Skunkings: Lessons learned

[BassDawg]

these same thoughts were occurring to me this past week,

am i a mommaluke? how the fluke can there be no fish here, all the conditions are PERFECT?!!? i shore as hell hope it's STILL early. have i screwed around and missed it? are they simply ignoring my li'l slice of striperin' heaven?? wait a minute,,,,,,,,,,,,that's right! i was getting skunked this time last year, same place/same tides,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,AND THEN~~~~she lit up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree!!!

the greatest thing my recent skunkings are teaching me is,

PATIENCE~~the hardest and humblest virtue to acquire~~PATIENCE. if all goes according to me Lawgs, we should have sore arms and striper stories aplenty for the winter,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,SOON, lads, VERY soon. time to gear up, and think "supercows"!!!

[Clogston29]

mostly, skunkings have taught me when not to go to a certain spot. you fish spot x with a y wind and the tide at z hours down enough times without getting anything, and you learn not to fish there under those conditions.

sometimes it just forces you to change things up and reminds you that the things you think you "know", you only really "think". for example, after getting skunked at a spot that's been really productive for me for most of august, i said %$%$%$%$ it and headed out there 2 hours "early" one night and killed them for the first hour. the next night went out 3 hours early and killed them for two hours. now i look at that area much differently. if i was getting fish at the usual time, i never would have tried going out earlier.

[bloocrab]

What does "skunk" mean to you?

To me, a "skunking" is not being able to catch the fish that are probably parked right in front of you. When it's really early in the season OR really late, if I don't get any action at all, I didn't get skunked, they just weren't there ...

Given the fact that you're fishing within the season, I'm sure Fisheye will agree that there are MANY times that the fish ARE present, yet no one is hooking up.

Just the other night Angler A was tossing live eels, angler B was tossing artificials. Angler A did NOT get a single take on his eel,while at the same time & in the same spot, Angler B's 13" ledgerunner kept getting nailed. How do you explain that? Why would fish continue to "hit" the artificial, when the REAL thing was cast in the same area on the previous cast? There have been nights while baitfishing, where the fish only wanted a certain bait, didn't matter if it was fresh or not, they just knew what they wanted. Some things can't be explained, only assumed, but that's for another thread.

What have I learned from "skunkings"?

Not to pay too much attention to them. I know how to do what I do (at least I tell myself that) so If what I've brought with me doesn't work, then it wasn't meant to happen for me on that particular outing. You can't always bring the "kitchen sink" with you, nor does life always allow you to find them by fishing 4 - 5 spots on one given night, so a LOT of times, you're limited to a certain area for a few hours. Are the fish holding up in that spot on that night? ....

I've been fishing long enough to know that when it comes to shore fishing, NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, WHERE YOU FISH, HOW YOU FISH...YOU WON'T ALWAYS CATCH FISH. ....and, you won't be able to explain why not. You can only ASSume.... Happy Fishing!!

[Sea Dangles]

Skunkings teach everyone that you never know. Some people think they know,but they don't. I agree with Fishbones though,fishing is good for the soul.