Hi Folks,
I’ve discovered that tomatoes and fishing lures have merged into a common behavioral pattern for me.
I’ve been fishing for many, many years. Best I can tell about 65. After about the first 15 years I developed what I call “fisherman’s dread”. You probably have it as well and perhaps call it something different, but I guarantee you it’s the same thing. And you DO have it.
Fisherman’s dread is all about having back-up. Sort of like all of our hunting customers, but with a slightly irrational or flawed logic.
Hunters would never go into the field with just one arrow or one bullet. Nope, they know that as good as they may be it’s very likely that over the hours they’re in the field they will need more than one arrow or more than one bullet to bag their selected species of game. In “hunting speak” the reason for this is called a miss (or misfire). And often they are after more than one of whatever they’re after, so a single bullet or arrow is just not going to be on their radar. Ever.
Most fishermen don’t shoot fish (yes, I know about bow fishing). But, they face similar situations. Fishermen “fire” lures and jigs and spinnerbaits and hooks at fish. They can cast them or drop them or troll them or whatever. The equivalent to the hunter’s arrow or bullet is, in fishing, the bait we are using.
Fishermen, like hunters, would never consider stopping fishing once they have bagged a single fish. Limits are typically liberal enough that you’re looking at more than one. And even if there is a limit of one you can “reset” that if you release the fish you catch.
Now I gotta’ ask you: How many of you would ever dream of buying just one plastic worm or, for that matter, just one of any lure or bait? I have never seen a guy go into a bait shop and ask for one minnow or one night crawler. And very seldom have I ever seen anyone go in and buy just a single lure. That’s just not what fishermen do!
Nope, we usually buy dozens of minnows and worms and leeches and…..well, you get the picture. And when we’re after jigs or hooks or sinkers it’s handfuls. Lures are at least two. Maybe more if we have the dough. And this is what I call “fisherman’s dread”.
Fisherman’s dread is the dread that we’ll discover a lure that is driving fish bonkers and one they can’t possibly resist at any given time only to lose it on a snag or fish just after the lure’s uncanny attraction is established. Worst case scenario! Or we remember a past excursion where a color or style produced a trophy or a big mess of nice fish in some uncanny way.
So we always – always buy more than one. This is back-up. This is “fisherman’s dread”. Contingencies such as hang-ups, bad knots, weak lines, hidden stumps, and toothy fish are suddenly and totally abrogated. And we as fishermen are at peace.
Last year Dixie and I planted about 8 tomato plants. That’s typically all we need so we have tomatoes from mid June to late September. I love fresh, vine ripened tomatoes. When they’re in season we have them for almost every meal. Nothing you buy in the grocery store will ever be as good as tomatoes you have grown yourself and have ripened on the vine.
Well last year something happened. Our tomato plants grew well but for some strange reason they didn’t produce much fruit. June – no tomatoes. July – just one or two tomatoes. August – a few more. Then in September we had more, but nothing like we had come to expect from years past.
Fast forward to this Spring. We became garden center addicts. We visited many centers in the area and found both conventional and heirloom varieties of tomato plants. And we bought. And bought. And bought. When all were in the ground we didn’t have our usual 8 plants. Nope, we had more like 25 plants!
So now in the first part of August we have more tomatoes than we can count. I’m not talking about a few “extra”, I’m talking bushels. We’ve given them away, canned them, made salsa, frozen them for winter, but they just keep coming. Reds, beefsteaks, yellows, heirlooms, cherry, Roma. You name it, we have them.
Fisherman’s dread has now morphed into (at least for me) “poor producing tomato plant dread”.
We’re headed for the lake soon and I can assure you that we will have plenty of tomatoes with us in the boat. At least we will if I can find room for them after I load several tackle boxes of “fisherman’s dread” back-up lures and gear into the boat!
This week we have some really great gift card offers, as well as plenty of new and exciting products to talk about. We are especially fond of the new Daiwa Tatula HD Casting reels.
Thanks to all of our great friends and customers who have supported us and passed our name on to their friends. We know we are only here by making sure your needs are our first and only priority. Please let me know if we ever fail to meet and exceed your expectations.
Tight lines,
Tom Ashby
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