Catching little fish can be just as rewarding as chasing the big ones

Mark Sampson Special to Salisbury Daily Times

Published 9:00 AM EDT Oct 9, 2018

While fishing with a family from Ohio, I asked what kind of fishing they usually did back home.

“Oh we just fish for bass, walleye, and trout in the local lakes and streams," one of them reported. "It’s nothing special like this, not 'real fishing' for anything like the big fish you have here on the coast."

I suspect that what was going through this fellow’s head when he made that statement was something in the order of, “Our simple little fishing efforts back home can’t hold a candle to what goes off Delmarva where anglers chase huge fish in big offshore water.”

I say that because that’s exactly what I’ve been told before by fishermen from other places, who, for some reason, hold such impressions of fishing.

I’m guessing that folks may be compelled to make such statements because they feel somewhat intimidated by being out of their normal element when they get out on the big open ocean.

Or it could also be that those who would say such things are such novice fishermen that they're under the impression that when it comes to fish, bigger is always better. But to such thinking, all I can say is “it ain’t so!”

I knew a guy who by all definitions would fit the description of “world class fishermen.” He was quite well-financed and used to travel the globe to catch black marlin in Australia, giant bluefins off Nova Scotia, sailfish off south Florida, and striped marlin off Mexico.

He’d spend most of his summer here in Ocean City chasing blue and white marlin but he’d also enjoy fishing for flounder, bluefish, seatrout, and whatever else was available at the time.

I used to find it interesting that whenever he’d bring his boat in to the fuel dock he’d always sit on one of the gunwales and fish for 4-inch spot on a tiny little rod. He wasn’t catching spot for bait because he put back every one he landed, he just loved fishing so much that whenever he was on the boat he was compelled to have a line in the water.

Monster or minnow this guy pulled pleasure from them all, and I never heard him suggest that one fish or type of fishing was any more or less “worthy” of his efforts.

These days my fishing business seems to consume all my time during the regular season, but it used to be that I would have an absolute blast chasing fresh water bass, brim and crappie in various lakes, ponds and reservoirs.

I don’t think I ever caught a bass more than about 3 pounds and my brim and crappie always seemed to be more than just a few scales shy of qualifying as “pan-size.” For a lot of the fishing I do now, fish that size would not even be big enough to use as bait.

But I really miss that kind of fishing, and if my schedule would ever allow it, I would surely forgo a few days of pounding my way offshore in pursuit of “monsters” if I could spend them casting plugs and little poppers for fish that would fit in my shirt pocket.

It’s great when fishing is exciting, but the sport is also about “fun” and “relaxation.” Every angler is different and has his or her own likes, dislikes, and ideas of what makes for a perfect fishing adventure.

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If big fish fit that bill for someone — that’s great. But for a lot of people little fish of all types are just as rewarding to catch, and provide every bit as much fun and enjoyment, as the biggest blue marlin, the fattest tuna, or the toughest shark that ever put a bend in a fishing rod.

Most anglers have certain “favorite” species that they particularly like to fish for, but experience eventually teaches us all that big or small, farm-pond or ocean, there’s really no type of fishing that’s any more “real” or a fish that’s any more or “special” than what we’re able to enjoy at any given place or time.

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