-1

As I get out and fish with new people I realize more and more that some people just have a certain something about them that makes them better at fishing than the man or woman in then boat next to them.  Call it luck, skill, or patience; regardless of age, sex, or experience there seems to be a certain fishy factor that makes for a good fisherman that either a person has lacks.  I never really knew how far that spectrum of fish catching skill actually streched in the non-fish-catching direction until I took someone out on the water who was so lacking in said X factor that they managed to repel fish from their immediate vicinity.

A few years ago I took a buddy of mine out on a not so secret walleye honey hole in the north metro area in Minnesota for some night time slip bobbering targeting my favorite Minnesotan species: Walleye.  We were one of three boats on the lake and everyone around us was catching fish left and right.  There was nothing high tech about the presentation that night, as it remains to this day, you pull up to a shallow rock/ mud transition adjacent to the deep water and search for the weed line, plop out the leeches and be ready with the Beckman.  By the time I had two or three fillet worthy 'eyes in the boat I realized that my buddy hadn't had so much as a bite.

So we pulled up his line, checked the leech (it was looking good and healthy), double checked his to make sure his depth was set correctly, and put him back down in the hole where I had pulled a few fish out of, and I took up post on the other end of the boat to let him have a few.

A few more fish in the well for me and I decided to swap rods with him. We hooked up two jet black strong swimming leeches, and dropped them back down on the weed edge.  You can guess what happened from there; another bite or two for me and a good half hour of nothing for him during that prime time sun dropping below the tops of the trees time of day.

I had no more logical changes to make, but I do keep one final superstitious trick up my sleeve for such an occasion to try and shake just such a fishless slump.  After finding myself in the same situation countless times I have found that opening up the live well and touching the fish usually breaks up the bad juju. So as coached, he cracked open the lid, grabbed the prettiest 18 inch walleye in the well and hoisted it up saying, "I just want one of-" and at that moment the fish flipped to brake free of the gill grip, flopped to bounce off the gunnel and landed with a splash in the drink where he came from.  I looked over at him in one with one of those looks of disbelief and shock that can only come in such a moment as this.  He found himself in the dreaded moment of awkwardness that accompanies all inexplicable mistakes followed by a long pause, and his his blunt summation of the situation, "well" he said kneeling on the floor of the boat, washing his hands of the fish slime, "I guess that puts me at -1 for the day then".

We finished up the night shortly after with 4 in the well, and he never did even get so much as a bite that night despite our best efforts to get a him a tug on the end of his line.

Some people certainly do possess the fish catching prowess that allows them to out fish the other person in the boat, not to say that I am one of those people, but as unique as that skill is it's certainly harder to find someone that is so void of the fish catching X factor that they manage to repel fish even after they have been netted and boxed.

Have any good fish stories? Share them below in the comments section, or if you want to be featured in the next post?  Email me: mcarufel@lindylittlejoe.com 




-mc