By Jim Mize
I was recently visiting the recording studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and part of the tours included a sampling of songs recorded in each facility. That was when it dawned on me that not all songs are good fishing songs.
Think about the last fly-fishing show you attended. If they had live music, I would wager it was bluegrass. Banjos and rivers have gone together at least back to the filming of Deliverance. In fact, every time I fish a local creek with a swinging bridge over it, I start to hear the introduction to “Dueling Banjos.” I also look over my shoulder for other characters from the movie, but that’s another story.
Getting back to music, part of what makes a song good for fishing is whether you want to be humming it while you’re on the water. If you have the radio on while you’re driving, the odds are good that the last song you hear will stick in your head. So, you don’t want to have the dial set on a station that might slip in a song by Justin Bieber right as you leave the truck.
And heaven forbid if you take the kids along and one of them has a device playing “Baby Shark.” You will be humming it until you get back and can play something else. An investment in headphones will look like money well spent.
Also, it’s not just a matter of what you hum all morning, but how the music affects your pace. If “Orange Blossom Special” keeps going through your head, you might as well fish fast water because your casts will be quick and your drifts short.
Or if “Blue Moon of Kentucky” is that last song, you will want to find some shade on a long pool and settle in. Hopefully, no one will be around when you start into an a cappella version of your own.
The reason music matters is that what goes into your head before you fish affects your timing and technique. I’ve hit the water right after a bad day at work and my cast looks like I’m thrashing a cat with a willow branch.
But after the chill works its way through my waders, I can calm down and get my timing back. It just takes longer if you add in heavy metal on the drive. Probably, you’ll break your rod.
Actually, a lot of that Muscle Shoals sound makes for good fishing music. Learning that Keith Richards wrote “Wild Horses” while sitting in a toilet because the acoustics were better earned that song a spot on my playlist. I don’t mind humming and even singing along on the chorus right in the middle of a hatch.
Plus, my singing also helps to keep other anglers from crowding me. Even if I don’t know all the words, it doesn’t matter. I just make them up so they sound right.
For instance, I still think Creedence Clearwater Revival meant to sing “there’s a bathroom on the right” in “Bad Moon Rising.” Or maybe not, but the line fits.
Throw in some Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd and now I’ve got enough music to cover my drive. A few songs by Chris Stapleton will help add a country flavor. Round it out with a little blues and wherever the music stops when I reach the river will be fine with me.
While I was in Muscle Shoals, I drove over to The Coon Dog Cemetery and saw that the music connected with coon hunters as well. Several of the dogs had carried monikers matching song titles recorded just down the road.
You can see names like “Patches” and “Mustang Sally” on the grave markers. The coon hunters in that part of Alabama probably had above-average tastes in music. Just listening to their hounds run might have been music enough. I’ve always been fond of a symphony of hounds, whether chasing coons or rabbits. Hunters who appreciate good dog voices probably appreciate good people music, too.
I suspect those Alabama coon hunters knew The Swampers and had tapped their feet to their recordings on the drive to and from the woods. Maybe The Swampers were even coon hunters; I don’t know.
So, the next time you set out for a drive to your favorite stream, give some thought to the music on your truck stereo. Maybe tune into some of that Muscle Shoals sound. But at all costs, avoid any devices that can play “Baby Shark.”
Four hours of “do-do-do-do” will ruin your backcast.
Jim Mize feels the only acceptable baby shark is one on your line. You can purchase Jim’s award-winning book, The Jon Boat Years, at https://uscpress.com/The-Jon-Boat-Years or buy autographed copies at www.acreektricklesthroughit.com.
