You’ve got the spot, you know the conditions… but are you patient enough to assess what’s truly going on?
The phrase “take a beat” was never part of my vocabulary until I watched a Euro police drama on Netflix called Blue Lights. In season 1, when one of the veteran cops is training a rookie officer, he repeatedly urges him to “take a beat” when entering a tense situation or when things begin to escalate. In the case of the new recruit, I read the ‘taking of a beat’ as taking an extra second between action and reaction, so you don’t end up doing something you will regret.
The deeper meaning in that figure of speech is something that applies to all aspects of life; whether you find yourself in a threatening situation or find yourself feverishly typing a nastygram at the office, it’s wise to take a beat before you set your next action into motion.
Because I’m a surfcaster at my core, I always seem (or perhaps seek) to find parallels in fishing. I don’t think there’s ever been a time in the history of striper fishing when it was better understood that there are casters who have figured out a lot more than the average guy. And with human nature being what it is, I think most surfcasters have several reckonings in their ‘careers’ where we believe we’re further up this ladder than we actually are and then we get slapped back to reality.
One trap I think we all fall into at one time or another is believing we have a spot or situation figured out. Maybe you caught fish the night before and they were all out at the end of your cast, or relating to a gap in the bar or bunched in close to a big rock and so you assumed that things would be the same, so you trudged into the surf and ruined something special. Or maybe something you just couldn’t plan for was happening when you arrived but – in your excitement – you missed the clues and subsequently messed it up.
The whole crux of this column is to encourage you to take a beat when you arrive at your destination of choice. Or every time you stop to cast when walking the beach. I’m sure, like me, you have had times where you assumed that things would be the same as they were the night before, carelessly splashed into the surf and spooked a pod of pigs out of the wash. All you can say at that point is, “Well, I screwed that up!”
As I’ve gotten older and (I like to think) wiser, I find myself taking a beat every time I fish. And that pause before getting my feet wet or making that first cast sometimes lasts 5 minutes or even longer. I stand in silence, looking and listening. I’m watching the waves for my safety and for target areas where I feel my best shot at hooking up might be.
I’m also watching the direction of the drift, by following the water and foam. I’m listening for signs of activity, are there bass blowing up bait in the wash? Sometimes when it’s especially calm or if I’m fishing in a backwater estuary, I’ve been able to hear smaller baitfish flitting along the surface, or the subtle sloshes of squid. If I imposed my presence into these situations without ‘taking a beat’ I would miss these things and risk ruining a memorable bite. Without taking the time to observe, I also might put myself in a dangerous situation.
I’d be lying if I said that this moment of focus before making that first cast is all about measuring risk and conditions, it’s also about living in the moment. Being alone in a place that I love, if I were to beeline directly into the water I’d run the risk of missing the point. Surfcasting is a huge part of what makes me, “ME” and if you’ll indulge a little Zen speak, we can never realize our true selves if we don’t take a moment once in a while to let that person see and breathe those things that make us feel complete and that make us unique from the rest.
So take a beat this season. Just a breath or two to relax, look and listen. I can just about guarantee that it will result in more fish landed and a deeper understanding of why.
