to be persistent because nobody takes anything for free anymore. It's like they're afraid of nice people or something, but I finally talked him in to it and he was happy because it was the same size and color as the one he lost. These are the positive experiences these kids need to be a part of, not watching uncle dad snap his rod in half like he struck out at the world series. I don't know if there's an actual bank fishing code of conduct documented, but I'm pretty sure Duckett Golf isn't in it. Sometimes it's tough to be cool, I get it. You accidentally over-spooled your reel by 20 yards and now your trying to toss a weightless finesse worm with it into the wind. First a backlash, followed by a spontaneous accuracy issue because now you've got the brakes set so high that the bait is going where your spool commands it instead of your rod tip. The results often ending in fishing for woodpeckers. Take a breath and a moment to get it figured out. Take a moment to pull some line off that spool & lose the amateur overrun. Move over to an area with fewer branches to throw under. Keep cool and enjoy the day. That's the most important part...enjoy the day, man! We all started this because it's fun to catch fish. If we routinely caught fish on every other cast, believe it or not...it wouldn't be as fun. This is why we celebrate so hard over a 5 pound largie. It's just difficult enough that consistent results reward the good student. Your catch rate goes up with time and effort, so don't get frustrated when the sun doesn't shine on you tomorrow. The clouds won't last forever.