Increasing the size of your catch, a difficult quest
Whether you're fishing in the sea or in freshwater, once the passion has taken hold, the idea of catching a bigger fish often becomes a new goal. We all have in mind our records for each species we're after, and we're constantly hoping to surpass them. While it's always gratifying to catch bigger and bigger fish, it can be a very difficult quest to achieve for a number of reasons.
For pike, for example, once you've passed the one-metre mark, it's going to be complicated to hit bigger fish on every outing. Setting yourself the sole objective of beating your records is a costly investment in terms of time, number of trips required and mental workload. What's more, this style of challenge locks you into your technique and can slow down your progress.
Discover new techniques
Many anglers specialize in a preferred technique, because it's the one they know best. However, learning completely different techniques sometimes leads us to change our approach and increase our knowledge. This in turn can help us develop our preferred technique.
So, for example, if you only fish with lures, try feeder fishing or fly fishing.
Search for new species
Some anglers set themselves the challenge of catching as many species of fish as possible, a good way of exploring new areas and discovering new techniques. An easy quest to achieve, especially at the start of the challenge, but one that becomes a little more arduous once you've reached the 100-species mark.
Looking for new species will bring you maximum pleasure, even with the catch of a fish barely 10 centimetres long! What's more, by discovering how to fish for small fish, you'll learn to better understand the behavior of the prey of larger predators. All the more reason to beat your record in the near future...
