We’ve talked before about fishing for other fish outside of the fish you normally pursue. But that’s mostly for learning other techniques or perfecting something related to the fish you chase in a different medium to give you some ideas for the fish your after. Crossover in most things is a good thing. It makes you more well rounded.
Most guys that bass fish long enough or competitively fish will get to a place where fishing can be a lot less enjoyable than when you started. It can be because you are in a rut. You are not able to figure out fish while you keep seeing others posting all sorts of fish or you are feeling the pressure of wanting to do well in tournaments, or you just simply want to catch some fish in your limited free time.
Now, an activity you fell in love with for its peace, tranquility and fun, has now turned into something that causes you lots of angst. There are many reasons this can happen and we’ll look at those individually. The thing to realize, however, is that you are affecting your mental health by allowing an activity you love to get morphed into something else.
So you need to break the cycle or pattern. The easiest way to do that for me is to crossover in fishing. The goal is to remove the pressure from that activity and just do it for enjoyment. For me that has often meant chasing other fish. Or playing with a completely different way of fishing in a completely different location. So I wanted to share some ways crossover can bring back the enjoyment in your fishing and expand your palette if you will. 
COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY
I admittedly am one of the people who believes social media is one of the worst plagues ever inflicted onto mankind. It was born out of very shallow desires (Facebook started as a way to compare women on campus and rank them in terms of attractiveness). And now it’s morphed into a very shallow view of the world and people’s lives. And it has fostered an alarming growth in the mental health epidemic to boot.
It’s also become a way for people to compare their lives to others and I’ve seen a lot of people not enjoy fishing as a result because they think they have a bad day because they didn’t catch as many or as big of fish as someone else who posted on that same lake recently. It’s robbing anglers of the joy that just being on the water once gave them.
Fishing has only ever been about you and the fish. And sharing that connection with others. Not sharing your achievements on some fake lifestyle platform. Of course I love to see big fish and others great catches. But I no longer let their catches dictate my enjoyment on the water. In fact to combat it for myself. I started challenging myself a few years ago to see if I put in the time if I could be as successful at catching other fish as I had been at bass fishing for a long time. So I got serious about crappie fishing. Got pretty good at that. Then I got serious about panfish like bluegill and red ear sunfish. And got really good at that.
I had fished for them for years but the new exploration made the fishing so much more enjoyable. I’m going through the same thing with fly fishing and conventional fishing for trout. So it’s a great way to make fishing fun and interesting. What’s great is when I come back to bass fishing I find it so much more enjoyable now with a fresh perspective. Now I spend a lot of time BFS fishing or maybe glide bait fishing. Challenging myself to see if I could fool fish in new and creative ways.
REPETITION KILLS CREATIVITY
What most anglers go through is a long series of repetition. You have success doing one thing so you start doing that all the time. You have success on a spot so you start fishing it all the time. Quickly you realize you are not catching as many fish. You are not getting as many bites. Before you know it. You’re struggling to get a bite. You’re locked in a repetition bias. That has a similar stifling effect on your fishing.
I think the simplest thing you can do is go to new waters. Maybe on the same lake or river but just way down the lake or river. So you are fishing more unfamiliar waters and having to explore more.
The other way is to go completely against the grain and just go fun fishing for some other fish. Maybe just go whoop on some bluegill. Go trout fishing. Go crappie fishing. Just go fish for another fish and catch them and just get simple and make it fun again.
GETTING OUT OF RUTS
Some guys get into ruts and don’t realize it. They repeat things over and over but they also just hit the same 4 or 5 stretches and tell you things like, well they weren’t biting today. I agree. They probably weren’t biting no those 4 or 5 stretches but this time of year, fish have to feed pretty much constantly to keep up with their metabolisms. So that means they are biting somewhere else. You’re just in a rut.
Sometimes a rut is your perception of how you are fishing compared to others. I’m doing what I hear the other guys are doing but I’m not seeing much success. So again that’s rut thinking. Don’t fish how other people fish for other people’s fish. Get back in that mode of experimentation and exploration.
GO WITH OTHER PEOPLE
Now I will preface this by saying that I often put way too much pressure on myself when I take other people fishing because I want them to catch fish and have a memorable experience. That’s another stress pattern you have to break. But I also find that when I go with people I love, I enjoy it much more and the fishing sometimes becomes ancillary to being able to spend time with people you care for. I also like learning new things and sometimes when I hop in the boat with another great angler, my stress melts away because I’m learning new stuff and I’m super engaged. Just crossing over on who you fish with can reap big dividends.
NEW THOUGHT PATTERNS
I found that chasing other fish led to me finding a lot of new patterns for the main fish I like to catch. Sometimes that’s because I realized working a bait a certain way got a lot of bites for this kind of fish and maybe that will work for the other kind of fish. Sometimes it was because when I went say crappie fishing, I saw a bunch of bass hanging out in those places I thought only had crappie right now. Low and behold the bass were in places I wasn’t looking for them. So chasing other fish led me to stumble onto a new place to find the fish I mainly fish for.
I’ve also seen where I take a break from fishing for one kind of fish for a few weeks, clear my head and fish for other fish and start catching them really well without all the self-imposed pressure. Then when I go back and fish for the fish I took a break from, suddenly I’m catching them really consistently. I can’t tell you how many times that has happened over the last several years. It is so cool when you clear your head by going fishing for something else that it opens up all your fishing to more success and more creative thinking.
CLEARING YOUR HEAD IMPROVES MENTAL HEALTH
One other thing I’ve noticed is that just clearing my head and going fishing for something else seems to calm me down and reduces the stress I was creating in my fishing. Clearing your head is nothing more than removing the doubts and worries and stresses you entertain and ruminate in your head incessantly. By changing your activities and spending time clearing the thoughts from your head, you remove the unhealthy stressors.
I don’t even have to be successful. Sometimes I’ll go wade a stream or drop the kayak in a small river and just go looking and being observant and enjoying my surroundings. Then when I get serious about my fishing again, I’m so much more at peace and able to make better decisions on the water.
I think clearing your head on the water can really help you destress your life. It can help you remove a lot of impatience you have. I think we are all working harder these days and feel a bit cramped for time. That in itself is one of the biggest stressors in fishing for me. I only have 3-4 hours to do something I enjoy, and I can’t get a bite. I immediately start putting undue pressure on myself. Because I don’t know when I’ll get to go again, and I want to have something to show for this time.
That’s where I think using the water to clear your stress should be the bigger focus. I can get competitive in fishing, but I found a while ago that competitive fishing robbed me of a lot of enjoyment on the water. So now it’s very low on my priority list. I am still trying to figure them out better than anyone else. But I already set my bars pretty high. I don’t need to compete with others for that anymore.
Fishing is where I go to become sane again. Fishing is where we should go to leave the worries at the dock. Where we can escape into nature and enjoy the time trying to fool fish in fun ways that really enhance the experience for us. Sure I want to catch the biggest fish I can, the biggest ones in the lake if possible. But I don’t let that consume me as much anymore. And I find as a result, I catch a lot bigger fish. Maybe that’s a maturity thing. Who knows.
But I do know that since I have been more cognizant of when I start getting wound up while fishing, that my fishing has been a lot more successful and lot more enjoyable. Stress ruins everything. Comparison ruins most things as well. Internal pressure to make wild creatures do what we want seems unreasonable. So if you can find ways to crossover in your fishing, you will lead yourself to a lot more enjoyment on the water.
