Mastering the Mental Game of Fly Fishing
As Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is ninety-percent mental. The other half is physical.” The same can be said of fly fishing.
I’ve seen some excellent anglers have some really bad days on waters where they should have put up good numbers of trout. I’ve seen them struggle even as I was catching one after another while fishing behind them. And to be clear…I’ve had the same thing happen to me, where I just couldn’t get my act in gear and figure it out.
Why does that happen? My hunch is that the problem is not with technique or fly pattern. It’s between the ears.
The mental game is as real in fly fishing as it is in other sports. Batting slumps in baseball and missed baskets in basketball are both excellent examples of what can happen when your mental game is off. Similarly, hot streaks are a sign your mental game is on. And these bad and good streaks can happen just as easily in fishing.
It’s easy to feed yourself excuses. “The water’s low and fish are spooky, so it’s going to be a tough day.” Or how about, “With so many people fishing ahead of us, we’ll be lucky to catch one or two.” And my all-time favorite, “This is a high-pressured stream and the fish here are very hard to catch.” It’s like we make excuses for why we’re not going to have a great day before we even start! And when we don’t get into fish right away, the frustration mounts.
I’ve caught myself thinking these things, and I’ve heard fishing friends say these things. But to truly enjoy the day on the water, you have to shake the defeatist mentality and approach it with a fresh mindset. Here’s how to master the mental game in fly fishing.
Fishing with Intention and Focus
The most underrated and least considered tactic of all is fishing with intention. Often, we associate catching lots of fish with somebody having better equipment, better flies, or simply having more skill. While all of these can be true, the biggest difference, I’ve found, is the mindset an angler takes into each session.
Are you fishing with intention and with focus, or are you relying on technical skills to carry the day?
Because here’s the thing. We all have the ability to learn the technical aspects of Euro nymphing, matching the hatch, or getting a good drag-free drift. All of us can adopt various leader and line setups that will help us catch more fish. These are technical things that require nothing more than following formulas. Yes, your success rates will improve when you make these technical adjustments, and you may have some stellar days as a result, but that doesn’t mean you’ve reach maximum potential.
I’ve had the opportunity to talk with some very talented fly fishermen about this, some of whom have competed at the national level. What makes a competitive angler so much better? Of the many answers I’ve received, I like Dennis Goodlin’s the best. Dennis guides on the West Branch Susquehanna River and is a truly awesome fly fisherman. His response was, “Every approach and every cast is made with intention. They have that ability to maintain laser focus every minute they’re on the water.”
What does it mean to fish with intention and focus? It means knowing where every cast is going to land, hitting your marks, and working methodically through a pool, riffle, or run. Every cast, every drift, and every decision is made with intention.
That sounds easy enough, but very few of us can actually maintain that kind of laser focus for long periods of time. It’s much easier to focus in short bursts, for an hour or two at a time. It requires a lot of mental fortitude to hold that focus for a full day on the water.
This is especially apparent when spending long days on the water. I’ve noticed it in my own records that I tend to catch more fish during the first half of the day than I do the second half of the day. Why is that? I believe it’s because I may get tired, lose a little focus, and fish a little more haphazardly after I know I’ve already had a good day. Kind of like “the pressure’s off” so I ease up on the gas and just coast the rest of the day. But when I’ve had a hard morning, I take a break, regroup, and try very hard to get focused and fish with intention for the rest of the afternoon, and as a result, my catch rates improve.
Many times, I know when it’s going to be a good day before I even get to the water. I’m focused, my head is in the game, and I’m confident. Despite whatever conditions or fishing pressure I encounter, I know I’m going to do well. I’ve come to think of it as “fishing charisma,” which is really no different than the “it factor” we commonly hear about when others succeed despite any odds stacked against them. They just have “it.”
I’ve also seen friends who are very talented fishermen struggle to catch fish, even while I’m landing one after another. And vise versa! Plenty of times I’ve been out-fished by others. Usually, at the end of a long day on the water, I can point to one thing in particular that contributed to it being tough – I lacked focus.
