Poling Deck

The warm November Texas gulf breeze sent small waves lapping into our bow. Not much wind today, a good omen. We made a twenty minute run to get to our first spot, hoping to tango with a redfish or two.

My guide grabbed his push pole, and climbed up on the poling platform over the motor.

"The boat is kind of tippy, so brace your feet against the stripping basket poles. I had a couple clients fall overboard when they lost their balance".  I braced, preferring not to be the third client to do a header into the gray mud we floated over.



"You can blind cast to likely spots if you want to, but you will spook more fish than you see.  Better to sight fish. "

He leaned on the push pole and we slowly crept forward.

"If I do this right, the sun and wind will mostly be at your back."

I stripped line into the basket, held the counterfeit shrimp between my fingers, and scanned the water ahead of me, looking for a redfish to cast to.  This was skinny water, eighteen inches at most. We quietly slipped through the mangrove "lake" with barely a sensation of movement.

Only the occasional necessary word passed between us. The flats swallowed us. Work and worry were forgotten like an old toy on Christmas morning. We slowly stalked forward, ever forward. By the end of the day, we covered a lot of water, none of which I could have reached on my own.



I asked my guide if he ever fished alone. "Yes", he said, "but it's difficult to pole, spot a fish, stow the pole, grab your fly rod and put a good cast on the fish without losing sight of it. Better to fish with someone. "

In most organizations, there tend to be  "casting deck" folks and "poling deck" folks. Casting deck folks are out front...maybe those who are a touch extroverted and maybe enjoy public speaking, or advocacy. They might be writers, marketers, or lobbyists. They tend to be the face of the organization. The organization needs casting deck folks.

Poling deck folks rarely care about a named position, but care deeply about the cause, and will it forward sometimes by sheer determination. If they lack flash they make up for it in substance. They push the organization forward, often from the rear. Their efforts ensure the folks on the casting deck have targets to cast to.

We need them both poling and casting deck folks. Sometimes the challenge is to determine which end of the boar best suits our talents. Once we figure it out, we fall into an effective cadence of pole, spot, and cast.

"If we do this right, the the sun and the wind will be mostly at our back."