When it comes to fishing, there are a few reasons for an angler being more successful than others. One is a tangible factor – that being skill, while the other is a different kettle of fish that is unexplainable, and that is luck.
Certainly, skill plays a dominant role in catching fish. You need to do the basics well; preparation, presentation, location and effort. Once you have acquired the skills, and apply equal efforts, the playing field is pretty level from one angler to another. Eventually however, there is the intangible sense of luck that will affect a fishing day’s outcome. The luck factor is unexplainable, and some anglers just have it.
And so it is with Roland and his son Richard. Roland and Richard came fishing with a group of other anglers. Through the rest of the group, I had heard about the “last minute” luck these two anglers seem to possess. No matter the difficulties encountered, either of these two would manage to cap a trip off with a fish that would be the highlight of the trip. After hearing a few stories about these two’s escapades during past trips in various places, I was interested in seeing how their last day would pan out as I had the fortune of fishing with them on their last day.
During their trip, we had some pretty average fishing and our results were not what they should have been. The fish were there, we were in the right spots at the right time, but as all anglers who understand the nature of fishing, the fish have the final and ultimate say.
Our last day had arrived, and I had it set in my mind that we were going to pull out all the stops. As “luck” would have it, there were many factors that looked positive and one was immaculate weather. During the day, the 4 anglers and I mucked around and found ourselves into some pretty nice fish, including Mike’s 6 ½ footer. Everyone had a fish on, or two. During the week, Roland sat in the boat enjoying our river and beautiful scenery, and commenting how great it is to be out here, no matter how the fishing turns out. This man had the right attitude! It was getting near the very end of the last day and we had been enjoying some good fishing. We set up in our spot and figured we’d wait out the the last bit of the day and see what would pan out. It was Roland’s turn on the rods – the next fish would be his to play. Roland played his turn out as he usually does – nice and quiet, with both eyes gazing around looking for any wildlife or rolling fish and without a care in the world. Eventually it became “closing time” – but we were pretty comfortable where we were so I thought just hang in a few more minutes and “one last cast”. Shortly after, the starboard rod does its usual dance indicating a sturgeon has found the bait and a hook-up ensued. The heavy glass blank buckled over. Roland, despite having a few years behind him, leaned into the fish, and the fish was not caving in! This was going to be a decent sized sturgeon. After a couple minutes of a strong tug of war, the line starting moving up and the fish ran to the boat. I told Roland to keep winding the slack – the fish is headed our way. The words were not far out of my mouth when a large sturgeon leaped out of the water just mere feet off the gunnels, spraying everyone in the boat with water. It took Roland a while to slow this fish down and get him to the beach, but he played it cool and like a pro. This was not Roland’s first big fish, but it was his first big sturgeon, so you know there has to be some angler’s nerves playing up, no matter how seasoned you are!
Roland expertly handles a beauty Fraser River Sturgeon
After beaching the fish, and with the other three anglers donning waders, Reg bravely jumped in without waders! Can you get any tougher than jumping in the Fraser’s cold May water? Pictures were quickly taken and the 96″ 295 pound fish was safely released. What an end to this fishing trip – last day, last minute and the biggest fish of the trip with one of the luckiest anglers on board!
How’s that for luck in fishing?
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