Fishing with Confidence
I don’t get as frustrated on the water anymore, and I believe the main reason has to do with confidence, which can be broken down into two parts: confidence in your techniques and confidence that you’re on fish. These are both critical aspects of fly fishing’s mental game.
The technique part comes with experience. Whether Euro nymphing or swinging wet flies, confidence comes with repetitions. The more you do it, and the more fish you catch using those techniques, the more confidence you’ll have in using them to catch fish anywhere.
For instance, one year I decided that I was going to use nothing but Woolly Buggers and other small streamers. No nymphs, no indicators. The only time I used dry flies was when the hatch coming off was just too good to ignore. My intention was to get as good as possible with small streamers for a project I was working on at the time. I forced myself to figure out creative ways to use these streamers to catch fish in almost any situation, and I got really good at using them. After a while, I felt confident I could catch fish anywhere, and I did.
I practiced the same methods when learning to Euro nymph. For me, complete immersion is the only way to truly learn a skill. I take away the “backup plan” and force myself to figure it out, and from this comes confidence in whatever technique(s) you decide to use.
Part two of that equation is knowing that you’re on fish. I think many anglers underestimate how many trout live in some of the waters they fish. I’ve attended a good number of stream surveys over the years, and I have seen the quantity and quality of trout biologists turn up in some streams that many people think are void of fish.
The proper mindset when approaching any stream, whether fishing for stocked or wild trout, is to assume that there are fish present. If you’re not catching those fish, then you need to start making adjustments, changing flies, or working on your technique.
Fishing with Patience
Another key component of the mental game of fly fishing is fishing with patience. And I often find that fishing with patience and fishing with confidence are intertwined. A lack of confidence typically leaves me searching for answers. I feel clueless on the water. Sometimes, in response to that, I feel the need to go searching for trout because I lack the confidence I can catch the trout in front of me.
Fishing with patience means slowing down and thinking things through. Take a break. Regroup. And yes, sometimes that means a change of scenery is needed, but more often it’s a change of mindset.
I got a good lesson in this earlier this fall on a trip to the Little Juniata River. Conditions were horrible. Low water, tons of fishing pressure, a high and bright sun. Definitely not the kind of day you want to be fishing a heavily-pressured stream full of wild brown trout.
I started off good, catching three trout in the first little pool I hit. But I had a long dry stretch after that as my buddy Justin and I worked up a stretch of river that had been fished (multiple times) prior to our arrival. We worked quickly, not expecting much, and as a result, we caught nothing.
When it got close to noon, lunchtime, I noticed several anglers heading back to their vehicles. Rather than keep working upriver, I headed back downstream to a good-looking pool we had just worked through. There had to be fish in that pool.
Before fishing it, though, I switched up my whole rig. Changed flies and lengthened tippet, but more than that, stopped and just focused on the water in front of me and the trout I knew were there. I approached it with a fresh mindset. Every cast was made with intention. I put the flies exactly where they needed to be, managed the slack, and focused on the sighter. My second drift nailed a 14-inch brown.
Shortly after that, we broke for lunch, but when I returned an hour and a half later, I took with me the same focus, intention, confidence, and patience. And I ended up having one of my best days ever on the Little Juniata River, despite extremely tough conditions.
Mastering the Mental Game
Fishing with intention and focus, fishing with confidence, and fishing with patience all sound good, but how do we improve in these areas that feel almost ethereal in nature? It’s so much easier to tweak your approach, change flies, and buy a new and better fly rod and reel than it is to work on the mental aspects of fly fishing!
So how do you actually improve in these areas?
There’s only one way to answer this: a little at a time. But here are three strategies that have helped me tremendously improve my mental game.
- Leave your phone in the vehicle. We live in a society of constant distraction, where a thousand things are vying for our attention, and we often carry those distractions with us on the water in the form of our cell phones.
