I was fishing side by side with a good friend of mine once...we knew the fish were in this certain hole, we start fishing BANG!, he's ON, it's big - over 40#s...I drop the same exact offering in the same EXACT hole....bang? I'm on..........32" fish,,, His next cast,,, BANG!...he's ON, it's big..another fish over 40#s, again I cast in the exact same hole...bang? I'm on .......another 30 + INCH fish,,,, His next cast,,, BANG!...he's ON,, it's BIG...another fish pushin' 40 POUNDS!......yeah, I don't have to tell you the size of my next fish.
Did I feel schooled? NO,,, but I felt something...was I happy for him? ECSTATIC...did a small voice inside me ask....WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING DIFFRENT?WRONG???........of course,
I didn't feel schooled as we were fishing the same method and we did catch fish consistently....the bigger fish just liked him better that night.
But I hear ya, there's a small competitive monster in all of us, some admit it...some don't. ...and like you said Tlapinski, not in a bad way at all......just in a competitve way.
Good Thread.