How to Think Like a Fish by Jeremy Wade

Author:Jeremy Wade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2019-05-21T04:00:00+00:00

14

More Less Is More

Argentina, Río Paraná. I’m here in search of a huge freshwater stingray known as the short-tailed ray (Potamotrygon brachyura). But the advance information we had about this place isn’t standing up to close scrutiny. The rays are much scarcer than we thought. After three blank days I finally caught one on day four–but at just thirty pounds it hardly qualifies as a monster. We need something much bigger.

Now it’s day ten, and I’ve caught nothing further. It’s my last day of fishing, and the level of desperation is unprecedented.

One of the things I keep having to do, when fishing with a film crew, is explain my decisions. Why are you fishing here? Why are you ignoring what that local guy said? Why do you want us all to come back and fish through the night? It can be tiresome but ultimately I welcome it, because it keeps me fishing effectively. These are the questions I should be asking myself–plus a host of others–and I need to have convincing answers.

And in times of desperation, one question that’s almost guaranteed to arise in everyone’s mind, demanding attention until it has to be vocalized, is: Why don’t you put out more lines?

It’s just basic arithmetic, isn’t it? Two baits doubles your chances. Three baits even better. And so on. If it’s all a matter of right bait, right place, right time, this allows you to cover so many more bases. In this case, word reached the crew from somebody claiming to know about these rays that I really should be using six or eight rods, from three boats if necessary. That was where I was going wrong. To which I answered (deep breath)… No!

Where do I begin? It’s largely a matter of focus, and practicalities. If you’re fly-fishing or spinning, it’s obvious that you can’t operate two or three rods simultaneously, unless you’re a Hindu deity with multiple arms. When you’re bait fishing it seems equally obvious that you can use more than one rod–but I would argue that, in most cases, you shouldn’t.

For most of my bait fishing I use a single rod. This is partly a legacy of my years of solo traveling, when a vital concern was mobility, and the amount of fishing gear at my disposal was limited to what I could carry on my back, onto trucks, boats and buses, along with a few spare clothes. So it was pretty minimalist. But during that time I learned that this isn’t necessarily a handicap. Now I’ll fish a single rod by choice, even when I can slip more gear into the pile of film equipment without anybody noticing. This is because, in many situations, one rod is more effective than two.

For a lot of my fishing, I like to hold the rod, even if I might be in for a long wait before anything happens. This helps me focus on how I am presenting the bait. Presentation is another vital part of the fishing equation. Even

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