THE ONLY CONSTANT THING IN OUR LIFE IS CHANGE

By Dan Trotter on April 27, 2017 in Sport

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is said to have written: “The only constant thing in our life is change”. This rings true today more than ever, as the speed of change has become exponential.

The faster our technology becomes, the faster life seems to move in an attempt to keep pace with it, and as a result the constant of change becomes more evident. The more we have, the more we want, and the more time, money and energy we must spend taking care of all the things we have. The things you own begin to own you. It seems like a cruel, endless cycle, unless of course you choose to side step it for a more simple life, but that can be hard to do.

As fishermen, to become skilled at what we love to do we must become attuned to changes, perhaps more so than most people. A subtle change in the season can be a sign to search for a species here or there, a change of light signifies a feeding phase, and a change of weather after a big storm can take weeks, if not months, to properly understand and allow you to work out where your favourite finned adversary has moved on to.

With the earlier than expected arrival of autumn this year, my diehard fishing mates and I have hatched a few plans to go to winter grounds early and seek out target species like snapper and kingfish on reefs typically fished in late May or even early June.

It will also be interesting to see if the April run of big tailor hits early, providing great catches off the local rocks, or if it’s worth running wide on the full moon in May hunting for an early yellowfin tuna. It’s been a few years since they’ve arrived that early, but with a changing climate anything is possible, it would seem.

April is a month of change in the oceans. Fish that have been holding on their summer grounds either turn their noses north and retreat with the cooling current, or head deeper like the kingfish and ocean-run mulloway. On the flipside, eastern rock lobsters and John Dory will swim into the shallows following the only cycle they’ve ever known.

If you get keyed into the changes then it can be a joy. Similarly, if we embrace change and prepare for it in our own lives satisfaction can be found in new opportunities, personal growth and the departure from learned limiting beliefs.

Whilst it can be sad and feel like loss at times, it’s hard to argue with the old adages that variety is the spice of life, and a change is as good as a holiday. It’s best that we learn to love what we can’t control.