Meaningless Moments of Brilliance (Everyman Logic)

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

In around 1974 we were out driving around looking for fishing spots.
(About 70 miles from home.)  One place we stopped was a canal bridge
were we spotted several fish hanging out in the shade of the bridge.
The current was moving pretty fast.  My dad said he didn't see how we
could fish there with that fast current, and we moved on.

A minute or so later I said I had an idea about how we could fish for
those fish.  Instead of trying to rig a worm, a piece of corn, or a
salmon egg on a hook above a sinker, or below a bobber we could use
lures.  Cast them across the current and reel them in just fast enough
so that the lure blade would spin, and it would move across the canal
just inside the edge of the shade where the fish were.  If that didn't
work we could let the current sweep the bait under the bridge and spin
the blade for us.  Maybe even wind backwards slowly, and only reel it in
fast if it was about to wrap around a bridge support.

My dad had a couple cheap gas station inline spinners, but his tackle
box was mostly filled with hooks, sinkers, and bobbers.  I don't even
know if I owned a tackle box back then.  I don't recall.

For the next 20 minutes we slayed them.  My dad wouldn't let me get down
by the water or out on the bridge (it was a wash bridge), so I was
limited to once spot there was a railing.  I still hooked several fish
and managed to lift a few from the water well below.  Most I hooked fell
off lifting them the distance from the water to where I could grab them.
  My dad, mom, and my dad's buddy all caught several fish.  They were
all doing what I said from various places.

My next moment of everyman logic was not long after that.  I said we
should drive along the canal and look for other spots like that.  When
the canal came up to a mountain we stopped.  I said we should just drive
around the mountain, but my dad chose to go back to the wash bridge.  He
caught a couple more fish, but we pretty much burned the spot for the
day. We stayed until nearly dark.

In 1982 the first "trip" I took in my own car was about 20-30 miles from
home to an largish irrigation canal.  I fished from just past dark until
full dark that day.  I would stop at a lock or bridge.  Whether it was
for farm or traffic I didn't care.  If it created a change int he
current or a shade on the water I stopped and fished around it with
in-line spinners.  I didn't have cheap gas station spinners though.  I
had real honest to goodness Woden's Rooster Tails.  I caught fish.  None
of the spots I stopped were as good as that wash bridge from 1974, but I
caught 1-3 fish in almost every place I stopped.  I let the current do
most of the work for me in much the same manner.  Over the course of the
day I caught a lot of fish, but I never stayed in on spot long.  If I
went 15 minutes without a bite I moved on.

I had two everyman logic solutions that day in 1974.

1.  You can't make the fish be were you want.  You have to fish for them
where they want to be.

2.  Fish are not as smart as people give them credit for.  If you find a
spot they like you can probably find similar spots that other fish like.

Anecdotal application of solution (1) above to follow.

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