My adventures in the writing realm have allowed me to make friendships and acquaintances I never dreamed of having. Prior to writing in the fishing industry, I thought it was a pretty neat deal to just shake a pro's hand and ask him questions about his favorite crankbait. I never dreamed I'd get to call some of these guys friends.
Elite series angler Casey Scanlon is one of my friends, and it started through doing a variety of writing assignments for and with him. In November he and I got to go fishing together on a local power plant reservoir. Obviously all of my fishing buddies wanted me to take notes about what he did differently. I didn't ask too many questions, and I didn't pay too close attention to what he did or didn't do differently. We just fished. I did notice a few things however,
and I think it solidified my opinion on what makes pros better than the joe's.
Time on the water is everything. Granted, I think to be a pro, you have to have some form of God given talent. Many of these guys have something most of us will never have, and that's natural ability. But another part of it is simply time on the water. On several occasions, Scanlon would point to an area saying there was gonna be a fish there. He could roll cast his crankbait to the exact spot he pointed to. He didn't catch a fish every time he called the shot, but there were several times he did. Would he have caught the fish without making the cast? I doubt it. Would he have been able to call the shot without spending so much time on the water? Maybe.
Time on the water translates to everything we do on the water. Scanlon was able to call those shots, and make those cast, because of past experiences which translated to the present time. It was also amazing how quickly he could piece together a pattern. Eliminating water was a big part of what we did. If we fished an area for 10 minutes and didn't get bit, he could with confidence say it's time to move. If he knew fish were there, but wasn't getting bit, he could with confidence change his approach, presentation, etc to make them bite. This all comes with time on the water.
So what did I learn? Nothing really; he honestly didn't do too many things differently that I do. If anything I think I learned how important it is to eliminate ineffective water and not stay on a single spot too long. But I mainly saw that nothing can replace time on the water. I might also add that it's not a wise idea to throw the same style of lure behind a pro. He ended up throwing a squarebill for most of the day. I didn't catch much when I was throwing one (Gee I wonder why). I switched to a lipless crankbait and ended up catching more fish.
I just wanted to share my experience with you all. If you ever have the opportunity to go with a pro, jump at it. Remember, they're just dudes who like to fish. Casey's a great guy and I look forward to fishing with him some more.
Here are some pictures. I did not take them- my buddy Travis Perret did.
