- Guys Fishing Weekend
- Posts
- The Learning Pit
Hey Guys!
Welcome to the 28th Issue of Guys Fishing Weekly!
Today in 5 minutes:
🐍 The Learning Pit
📣 Indifly
🎨 How to draw a Bonefish
👕Merch is here!!
Thanks for spending even just a little of your week with us. We are grateful for you!
Stay Legendary,
- The GFW Boys
If it were easy, frustration wouldn't exist. Without frustration, how would we ever learn anything?
In Education, where I have spent the last 25 years teaching middle and high schoolers, there is this thing called “The Learning Pit.” In a classroom full of young learners, good teachers are supposed to challenge their students by throwing them into the Learning Pit.
The Learning Pit exists so students feel frustration. Savage, I know.
The theory goes they will learn how to problem solve in order to end the feeling of frustration. It's the only way to relieve it. By learning, growing and mastering the knowledge or skill, they climb out of the Learning Pit.
The ladder is the foundational stuff that good teachers provide… the base layer and tools to help with discovery and mastery. The students piece together the rest and climb right out of the bowels of frustration.
From my experience as a teacher, patience becomes a vital variable in achieving relief from frustration.
The reason I mention this? Frustration is a consistent element in so much more of my life: relationships, parenting, work, and of course, fly fishing.
Thus, patience becomes invaluable to be successful when fishing. We could get into a whole other debate about what “success” means during a day of fishing. And I believe that one gets more personal. It's different for each fisherman. The catching of fish definitely plays a role, but I've had many “successful feeling” days with minimal catching.
I’ve also experienced days of massive frustration. Days when there are seemingly more knots to untangle, casts that make me feel like its my first day on the water, and no matter what I do, I just can’t seem to figure out what the damn fish want.
So what’s the difference? Patience.
It seems that patience is more present in my life than most other emotions. I rely on it for just about everything. Shit just doesn't seem to come easy for me; but I like competence. I don't have much patience for incompetence. So, I rely on patience to help me be competent, no matter what it is I am newly learning. Or, more importantly, what I already know but want to hone. Like pretty much anything relating to fishing.
Let’s face it, the only things we can control in our lives is our attitude and effort. This is the mantra I use often in the classroom, coaching, and parenting. So I try to apply it to myself. I’m not always perfect with it, as evidenced by the myriad of mumbling, self-cursing, name calling film clips I have, when I miss the same fish on four consecutive strikes.
When things aren't going my way on the water, I need to remember to lean into patience. What does it look like?
Take some deep breaths. I have been known to go from 0 to 100 on the frustration meter; just ask my family. The only way to slow it back down is through breathing. My meditation has taught me that.
Look Up. The scenery I fish in is usually incredible. And it holds a calming, “Yoda” like effect on my psyche. I just have to remember it’s there.
Take a Time Out. Sitting on the side of a river, listening to it do its thing always seems to provide me the reset I need to appreciate how lucky I am to be in that moment.
Laugh at myself. This is one of the greatest gifts I own. When I can sit and honestly recognize the silly amount of pressure I put on myself, more often than not, I laugh in realization.
On the water, there are days when the rod feels a bit foreign. Or my feet can't seem to get a grip and I'm stumbling more than usual. Or my line is bunching and dropping harder abnormally. Or I can't get the knot to cinch when tying on a fly, and it takes more tries than it should.
There are days when shit just seems a little off! These are the times I have to consciously tell myself to go easier and be patient.
This is “The Learning Pit” of fishing. I have to enact my patience in order to get it all back in line. To get my Zen world right. And once it does, the world around me gets so much brighter, so much more vibrant.
Then, success seems to follow, no matter what the catching is like.
Some of Our Other Writing
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Quote of the Week
"There are three stages of man: he believes in Santa Claus; he does not believe in Santa Claus; he is Santa Claus."
What We Are Watching
How to Draw a Bonefish!
Eric Estrada (Instagram | YouTube) breaks down his artistic process when drawing a wicked cool bonefish!
One Fly Pattern
@frank.brassard’s Hippie Stomper
Did we pick this for the name? Or for the absolute beauty of this fly? A real cool pattern that we can’t wait to get on the water!
One Cause to Learn About
Indifly
Indifly enables Indigenous communities to own and operate fly fishing ecotourism businesses. These businesses provide sustainable livelihoods, generate community-wide economic benefits, and create incentives for the protection of Indigenous homelands.
For more information:
Nuggets for Nibblin’
11 Car Free Nirvanas
Gratitude = Better Health?
Charm the pants off ‘em
Burnout ain’t what you think
Merch is Here!!!
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