12 Nebraskaland • May 2020
By Jeff Kurrus
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
When bank fishing, my dad has always wanted to keep
more than a 6-foot distance. It's been a joke of ours forever,
me complaining that he never wants to fish beside his
son, then him turning this same comment around when I
choose to move away from him when we're fishing together.
Because we have practiced social distancing for many years,
we have learned its advantages.
When we start fishing, I don't want him working the
same habitat that I am. If I'm fishing riprap, for example,
he shouldn't be. Most bodies of water have various habitats
throughout, including emergent and submergent vegetation,
timber and riprap. There are also subtle and stark contour
changes along with these habitats as well as many other
possible structures in a waterbody.
If one were to spend much time thinking about where
to start, it could drive an angler crazy. Yet as we all know,
each time you fish you're adding memory and skills to your
growing repertoire of ideas on how to fish that lake or others
like it.
Fishing with a partner just makes it that much easier.
"I'll go this way," one of us will say, and each will watch
the other as we fish. One fish doesn't raise much of an
eyebrow, yet when those numbers start to increase, a quick
phone call always occurs. We discuss habitat, lure and color,
and retrieve speed.
Do we ever fish beside each other from the bank? Yes, there
have been a handful of times, but it was always predicated
on the fish or a juicy piece of family gossip. We can talk later.
It's time to fish now.
So during this time of social distancing, take advantage by
spreading your crew out across a lake. Learn the area twice
as fast, and always remember that when one of your friends
or family has caught a fish, you're catching it, too.
As long as you remember how they did it for the future.
FISHING
AT
VALENTINE
NATIONAL
WILDLIFE
REFUGE
PHOTO
BY
JEFF
KURRUS
IN THE FIELD
