Don’t give me purpose: Too much pressure can lead to missing your shots | Waterline

That’s when I spotted the snook he so wanted to catch. It was a good fish, at least 30 inches, cruising the shoreline slowly looking for a snack. I gave Marshall the fish’s location. What followed was typical of many fishermen when the big one shows up: His good casting form changed, his cast was 15 feet off the mark, and the snook left in a hurry. I laughed and told him not to worry — we would find another. He relaxed and went back to casting at pockets.

We had landed a few jacks and a nice 20-inch trout from a hole by the mangroves when I spotted a decent redfish. I told him what it was and where it was, and he made his cast — straight over the fish’s head and into the mangroves. The fish swam off as we went in to retrieve the fly. Marshall muttered some specific blue language to himself.

As I pushed us out of the mangroves to continue on, he turned to me and made an interesting accusation: “Every time you give me purpose, I screw up!” I nearly fell off the poling platform. In all my years of guiding and fishing, I have never heard that one before. It just struck me as being so funny. I’m still chuckling now as I tell you about it… “give me purpose.”

Marshall has fished all over the world for different types of fish with conventional gear and on fly. He’s a good angler and has many successes under his belt — but even he still has the problem of brain freeze when given the “purpose” of making a good cast, to that fish, right now.

He asked me how I do it. I have a regular answer to that often-asked question: You just can’t care about catching that fish. Just make the cast. It’s my way of saying that this is only fishing and that’s only a fish. Find a way of staying relaxed so you can throw the fly. “Oh, sure; sounds so easy,” he said. Yes it does — but you’re going to have to pay me a lot more to be your psychiatrist, pull out the couch and talk about your performance anxieties! Let’s fish instead. The couch won’t fit on the boat anyhow.

Flyfishing (actually, fishing in general) can be and is very relaxing … until it’s not. If you let it, it can be like any other stressful situation. Putting for an eagle; being the batter with bases loaded, all tied up and two out in the bottom of the 9th; an office meeting with a big client — whatever the situation, adrenaline and cortisol are tough to handle.

Breathing is one way of fighting off the stress hormone lockdown. Doctors say that long, deep, slow, controlled breaths help to slow down the release of cortisol in our body. That’s easy enough to control.

Another trick to alleviating “big fish fever” is something I’ve suggested many times before. Spend a little time practice casting out on the grass or on the water without a fly tied on. The more comfortable you are with a fishing rod in your hand, the more natural it will be to make that difficult cast when the time comes because you’ve performed it in the yard so many times.

I asked Marshall when the last time he had been flyfishing was. “Maybe seven months,” he answered. And how often did he break out his rod and throw it during that time? “None.” Well, there you go!

We finished up our long half-day trip catching mackerel, jacks, trout and another puppy red. He hooked a couple more small snook that we didn’t land and saw a couple that were as long as my leg — but they saw us first. He caught a lot of fish, got some good work in on his back cast with double haul and as always we had a very good time.

By the time you read this they are calling for two more cold fronts to pass by. Hang in there, fish with “purpose,” breathe — and stay fly.

Capt. Rex Gudgel is a fly fishing guide in the Boca Grande area and an International Federation of Fly Fishers Master Certified casting instructor. If you’d like to take casting lessons, book a trip or just need more fly fishing info, contact him at 706-254-3504 or visit BocaGrandeSlamFlyFishing.com or CastWithRex.com.