ARTICLES

In life there are moments that are very enlightening experiences that at the time don't necessarily seem all that significant. I had one of those experiences in my recent trip to Florida with my family. We were vacationing in the Tampa Bay area. The purpose of the trip was sun and fun (along with a lot of fishing). We had beautiful weather, mid 70's and we also caught a lot of fish, including an accidental hook up of a porpoise. The porpoise broke the line after a short run and jump, 8 lb test wasn't going to keep flipper fighting long.

The enlightenment in the trip occurred by happenstance. My brother in law, Jeff, was heading to our shore fishing honey hole and saw another angler a short distance from where we had been fishing. He went over to talk with him to find out how the fish are biting and how he's catching his fish. The man was from Missouri, with a thick southern drawl, almost to the point where sub titles were needed to understand him. The man was using shrimp without a weight. Not an uncommon way to fish from shore in Florida. But what came out of his mouth next may have changed my fishing and life forever. He stated, " you hook that shrimp and cast it out and let it do what it do." Those are words to live by, Let it do what it do.

Think about it for just a second. Some of the best fishing techniques are just that; whether it is split shotting a nightcrawler, a shiner on a tip up, or even letting your wife go into a multitude of gift shops. Throughout the rest of the week the phrase "let it do what it do" came up a couple of times per day, especially when family and situations got stressful or confusing. While at Busch Gardens later in the week, our wives and children were running around while Jeff and I waited for direction on where and what we were supposed to do next, he looked at me and said, "let them do what they do" how calming that phrase can be!

Later in the week, we were invited out off shore fishing with my buddy and former Captain in the Bay, Matt Bowers. Early in the trip Jeff told the story of the Missouri man and Matt laughed hard, however the rest of the day everywhere we fished the typical questions were asked about how to fish the baits and it was as simple as, let it do what it do. We fished everyday and caught everything with a face; catfish, flounder, speckled trout, mackerel, red grouper, gag grouper, lady fish, black bass (ocean), dog fish, grunts and whiting. The ocean is full of some crazy fish. We fished with Matt on the boat from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., that gave us some time for some adult beverages at Duffy's the Marina Bar and this year's trip was over.

I love to fish live bait and lindy rigging or the split shot rigs are my favorite methods. In the simplest context, live bait fishing is letting the movement of the live bait attract the fish into biting. I am aware that location, weather, wind and temperature are all factors as well, but at the end of the day, it is as simple as letting the bait do what it will do.

I now have another credo to live by, and I will let it do what it do. This credo seems to fit with almost all situations in life.