Why You Need to Get Lost in a Creek
Exploring a natural stream or creek is the best medicine for your soul
Fishermen are creatures of habit.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It can, however, lead to you being singularly focused and often disappointed even with the good days of fishing. Because repetition is also one of the catalysts for boredom. Some call it going through the motions. In other words, fishing the same old bodies of water, the same old spots on the bodies of water and wondering why you only catch fish some of the time.
Besides that, the same avenues often provide the same perspective. So, going off your normal beaten path, can offer you a different perspective, and that often leads to breakthroughs on the places and ideas you normally frequent. That has always been the case for me.
I actually started crappie fishing to get better with my electronics and to learn to read fish I didn’t know a lot about to see if I could pattern them from scratch. And then pattern them by season. And then pattern them by month. Eventually by the day. Now I feel like you can drop me anywhere, and I will find and catch them.
Same goes for bluegills, red ear and soon to be trout. The point being that opening myself up to some new things opened me up to a lot of new ideas.
I actually come from a creek and river background. I spent every waking moment wading and canoeing streams and rivers in Arkansas and Florida growing up. And I love the exploration of a new stretch of water and figuring out the puzzle of each run. It led me to this unquenchable thirst to see what was around the next bend. I’ve walked and waded hundreds of miles up and down streams. I’ve paddled probably another hundred.
I’ve lived all over the country in my younger years, and travelled most of the rest of it in my adult years. I’ve taken my ideas of fishing all over the country on hundreds of bodies of water and proved my ideas and systems over and over again. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a ton to learn. It might be the thing I love about fishing most these days. Is all the different little nuances that improve your fishing and consistency. It’s crazy to think you can constantly get just a little better every time out.
Beyond that I didn’t realize until the last year or two how therapeutic getting on a creek and exploring was for my soul. I have dealt with a lot personally the last several years. Some health issues with chronic pain that had me suicidal for a number of years. That took a toll physically and mentally on me. My father died with some things unreconciled, and I had to become the patriarch of my family. I left my career this year as a publisher of a large media property—something I’ve done for more than two decades—to pursue consulting and writing on my own.
It’s been a whirlwind of stress and pain, but I found some much need solace the last year by getting in a creek with a bait finesse rod or a fly rod and wandering up and down the stream looking for fish off the beaten path. I’m at that age where you appreciate the beauty all around you much more than you did in your younger years. I am enamored with the thoughts of how these streams cut their path through mazes of woods and hills to forge ecosystems that were likely here before I was alive and will be winding around long after I’m gone.
Exploration fosters creativity. The unknown presents opportunities. Our idea of beauty will never surpass God’s. The fact we still have places to get lost in that, well, that fills my heart with immeasurable gratitude.
I’m serious about my fishing. I’ve long felt a sense of purpose in giving others the tools to delight in the fathomless joy fishing has brought me. If you have gifts, you are also obligated to share them. I’m not saying I’m a gifted fishermen. I am a gifted problem solver, and much of fishing simply boils down to that. I also am a student of most things—the things I am passionate about more than most.
So I felt obligated to share a little on what has helped me cope with life from a fishing perspective. Guys will scoff when you catch little fish. Little is relative. In a tiny stream with only wild fish, anything is an accomplishment. On a reservoir full of thousands of good sized fish, not so much. But exploring in a creek, getting way off the beaten path. It’s food for your soul. Explore, observe, theorize, appreciate, and eventually things will make themselves evident to you.
I hopped on a small stream late last summer. I had been told it held some small trout. I was wanting to start getting back into fly fishing, so I started exploring. The first few trips were terrible in terms of fishing, but eye opening in terms of what I needed. I spent a few days just wading and wandering up and down the creek. Observing the way the river flowed, cut, pooled out and bent around the contours. After my third outing on that small creek, I started finding fish consistently.
I kept at it for a few more trips and eventually I was able to piece together the best places to look for fish, the best presentations that yielded the most strikes and the best ways to setup, cast, retrieve until I eventually had a 60 trout day. I went from no fish for a couple of trips, to a few trout on a few trips, to dozens to five dozen in one trip.
But when I reflect on it. Those first few weeks of exploring are the ones that meant the most to me. I was clearing my head, lost in a creek I knew nothing about and in love with the sounds, smells and sights. It was setting my soul free from the stresses of life.
Those trips actually led me to get a kayak so that I can do a lot more exploring off of the beaten path.
There will always be stresses in life. I don’t believe people are hopelessly depressed like many wish to believe. I think most folks lack the ability to put their thoughts down. They ruminate over every thought that pops in their head, and they never give themselves a break from it. Most of us have thousands of thoughts pop in our head a day. You can choose to sit and dwell on them or you can put them down and move on. For me, with some things, it’s not as easy as saying it and doing it. So for those things, they require an escape. Sometimes thats the gym. Sometimes its just running errands. Sometimes it’s getting preoccupied in a creek for a few hours.
I’m telling you, a creek is one of the best ways you can calm your mind.
That took me back 40 years to a time of fishing the Clear Fork River in southeastern Kentucky.