Youth over experience?
 

After watching some of the younger contingent fishing for the last few days I feel old.They fish two tides a night for three days straight and still don't sleep in the daytime. There aren't many tricks an old dog can teach them when they fish this much.Four or five hours is enough for me and then I suffer from lack of sleep.I know I wish I had that energy as I feel it more than makes up for years of experience providing it is done with intelligence.Which of these factors do you consider more valuable?

stamina is the ticket...
more time on the water = more fish
fish are not that smart

As long as I have plenty of coffee and redbull I can fish forever
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They all drink those "new fangled" energy drinks to "HOP" them up!!! They will all die of a heart attack at 35 from that stuff!!!:rotf2:

If gin and tonic paired with Bud is an energy drink we have an advantage.

I must agree Chris! Guys been using G and T and coffee for years...no ill effects in fact many lead long lives on those alone!!:buds:

You already have my answer.

I think it's the kind of commitments you have more than age. Once you have a demanding job and kids it changes the game big time.

Nah, the younger generation stays away from donuts for the most part. We figured that one out so that should buy us a few years. :uhuh:

Donuts never slowed me down! The extra weight slowed me down!!:rotf2::rotf2::rotf2:

Oh...and I have not had a donut in over 5 weeks so......look out!!:uhuh:

Cant stand the taste off coffee its only energy drinks for me

yeah what happened to the days of a couple of lines and a spliff or 2 per nite. If i did that now I'd be useless. I'll just take the 5 hours and feel like crap for rest of day feeling, I really have no other choice. I hope being older I do a few things wiser though. Time fished will usually pan out better in the long run but I give up easy now and don't feel cheated doing it. Fishing is more for enjoyment nowadays,not bragging rights.

The rewards of fishing increase with age even when results diminish.

Until, of course, you get as old as Sauerkraut at which stage consistency of bowel function becomes more important.

With things being so hectic lately, one tide is a blessing. And I'll fish thay whole tide, and than some.:)

At 70 I find I fish a lot less but enjoy it more. Four hours is about the limit
in the surf, but then it ends up a total of 7 hours with the driving.

I am inspired by the new & improved Tagger a.k.a. Belcher Goonfock....he has 10 years on me and the stamina of a 25 year old...
Life has found a way of diminishing my time on the water...that and home improvements....

I agree that stamina plays a big part of it. I am 54 and only been striper fishing the last 8 so I don't have youth or experience.
But I have less family commitments now and can fish as often as I like. I'm in good health and can easily keep up with my 35 year old fishing buddy as well as my nephews and two sons. They have other distractions that keep them from fishing while I am pursuing stripers.

Thanks Matt ... Friend !!!! Sounds like it's time for you to become a Cyborg,, like many of us who suffer from sleep Apnea . That's right .. Cyborg = part human ,,part machine. If your asking your significant other ,, " Does my butt look fat in these pants ?" Might be time to get tested for sleep apnea.. Getting in shape and losing weight works wonders for your energy level too ... Don't be a zombie .

For me its not sleep , its sore old bones. Once the joints get inflamed , that's it. At one time , that was not an issue , then it became an issue but only after 3 or 4 days of fishing every tide. Now its a few hours then that's it for a few days to a week.

I would say the best combination of experience and physical ability is in your 30's and 40's. I remember when in my 30's I would sometimes go down to south county on a Thursday afternoon and not return until after the monday morning tides. Fish every available oppurtunity with no problem with sleep or decrepidness. I preferred to fish alone since very few could keep up with me and I had no concerns about needing help in case of an emergency. In my 40 I got down to maybe Friday through Sunday night then home to sleep before work on Monday. Time on the rocks didn't really limit me. Then around 45 , you start actually heading out with the idea you will fish x number of hours. may you would say "i can do 6 hours , whats the best places and times to spend the six. Prior to that it just go and fish if there was any hope of catching.

After starting to set a schedule , the hours become less and less. Then you start with the trade off...well I'll fish 9 to midnight but then sleep until intil 5 and hit the morning tide and sunrise. Then its I'll fish the night time or the morning , then its I'll fish the nightime and skip the morning so I can do tomorrow night.

Pretty soon its well I can last 3 or 4 hours then that's it for the week! :)

Now if the question were , would you rather be young or experienced , all but the biggest fools would choose young! :)

can't catch any fish laying in bed asleep except in my dreams. I passed out this afternoon and woke up to a zinging drag and actually sat up, realized I was asleep, laid back down. It's a sickness.
I choose youth

mostly, it for me~~~~~ yet,

i also believe that some of it is DNA. i have ALWAYS been a "night owl" as my parents used to call me as a kid. when i partied, it was ALL night. even before fishing and after i hung up my habits, i enjoyed staying up watching the boob-tube or reading or internetting or writing. it's a huge part of what makes me tick.

when i fish, i fish both tides if it can be managed from family and work. and i will fish night after night after night, whenever possible/necessary to find the feesh. AND here is where the experience kicks in~~~ while i am 50 and can hang with anyone 1/2my age(as long as have my energy enhancers of MINT Skoal, caffeine, and Kombucha/Odwalla to rejuvinate), i would much rather fish smarter than fish harder.

although i KNOW it takes BOTH~~~
one MUST fish a spot hard to learn it, then when it gets dialed in i "try" to fish it smart. trouble is,,,,,,,,,i'm only 5 yrs into this beautiful obsession, so i have many places to learn and only so many moons per season.

Was catching a truck nap the other night, dreamt i had a fish take a pencil and woke myself up by actually trying to set the hook. I thought I was the only one.

Hey George...I actually laughed out loud and got as strange look from the dog on your reply...:biglaugh:

When there are feeding fish around and everybody is catching, youth has the advantage.

When everybody tells you there are no fish around and things are slow. The advantage goes to the man with experience.

This was actually a pretty common occurance in the older days when guys fished for money and you could lose the fish for weeks at a time with nothing coming in to the markets. The guys who became well known were the ones who caught when nobody else did.

To be both young and experienced is the ideal combo and some young guys are quick studies. Like anything else in life, there is a learning curve with fishing and it takes a little knowledge and skill to get a fish on the hook.

I think you have the highest knowledge to post ratio in this game. Never have so few posts said so much (me on the other hand...)

Stress has more of an effect over me than age. If I'm stressed out I can't fish at all.
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Sooooooo...we agree then that fishing is like sex.

Young guys get the most.
Stamina is important.
Going to the gym helps.
Stress screws it up.
Dreaming about it feels good.
Once your married, it gets harder.
With age, everything hurts afterwards.
When you get older, you read about more than you do it and when you do get a chance you have to pay for it later.

[QUOTE=numbskull;772019]The rewards of fishing increase with age even when results diminish.

Until, of course, you get as old as Sauerkraut...

YOUTH. Numbskull just ate my lunch...caught ALL OF MY FISH... by youthfully wetsuiting while I stood on dry rock and sand in my waders, two nights ago when I hosted him over to the Vineyard.

At least I hope it was his 50 or so feet of casting advantage. I would hate to admit otherwise that he's just better than I am.

I'd say youth - unless there are a lot of older guys doing as well privately. I think it more likely we're seeing the true representation of the evolution of the sport when we see young, fit guys in wetsuits with huge fish. It's hard to argue with those photos.

Before we oldsters get overly depressed, we have to take into context the differences between the recent past and the distant past. The learning curve is about a 1/4 of what it used to be. Younger people who have come to the sport post-Internet and post-publication of definitive manuals, now can couple unbounded enthusiasm with plentiful resources and reach a higher level of skill in a much shorter time.