Of the 365 anglers surveyed by the magazine, none of them reported a willingness to go fishing unless they had 80 or more good luck charms handy. Sixty-two percent of them said they would not speak to anyone about the subject of fishing unless they had a good luck charm. None of them said they would stand up in a crowded room and announce they were going fishing without a lucky charm. Fifty-eight percent said they will not look at water, and 11 percent said they will not blink. A fisherman's life orbits around the universal belief that fishing success has nothing to do with being a good fisherman.
Fishermen know better.
Ninety-six percent of all anglers said they believed a satisfying life could be lived with just one kidney if it meant being able to go fishing. Four percent, in addition, said they were willing to give up both kidneys if it meant good luck while fishing. One Vermont angler noted that, once he began eating the bologna sandwich he had packed for his fishing trip in 1982, the biggest sunfish of his life pulled under his bobber. What made the event remarkable, the Vermont angler said, was the fact it happened on a lake where previously he had eaten dozens of similar sandwiches without catching a big fish. One must have caused the other, and so he's kept the sandwich in his tacklebox for 17 years.