BLOG: The lost art of fishing modesty

TALL tales and embellishment of the truth are often synonymous with a fisherman's recollection of events - as the saying goes, why let the truth get in the way of a good story!

It's happened to all of us before – you go fishing with someone, have a reasonable day out and then the sequence of events as recounted by your fishing buddy (or yourself!) stretches a little.

I remember one trip out with a mate where the eight fish we caught were subject to a multiplier effect of sorts and a later account of the story by old mate saw the session turn into a boomer in which 20 thumpers hit the deck. These days I inadvertently account for any known history of exaggeration and find myself trying to decrypt a sequence of events in an attempt to reconstruct the truth.

Have fishermen always been like this?

Scanning through the archives of old fishing magazines reveals some insights into the psyche of our predecessors – a few decades back if someone told you they caught a hundred fish it was generally substantiated with a kill shot or freezer chocked to the brim with fillets. There's still evidence of poetic licence, however, with a number of stories from yesteryear regaling the readers with tales of big fish and even bigger furphies!

While the fisherman's "white lie" is something that has arguably withstood the test of time, modern day anglers seem to have greater hubris than those that were around before the digital age.

More recently I was contacted by a young fella asking me to arrange some freebies or sponsorship for him – I was amused by the boldness of this young stranger and his self proclaimed talents. I struggled to convince him that whilst I was privileged to know some great people in the industry, I'm not sponsored and probably wasn't the person to ask. The silent reaction revealed that in one fell swoop I'd gone from hero to zero...

A complex interaction of factors has led to this modern day ostentation, however, technology is key with instant gratification a confounding factor. The proliferation of social networking, image sharing and ease of interaction has seen humility appearing to fall by the wayside. The amount of self-promoted "awesomeness" around is astounding these days.

I'm not sure when it began, but this whole "competitive" angle to fishing now seemingly has some fishos hellbent on outfishing everyone, and then make sure everyone else knows about it... Guys, do us all a favour. Put away the ego, admit defeat when beaten, pare back the facade and exercise a little humility. 

So, is it just me or has fishing modesty become a lost art?