There are some rednecks that aren't very good at fishing (I'm one of them)

There are a lot of stereotypes that are attributed to rednecks or country-folk like me and a lot of them are true. Some of them are not though. We do tend to be outdoorsmen moreso than other parts of society and survivalist tactics are something that are taught to most of us at a very young age. Well, that is if you parents were decent and gave a crap about you.

Fishing is one of those things that people believe that all rednecks can't really wait to go and do. People think we are waiting to clock out from our wood-cutting job on Friday and immediately pack up the truck with fishing gear and loads of beer and head out to the lake at the break of dawn on Saturday. Or if we are feeling impatient we will go ahead and get to the campsite on Friday night.

I'll readily admit that this much is true and I have done it on many occasions.

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That'll hold us for the weekend and don't worry, the fishing gear and tents are in the pace car that is also coming along.

The thing about me and going fishing is that unlike some of my redneck brethren, I never took the time to become any good at it. I know the basics and what not but I don't own a single lure nor do I have any idea about the various differences between them all. I have buddies that research this stuff and even collect materials to make their own, very special lures. They know what ones are going to work where and what time of year they are most effective. Also, it might surprise you but some of the more sought after lures can actually cost hundreds of dollars each.

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I don't even know what to do with this.... other than try very hard to not hurt myself.

There was one time I went fishing in a river with a buddy of mine one afternoon and he deliberately let me call the shots and never questioned me. Then he left while I got started fishing to go get us some beer and he didn't actually leave. He hid behind a tree laughing his ass off because he knew that I had completely the wrong approach to what I was doing. There is something called a "bobber" that keeps your hook from scraping bottom or at least, keeps it at a steady depth. You then mess around with the reel in order to make your worm dance around in order to hopefully attract fish to chomp on it.

I did not have a bobber on my line and I don't remember why. I'm no idiot and I know that a lot of rivers have a lot of rocks on the bottom of them. I think it was my very first cast where I got completely hung up on a rock and the hook was impossibly caught. I eventually broke the line and when I reeled it back in I had to attach and new hook. For someone with big hands like me and kind of poor eyesight, this is a very difficult task.

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This is zoomed in really far. In actuality the hooks are generally only 10 mm by 5mm and the hole on the top for tying the line to is only slightly larger than the line itself. Once you try for the 30th time and finally get the line through the eye, now you have the added bonus of trying to tie a knot with something you can barely see. Let's just say I failed a lot of times before I got it right. Then I proceeded to throw the line out a few more times and got the hook caught on another rock and the same process happened again.

My buddy is standing nearby trying to contain his laughter as he sees me look around to see if anyone sees how frustrated I am getting and by the time I broke the hook off the 3rd time I was about to throw the entire rod into the river and call it a day. He then came out of the shadows laughing at my pain and showed me the correct way to do it, including using the bobbers that he had in his pocket.

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_{This little fella will save you a whole heap of trouble and frustration}

The moral of this story is that just because I look like I would be really good at fishing, doesn't mean that I am. I am NOT. I enjoy drinking beer and hanging out with buddies and if I catch something, great. If i don't catch anything I am happy if my friends do. If none of us catch anything, we can catch another ice-cold beer while we chat the day away. The fishing side of things is just an activity so that we don't end up feeling like total alcoholics.

There are a lot of things that come with the redneck community that I am not a part of. There are also lots of people who enjoy fishing that definitely are not rednecks. City people like the outdoors as well. In fact, they probably like it more than we do because the rest of the time they live their lives surrounded by almost none of it.

I guess just don't judge a book by it's cover. If I put myself into a lineup I think that most people would probably guess that I know a lot about fishing and man oh man, would they be wrong.