Embrace the Suck: A Shoulder Standin’ Angling Vision Quest of Sorts

Up to this point all my blogs have been stories. I’ve yet to fill my tank with gas, fire up the ole squawk box, and rant my little freckled digits into a fury. Today is the day.

Sucking is painful. Stagnation is deadly. If your goal is to be the best angler you can be, the path to being better goes right down suck avenue. If you avoid it, you avoid growth, ah ha moments, and worse yet, you’re condemned to a life of bites you already know.

Don’t be afraid to suck.

Don’t be afraid to take a trip to a lesser known without documentation supporting numbers or giants. Even in 2025 there are spots still flying under the radar. These spots are left for the folks not afraid of the suck to enjoy, until atta boy seekers do the unthinkable and spotlight an oasis of water to the blood thirsty hole buzzards of the world.

Don’t be afraid to suck.

News flash champ, there isn’t a bass angler on either side of the Mississippi that doesn’t love fishing a jig. That doesn’t mean you should unequivocally live and die by the jig stunting your growth as an angler, worse yet being proud that you “only fish jigs.” Romanticizing baits and identifying yourself as a “insert lure or lure type here” is bananas. I don’t care if it’s a swimbait, ned rig, dry fly, or a night crawler (of the bunch probably the most noble), it’s a goofy thing. You’re a fisherman, and there’s two kinds: Those who are afraid to suck and play it safe, and those who aren’t afraid to suck.

Don’t be afraid to suck.

I’ve spent days on end figuring out the cadence of a specific bait then more days understanding when/how to optimally set the hook. I’ve spent years/decades maneuvering through details of various presentations trying to get closer to flawless, understanding perfection in fishing doesn’t fully exist.

Don’t be afraid to suck.

Trying new baits/techniques that span the globe and different species is a buffet of awesomeness you don’t want to miss out on. See something tuna anglers are doing you might be able to adapt to your local spotted bass? Do it! The skeptics that read that will scoff at such a thing, open minded sticks obsessively driven by angling growth are intrigued. Grow damn it. Is there a chance most of the things you try won’t work? It’s a certainty, but with each success your hunger for doing things differently will grow.

Don’t be afraid to suck.

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. -Isaac Newton. Understand that inspiration is divine and encouraged in fishing (credit the starting point of course) you might not be the musician that writes the music but if the remix takes the catching to another level, Do it! Think about how umbrella rigs started. Folks first start trolling these rigs in saltwater, a bit later adapted to cast in saltwater and freshwater species, then who knows how many years later a think outside the box stick who also happens to be a YouTube star starts using a double A-Rig to light the fishing world on fire. My point here is don’t be afraid to take established ideas and tweak them, so much juice in our world has come from this!

Don’t be afraid to suck.

Understand that fishing before the digital age wasn’t a hodecker measuring contest, it was an intrinsic battle of being better than you were the day before. A lifelong commitment to constant growth where you were the only one who truly understood if you were growing. In this there was/is an understanding that temporary glory via a tournament wasn’t the ultimate gauge of success.

 That hasn’t changed.

What has changed is via documenting and posting progress some folks have misconstrued the process forgoing angling enlightenment for the rush hour traffic style grid lock that is well meaning/misguided anglers heading towards the dreaded middle. Document, share, inspire others, but please understand there is no end. It’s a lifelong study, where the journey is the destination.

To the sticks that understand this or to those beginning to; resist the middle at all costs. If you do someday, I’ll stand on your shoulders, and ole buddy you’re damn welcomed to stand on mine.

Embrace the suck.

Tight Lines,

Eric