I have a long-running joke with my fishing buddies, and\nit usually comes out when the action is less than stellar. I tell them I\u2019ll\nnever get skunked\u2014not because I\u2019m some great fisherman, but because I refuse to\ngo home until we catch one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m only halfway joking. There have, of course, been\ntimes when we had to go home empty-handed. But on far more occasions,\npersistence has won the day. It\u2019s even led to some of my all-time favorite\nfishing memories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pulling an all-nighter (it\u2019s a long story) to fish all\nday for one giant Chinook salmon? Worth it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Battling through hours of high winds and lock-jawed\nlargemouth to land a 24-inch wall hanger? Totally worth it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freezing our butts off in early spring to pull a 28-inch behemoth\nbrown trout from the depths of the South Fork Snake River? Priceless! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Granted, not every slump buster turns into an epic fish\nstory. Just this past week, my friend and I plugged through a slow evening and\nfinally wound up with a couple non-descript largemouth at Lake Lowell. Still, a\n14-inch bass never felt so good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bottom line is this: No matter how good an angler you\nare, there will be days when our finned friends just don\u2019t want to cooperate.\nSome folks will pack it in, figuring there are better things to do. There\u2019s no\nshame in that. But in my book, pretty much nothing is better to do than\nfishing, so let\u2019s keep after it until we figure it out! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On slow days, I like to move around. Start with tried and\ntrue spots, but if they don\u2019t produce, keep looking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also like to try different lures. I\u2019ll give each\npresentation a good 15-20 minutes, and then move on to the next. If you have a\ntwo-pole permit (definitely worth the extra $13.75), keep a live bait rig in\nthe water on one line, and throw various lures on the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you (or your companions) bore easily, bring a camera,\na crossword puzzle or some snacks and frosty beverages to keep your mind\noccupied. But as long as you\u2019re on the water, make sure to keep a line wet. Odds\nare you\u2019ll hook up eventually\u2014maybe even with the fish of a lifetime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tight lines! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have a long-running joke with my fishing buddies, and it usually comes out when the action is less than stellar. I tell them I\u2019ll never get skunked\u2014not because I\u2019m some great fisherman, but because I refuse to go home until we catch one. I\u2019m only halfway joking. There have, of course, been times when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,28],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-patience","tag-persistence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}