What do you wish you knew when you started?

[jorluivil]

Personally, there really isn't anything I wish I knew, as with other things that have happened to me in life most of what I know now was gained from my own experiences. Yes, there are some things that I learned from talking with others but the reality is that not until you live that experience will you learn from it. How many times have you heard someone say, "I TOLD YOU SO"

I'll give you some basic kayak fishing examples that I knew but didn't bother learning from them until I experienced it:

carrying a change of clothes: I knew I would get wet one day but not until the day that I took a dip did I realize how important it is to carry a dry set of clothes and a towel

water bucket: I'd always see Tony and Greg with small water buckets/jugs/cups on their kayaks and always knew how useful they were while on the water but not until I realized that I was constantly dumping the fresh water from my only bottle of water to make a bucket/jug/cup did I decide to get my own and save my drinking water for drinking.

bait dehooker: who needs one of those stupid things? ummmmmmmm, everyone. Here's another things I knew about but because I was OK with just using my pliers to get bait off of my sabiki I didn't bother getting one. I can still here Tony's voice in the back gound, "Jorge, when are you going to quit being a dumbshit and get yourself a dehooker"? Again, as with the other items that I listed I knew about the dehooker but not until the day that I lost a pair of pliers did I realize how helpful it would have been to have a floating dehooker.


Knowing is one thing but experiencing it first hand will change how you do things in the future. Hope that helps and good luck on your report.