Us fishermen are notorious for our “fish stories.”
It doesn’t matter if you are mainly involved in fly fishing or bass fishing, spinning a good yarn is a skill that comes with time, practice, and imagination.
There is a subtle art to telling a good fish story, and you are about to learn an introduction into that art.
This is Fish Stories 101, and when you are done reading, you will have a few tools that will help you tell a great story to your friends and family.
The One That Got Away Was Always The Biggest Fish Of The Day
I don’t care if you are catching 30 pound limits on Lake Okeechobee like Ish Monroe, or if you are panfishing in heavy cover—when one gets away, he is always bigger than the ones you caught!
The reason for this is simple: it is absolutely unverifiable!
No one can contend you were wrong, and therefore, stories about the one that got away should always include gross over-estimations of the size of the fish!
No Matter How Big He Looks, He Weighed More Than That
Even if you take a few pictures of the fish you caught, it is a must to exaggerate the weight of him.
When you show that fish to your buddies a few weeks later, you have to say something like “Man, you should have felt him in your hands! He was a lot heavier than he looks in this picture.”
In Hollywood, they say the camera adds 10 pounds. Well, in fishing, the story you tell does the same thing!
No Matter How Big He Was, He Fought Like A Whale
Even if you are simply catching bluegill from shore, it is imperative to emphasize how hard the fish fought.
The next time you reel in a one-pounder, you have to say something like, “He must have been on steroids because he fought like Moby Dick! I thought he was going to break off!”
It’s not the size of the fish in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the fish!
So there you have three basic elements of a great fish story.
Do you have any others? Let’s here your own crazy stories in the comments.
See ya on the water…