Over the last month I have been fishing in lots of tournaments. It seems as if there is a tournament every weekend during this time of the year. With so much money at stake and huge expense at times to get into these tournaments people have a tendency to become way too serious.

I hear stories weekly of teams struggling to get along with each other. The pressure just seems to get to them! It got me thinking about Capt. Jeff Wilson who is famous for catching swordfish in the Gulf of Mexico. I was fishing with him in a high stakes tournament and there was not much chatter coming from the cockpit.

We were all staring at the rods quietly and waiting for a bite when Jeff called out my name. I looked up at him and he was wearing a pair of googly eye glasses. I immediately burst into laughter. It was exactly what we needed. We all laughed for a bit and loosened up!  A few minutes later we got a bite.

Happy crews catch fish. Fishing is supposed to be fun let’s keep it that way!

Lighten up!
RJ Boyle