Every notification, text message, or voicemail alert breaks our focus, even if just a little. Suddenly we’re spending time on the water responding to texts from friends instead of actually fishing. If you feel like you need your phone on you for safety reasons, then simply turn it off, or turn on the “do not disturb” feature and put it in a part of your fishing vest that is hard to access so you’re not tempted to stop constantly to check for messages. You absolutely can train yourself to be more focused on the water, and your catch rate will improve as a result.
- Commit to fishing one spot. Sure, if you arrive at a location and think you’ll find conditions better elsewhere, then by all means relocate. But if you get to a section of river and it looks good and you know there should be fish, commit to staying there and fishing it to the best of your ability.
Perhaps an even better challenge is to commit to one specific run or riffle where you know there must be fish and working it over until you figure it out. I cannot stress enough that in most wild trout waters, especially those classified Class A wild trout, there are more fish there to be caught than most anglers realize.
- Start with short bursts of extreme focus. It’s really hard to maintain that kind of intensity for a full eight hours on the water. Instead, commit to fishing hard for short periods of time, maybe two to three hours to start. No phones, no distractions, and make every cast with intention. Eventually, work to maintain that focus for longer periods of time.
Conclusion
Again, all of this sounds so easy to do, yet the mental game in fly fishing is often the biggest difference between those who catch fish and those who catch lots of fish. And that’s not to say that you have to catch lots of fish to have a good day on the water. The measure of a good day varies from angler to angler, but few would argue that a good day often ends with you feeling like you fished well and had success.
In that respect, mastering the mental game can absolutely help you not only become a better fly fisher, but also help you enjoy fly fishing even more.
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Ralph,
This article is such good advice for me. Often, when I do not begin catching good numbers of fish right out of the gate, I can become frustrated and discouraged. Instead of slowing down and thinking how I may respond to a challenging situation flipping the script, I simply react and rush trying to cover as much water as quickly as possible by shot gunning fish.
Instead, I need to slow down and catch the fish available right in front of me. I need to focus on water types such as shallow riffles and pockets where I fish with comfort and confidence. I need to not get caught up by the numbers, exclusively defining a good session as twenty fish plus placed in the net.
I need to recognize that the process of placing a few fish, or dare I say, no fish in the net while fishing with focus, intention, confidence and patience is also a good session on the water.
But, as a results driven person, I remain a work in progress. This is why I’m thankful having you on the water to ground me bringing me back to earth.
Thanks, buddy!
Justin
Well, Justin, I’ve certainly learned a lot from you since we’ve been fishing together. One of the most important lessons, early on, was watching you pull trout out of places that I used to skip over. This made me realize that I was walking past a ton of fish. So if I wasn’t catching anything, then it wasn’t because I wasn’t over fish, it was because my presentation sucked. That was a lightbulb moment for me because it gave me something very specific to work on, and the only way to get better at that was through repetitions.
But like anything, there’s practice and then there’s good practice. Good practice is fishing with intention, regardless of numbers, but simply working on the skills to make your flies do exactly what you want them to do in any situation. So I think you’re right. A successful day should ultimately be determined by whether you got better or learned something, not by how many fish you caught. And sometimes you have to sacrifice numbers in order to learn and get better.
And truly, we’re all a work in progress, buddy.
Ralph
Fish soft hackle . Not if… its when. Quit thinking..
Loved the article Ralph!
Finding these positive takeaways is not always the easiest after a tough day on the water, but there is always a lesson to be learned!
My most recent trip to Erie on Thanksgiving Day came to mind when you discussed fishing with confidence – I’ve got a bad case of imposter syndrome when I’m in the tribs, but once I went into the trip with the belief that fish were present and that focus was required in making adjustments, changing flies, or tweaking technique, my whole outlook changed!
I always appreciate your sharing of the wisdom you have picked up along the way, as it saves me the pain of having to learn them the hard way!
All the best,
Mitchell Bachman
Hey Mitchell, thank you so much for your kind words about the article and for sharing your experiences! Nice photo, too! No more “imposter syndrome”…you’re the real deal. Fish with confidence and continue making those adjustments. That’s what it’s all about!
Best of luck on the water.
Ralph