What makes a great angler stand out from the rest?

So what's so difficult about fishing?
Now there's a loaded question. I hear it often, particularly from those who are totally unfamiliar with the sport. "I don't get it," they say. "How hard can it be to catch a fish - once you get past the problem of sticking a slimy worm on your hook?"
To appreciate the answer to the question requires an understanding about the difference between good and great anglers. It is true no special skills are necessary to simply catch a fish. But the best anglers, those who consistently achieve a superior level of success, are special people with personal traits and talents that enable them to rise above the pack.
Much of what most people know about fishing is based on Huck Finn stories and long-ago family picnics adjacent to a pond or stream. Fishing in that sense is as far removed from the sport enjoyed by great anglers as wiffle ball is from the Major Leagues.
Good anglers abound in our region, thanks to the reservoirs built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and bountiful Lake Erie. They are excellent places to learn the basics.
Great anglers are a much more elite group. They possess intelligence, imagination and creativity. They are analytical, with a streak of perfectionist. They observe and translate. And they have stamina and athleticism, though they may not exactly be capable of throwing a 95-mph fastball for nine innings.
Let's examine those traits to understand why they contribute to angling greatness.
Necessary traits
I've met dozens of excellent anglers. Every single one of them is intelligent. They may not all be educated in a book-smart sense, but they most certainly are superior thinkers. They process information and make angling decisions on an instinctive level, taking action more quickly and decisively than their average-angler buddies.
Keen analytical skills are required for consistent success. The best anglers minimize the luck factor by surveying what nature has to offer on any given fishing trip and filtering that information into a game plan with a high probability of delivering results.
The best of the best are imaginative thinkers. They can almost "see" into the water. They visualize the cover and how the fish relate to it. More importantly, they can conjure up pictures in their heads depicting fish responding to their lures.
They also are truly creative in how to employ all of their resources -- from brain power to terminal tackle. While the average fishermen are following textbook tactics, the great ones are thinking outside the box. They develop fishing solutions that work in the here and now.
Achieving success on the water requires long days in rain or shine, the heat and the cold. Enduring long hours and all manner of weather is better accomplished by those who have mental and physical stamina. Anglers who wear down quickly or cancel trips due to shaky forecasts will make far less progress than those who tough it out.
Perseverance is another common trait among great anglers. They typically refuse to acknowledge conventional wisdom that "the fish aren't biting." They figure out when to move to a new location, change lures and techniques, and go against the grain.
Great anglers are open-minded about new ideas, but confident that they already have the day's pattern figured out. They accept the notion that change is good and sometimes necessary, but they also know that tried-and-true methods based on the sum of their experiences goes a long way to enticing strikes.
Pitching a lure into a brushy opening the size of a coffee cup or laying a fly perfectly in a current seam requires excellent eye-hand coordination. Balancing on a bouncing deck and steering along a precise bottom break also are skills that border on athletic. I stop short of saying all anglers are athletes, but it's a fact that precision and coordination can add substantially to a fisher's success.
Great anglers are perfectionists who never tie sloppy knots. Their rods and reels are in superior condition. Their lines are fresh and their lures are tuned. Their boats are organized and their game plans are detailed.
Our doubting friends think fishing is no more complicated than setting up a folding chair beside a lake. But considering the traits described above, it becomes clear that it's no accident -- no stroke of luck -- that some people climb to angling greatness.
jwwollitz@aol.com