What is it?
Humans are pattern seekers. Every waking moment our senses scan the environment for cues that might predict opportunities or threats. Once a cue is identified, it is used by associative memory to see if it matches other information stored as patterns in memory. Where a match occurs, the mind probes more deeply to obtain a clearer picture of the potential pattern and any threat or opportunity it may present.
Pattern recognition is used by anglers to identify good fishing locations and the kinds of lures and presentations that might work well in a similar-appearing situation. Most folks use pattern recognition intuitively to guide them on new waters.
Like many aspects of fishing, pattern recognition can operate at several different levels of sophistication. As anglers become more skilled in recognizing opportunities (and in avoiding time consuming dead-ends), they are able to detect increasingly subtle indicators of potential patterns. Research has shown that experienced pattern seekers can sometimes identify complete patterns from partial evidence that might be overlooked by a less experienced observer (or angler).
How can anglers use it?
Pattern recognition is a cognitive process that functions continuously to provide us with vital information that might concern our interests or even save our life. Pattern recognition is the operative function of intuitive fishing and is behind all aspects of intuition as outlined in the section above.
Anglers are assisted in the development of predictive abilities by pattern recognition, but also by remaining consciously connected and focused on their fishing tasks. Intuitive anglers may fish by “feel” but they remain acutely aware of their surroundings, and the stream of data entering their senses (see situational awareness below). Intuitive anglers track changes as they fish through targeted habitats for specific species, using their fishing rods like probes to scope out the nature of the fish-supporting “infrastructure” hidden below. Through electronics and a sensitive touch, they can map-out a “blueprint” for the location using their rod tip to gather evidence about the suitability of the habitat for fish, or direct contact with them. Anglers use a sophisticated array of tools to convey data about fish attracting features. They also use an elaborate, cultured repertoire of feelings, representing the countless sensations transmitted by characteristics of the fish’s environment (like the clicking of lead or tungsten jigs identifying the presence of a rocky bottom). This data is supplemented by the signature impressions of each species reacting to a bait and conveying not only their presence but also an indication of their activity level or interest in a particular presentation.
Sensory data is used by anglers to plug into the status of the existing system and its processes. Fish convey their presence and interest in a number of ways which are gradually incorporated in the abilities or repertoire of adaptive anglers. A number of researchers have noted that pattern recognition may be the brain’s way of analysing such varied information as it becomes available, to assist our fishing minds in predicting the future.
Like the slower, analytical aspect of conscious thought, pattern recognition can be taken out of the “auto-programing” mode and used deliberately to provide more and better fishing information to users. Anglers can enhance the performance of pattern recognition through experimentation and testing ideas in particular applications (see “The Adaptive Angler” for references and examples). These tests might be about how certain species relate to their habitat options in a specific waterway, at a given time of year. Vegetative and structural elements can be matched with the occurrence or absence of the species you seek over time and space, thereby offering the angler tangible evidence of patterns along with better associative explanations of fish preferences, going forward.
adaptiveangler.com 