Fishing for Success
By Tyler Niven
When I first heard about Fish for Change, I knew I needed to go to Guanaja. I remember filling out all the information online, then telling my parents about the trip. They thought I was insane for wanting to go to Honduras, in the middle of June, alone with a group of kids I had never met before. I didn’t care. I was still going. I knew this would be a trip of a lifetime.
I must admit, my first thought about Fish for Change was that this would be an incredible opportunity for me to become a better fly fisherman and have a chance to fish for the big three - bonefish, tarpon and the legendary permit. But as my departure date got closer, I realized this week long trip had very little to do about the fishing. In America, most people are taught from an early age to be “successful”. Your parents tell you to go school, to get good grades, to go to college and to get a “good” job when you graduate, so you can make a whole lot of money and buy a whole lot of “things”. I see this in my everyday life—my social media is littered with people boasting about their “success”. But what does “success” actually mean?
Fishing for me encompasses far more than just catching fish. Fishing has always been a way for me to get away from my crazy everyday life that is structured around a clock. Being on the water—the sights, the smells, the sounds and the friends that I am surrounded by—has always provided me a sense of Zen.
My view on fishing changed when I stepped foot off the boat with a handful of other kids in Guanaja last June. I wanted to do a week with Fish for Change because I looked at it as a trip of a lifetime. I wanted to be involvedin a different community, I wanted to travel out of my comfort zone and use fishing as a tool to see more of the world and make a difference. I definitely got those qualities on this trip, but one experience I was not expecting were the human interactions.
I must admit, my first thought about Fish for Change was that this would be an incredible opportunity for me to become a better fly fisherman and have a chance to fish for the big three - bonefish, tarpon and the legendary permit. But as my departure date got closer, I realized this week long trip had very little to do about the fishing. In America, most people are taught from an early age to be “successful”. Your parents tell you to go school, to get good grades, to go to college and to get a “good” job when you graduate, so you can make a whole lot of money and buy a whole lot of “things”. I see this in my everyday life—my social media is littered with people boasting about their “success”. But what does “success” actually mean?
Fishing for me encompasses far more than just catching fish. Fishing has always been a way for me to get away from my crazy everyday life that is structured around a clock. Being on the water—the sights, the smells, the sounds and the friends that I am surrounded by—has always provided me a sense of Zen.
My view on fishing changed when I stepped foot off the boat with a handful of other kids in Guanaja last June. I wanted to do a week with Fish for Change because I looked at it as a trip of a lifetime. I wanted to be involvedin a different community, I wanted to travel out of my comfort zone and use fishing as a tool to see more of the world and make a difference. I definitely got those qualities on this trip, but one experience I was not expecting were the human interactions.
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Being on the boat with the local guides for a part of each day, I really got to know these people. I learned about the brothers, Edwin and Tito, and their family. Mike, and how he got in contact witSteve on the Faraway Cayes while he was on a lobster boat. I was able to meet the movie star in Rankin who I had watched pole for permit on the big screen in the Fly Fishing Film Tour, and was even scolded by Deron when I snapped off my first permit for having “sticky fingers”. Walter, the security guard, would tell me about his fishing days as a kid, and how the island was before Hurricane Mitch. I got to connect with these people and swap stories. To me, these stories meant more to me than the fishing. One afternoon we were told to go out and conduct interviews with the locals, and I knew I wanted to interview Ray. I had talked to Ray every day. He was always on the dock smiling when we would come back, always smiling. He would always ask how the day went, and we would chat about fishing for a quick second in passing, but I knew there was much more to this man. My interview with Ray is hard for me to put into words. Ray had suffered a stroke about a year before my trip. He was riding home one night on his motorbike when he had a stroke and crashed. He had no idea that he had had a stroke and didn’t know what had happened until days after the incident when he was at the hospital on Roatan. Every single day of my week there, Ray would be down on the dock running himself through rehab exercises on YouTube to regain strength to half of his body. He was teaching himself and was determined to bounce back from this road bump in his life. Talking to Ray gave me a totally different perspective on my own life. First, he made me realize that life is incredibly short and entirely unpredictable. Because of that I realized I really don’t have any days to waste. I need to make sure that every day I am doing something I love, because it’s entirely possible I couldn’t wake up tomorrow morning. Secondly, I realized you never truly know someone’s whole story when you first meet someone. You need to create quality time with people and make meaningful conversations to connect with them. Do I want to take unreal shots at trophy tarpon, bonefish and permit? Of course I do, but I am at the age where I realize that it isn’t about that. Yes, I went to Guanaja for the fishing, but it was my love of fishing that brought me to these people. It’s about “what can I do for you?”, not “what can you do for me?”.
From that trip forward, my definition of “success” was forever changed. Success to me isn’t about how much money I make, what grades I achieve, or job offers I get. Success to me is creating meaningful relationships with people. This trip is what made me decide that I want to guide. I realized that as a guide I can play a crucial role in people’s lives by giving my clients a break from chasing this draining version of “success”. By creating meaningful relationships on the water, I hope they might also have the chance to feel the same sense of success that I do while I’m fishing.
Tyler Niven, 22 years old, Maine.
After graduating from CU Boulder, Tyler will be guiding at High Alpine Anglers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Find him on Instagram @stys96.