Fishing and preconceptions

Do you need to believe in preconceptions ? Are preconceptions needed? I choose not to believe in them as, to me, they are an artificial thing and they can make me change my comportament and so, withouth willing, I'll end up doing something that I don't want to, or even change, temporarly or permanently, my comportament.

One of my last fishing sessions confirmed my beliefs. It was a cloudy day and I've gone fishing with lures; the target fish was small pike, in a small pound, as I wanted to 'verify' the density of fish, where they spend their time and if my fishing skills improved. That fishing session was determined by a previous fishing session, in a small river, where I've target small pike and that's because I've heared from an acquaintance who told me that this year he caught two small pikes - I've also caugh one, but that was two years ago when I was fishing for chub.

The fishing session lasted ~5 hours as I've had to walk more than 5 kilometers to arrive at the fishing place. On the way, an old man wished me 'Good luck!' and a black cat crossed my way, I've also found 1 bancnote, but, after moving it 2-3 meters, i've droped it again - I've hoped that the owner was searching for it and would find it soon.

After I've changed the fishing place - I've gone to a bigger pound - I've tried to find some small pike as I've never caught, nor seen pike in that fishing session in that pound. Unfortunatelly, there was no succes. I've tried various metalic lures, big and small, heavy and light but withouth succes. In the end, I've choose to use a the following lure:

The lure was a metallic one, a Berti lure of 9 grams, one which I've used to succesfully catch small pike on small rivers. The chub was caught in a calm area of the pound, where the water was really still and there weren't any currents, nor wind. As I've fished in the afternoon and it was cloudy, I've choosed a shiny lure. In the morning it drizzled for few hours and the fish coudn't be seen, nor was  very active.

The chub attacked slowly and wasn't very aggresive towards the lure as he attacked at the end of the throw, when there were less than two meters and I was ready to retrive the lure.

 At first I've taught that I've picked up some loose weed, but.. then the line could be seen moving. When the fish tried to go in the banks underwater weeds I've saw that, actually, I've had an attack. The fish wasn't expected by me as, usually, when I fish for chub I use small lures and monofilament ... I've tought that I've caught a small pike but, to my surprise, it was a chub - it's my personal record for stillwater/pond.

The fishing rod is made by Cormoran and is part of the Black Bull seried and it's lenght is of 2.10 meters, 1-12 grams, the reel is Shimano Nexave FC 1000. I've used a braided line, a cheap one, of 10 lbs (5 killos).

My record for river chub is, curently, holded by this chub: