Blind spots are behaviours and beliefs that we all develop in our lives. Information we encounter and our own life experience, helps us develop mental databases. Sometimes we are correct and sometimes we are flat out wrong about things. Whether right or wrong, very often it’s holding a belief very rigidly, that is the real thing limiting us.
In my own experience of fly fishing, one of the limiting beliefs I had for several years, was that my fly casting was good enough. Sure, on some occasions that was true. On others, it was the biggest thing holding me back. Once I recognised and accepted that, I decided to do something about it. Actually that last sentence is not completely true! What had to happen was, I had to fail so badly, that it pushed me to become better. (For more on this checkout this post on fear setting for performance by Tim Ferriss. Then reflect on your fishing and perhaps other things too!) This ultimately resulted in a huge leap forward in my ability to catch and significantly improved my overall enjoyment of fly fishing.
Another very common blind spot I encounter in people, anglers and non anglers, is that fish are stupid! No doubt influenced to a large extent by widespread misinformation years ago of gold fish having a three second memory.
Is this belief influencing your approach to fly fishing? If so, you might find this post I wrote previously useful. (Bonus tip: – It’s worth reading anyway😉!)
During 2023 we launched a free online fly fishing assessment tool through our business Midlands Fly Fishing (MFF). The intention was and remains that this tool help fly fishers. So it’s free, the requirement to enter your email is ONLY so your results can be sent to you (MFF won’t spam you) and there is no obligation to book lessons (I would be very happy if you do though🙂). So what does this have to do with “blind spots”? Well, a number of people who used the tool contacted me to discuss coaching. In some cases their assessment answers to all but the last question suggested they were not achieving the outcome they should be, which seemed strange. When I worked with all of these people waterside or digitally, we found something they were or were not doing that negatively impacted there fly fishing.
In every case they were completely unaware of the action. A common example of this, was believing they observe the water to determine location of feeding fish and appropriate tactics to start a fishing session. In fact what they were doing, is setting up with what worked last time and going to a favourite spot to start fishing. Yes, the latter does work. However it was very different to their belief. Making a change here results over time in a huge positive change in angler success (e.g. increased catch regularity)!
Want to review your own fly fishing? Take this short free quiz to receive your own results and see where improvements to your fly fishing will have most impact.
Thanks for reading!
SY