In The Zone

Know Your Psychological Talents

Since you are good angler, I bet you can give me a pretty clear description of the sizes, types, and colors of lures you having your various tackle boxes. But do you have an equally clear understanding of yourself, including your primary psychological strengths, traits and characteristics? I am willing to bet you do not. This article will help you get a better handle on your main psychological characteristics and show how you can use this information to improve your fishing skills.

Who Cares?

Let me give you a good example of how understanding just one key psychological dimension can enhance your fishing effectiveness. The most universal dimension on which we can differentiate people is introversion-extraversion. Most people like to think they’re extroverted, since such individuals are considered friendly, socially approachable, engaging, personable, and easy to get along with.

Extroverted individuals like people and they actively seek social settings. They go out of their way to talk to others, even when they don’t have to. They typically like crowds, parties, and social gatherings. Extroverts enjoy meeting new people, and they are comfortable with strangers. However, extroverts do not like to be alone very much. Since they value the company of others, and they typically enjoy talking, too much time away from people can make them feel lonely, disappointed, and unsettled. When working on projects, an unplanned conversation or phone call is seen as a welcome diversion, however.

Introverted individuals, on the other hand, are comfortable being by themselves. They don’t need frequent social interactions in order to be happy. Introverts like “cool quiet and time to think”, as the song says. They like to think things through on their own before they make decisions, and when they are being reflective and thoughtful, they can find phone calls or unexpected social contact to be disruptive. Introverts often enjoy people, though they prefer to interact with individuals they have known for a long period of time. Introverts are interpersonally very loyal. However, they do not actively seek out loud, noisy, social interactions, and too much social contact can be tiring.

“So what does that have to do with fishing?, you may ask. Well, to begin with, if you are highly introverted, you know that long hours by yourself on the water will be just fine. You enjoy fishing by yourself, and so it will be easy for you to go on a fishing trip by yourself, or practice alone for tournaments. You’ll also find it easy to isolate yourself from other anglers, either on the lake, or at the dock, and you are the type of person who will not be easily influenced by pre-tournament banter. When it comes to learning new information, you are comfortable taking new equipment (and an owner’s manual!) and then spending as much time as it takes by yourself until you figure out how it works. Introverts tend to evaluate their own performance rather than rely excessively on what other people think, and if you are in introvert, you are not the type who needs someone constantly telling you what a great job you are doing.

However, since you tend to hang out with yourself rather than with other people, you may be slow to find out about new information that you have not personally discovered. Additionally, you may be naturally slower to ask for help, seek advice, or use feedback to improve your skill set. Knowing you are naturally introverted is different than thinking there must be something wrong with you because you keep to yourself and don’t hang around the dock to chat as much as some people do.

Knowing if you are extroverted, however, will make it easier for you to understand how a long day in the boat by yourself can be especially tiring. If you are quite extroverted, you would be better off checking in, by phone or in person, with a friend or two during the course of your fishing day. You’ll find this much more enjoyable than trying to tough it out by yourself for eight hours! Similarly, if you are an extrovert, you will want to learn new information in a group setting, or in discussions with others. Extroverts, however, can eventually become frustrated if they have only themselves to rely on when analyzing and solving problems.

At the same time, since extroverts like to shoot the breeze back and forth, you are more susceptible than some to being influenced by rumors or casual dock talk. It’s hard for you to not listen when someone else is telling a story, and your ideas and opinions about where and how to fish are more easily influenced by other people than you might like to believe.

Get the Idea?

Well, there you have a whole bunch of information that could make you a better angler, based on one major psychological variable. What if you knew three or four, or ten psychological traits or characteristics that are true about you? How much better might that information make you?

Try this exercise: Make a list of ten adjectives that describe who you are. Many of you will say things like friendly, energetic, determined, reliable, and so forth. That’s fine, but see if you can’t also find words that describe how you are different from your two best friends. So for example, maybe you are careful in situations where they take risks, or maybe you are assertive when they typically hold back.

Once you have completed your list, spend some time thinking about how those characteristics might help, or how they might hinder your fishing. If you’re not sure how those traits might make a difference, talk over your list with a sport psychologist, and he or she will help you out!

Jay T. McNamara Ph.D., LP has been putting psychological principles and fishing techniques together for over three decades. A multi-species tournament angler, he has competed successfully at both local and national levels. He is author of the book The Psychology of Exceptional Fishing.

• Season 01: Episode 08