How Has Your Fishing Progressed?

[Squirmin Wormin]

We've been fishing this year with some success with our tactics, techniques , patterns , and use of lures . And which of these have you acquired from this forum ? or other sources have you from helped your fishing this year? And think your gonna use more of because it made a better way you now fish today. 

[Catch and Grease]

I've gotten a lot better with jigs thanks to the forum... I've learned Too much stuff to list here.

[nascar2428]

How has my fishing progressed? Quite nicely, thanks for asking!! I owe all of my success to this site.

[fishballer06]

This year I've learned how to better find fish on my own. I've also expanded my fishing arsenal, and gotten a lot better at fishing with frogs, plastics, and jerkbaits. 

 

I also got into musky fishing and managed to catch my first one of those. 

[TheSmilingSwordsman]

Pretty much everything I know about fishing comes from either guys on this forum or from YouTube videos like Glenn's. 

 

I came into this thing having almost no luck because I would go out in the middle of the summer and throw around a few crankbaits and a few spinners out in the middle of the lake hoping to catch something. 

 

I have since learned that summer fishing sucks, bass tend to live on the edges near structure rather than out in to open, various rigging methods, how to use soft plastics, jigs, and a baitcaster.  I have gone from hoping to catch a fish, any fish really, to expecting to catch multiple fish while targeting larger bass. 

 

I now check these forums multiple times throughout the day and intentionally clear time from my schedule to fish.  I have also learned enough that I can now teach others how to catch fish. 

[Felix77]

I would have to say very nicely indeed. I have two tournaments left in the season and thus far I have been able to catch them on a few new tactics. All learned on this forum and from boaters in my club.

In particular ...

Punch rig

Drop shot

Power shot

[guitarglynn1]

We've been fishing this year with some success with our tactics, techniques , patterns , and use of lures . And which of these have you acquired from this forum ? or other sources have you from helped your fishing this year? And think your gonna use more of because it made a better way you now fish today. 

 

I seem to improve little by little. This past spring summer was the first time I used spoons and it was love at first cast. My ability to catch fish with them from when I first started and now is almost night and day. And I know I have not even scratched the surface. I just joined up here and only a few days in I have learned a ton from reading others experiences ect..I feel like I have stumbled on a gold mine with this place. I never fished for carp other than snag them when I was younger. I read a post about carp fishing and it hit me " my fav spot is loaded with carp " what have I been thinking not fishing for them? I have a bunch of stuff to try thanks to that thread and I guess you can say I have also progressed into a carp fisherman.lol 

[Montanaro]

Locating fish, punching, jig fishing, crankbaiting have all improved tremendously.

Cranking use to be my biggest weakness, now its my strength.

[Oregon Native]

We always learn but my biggest learning memory was on remembering and getting re-enforced on this site was the verticle hookset for texas-rigs.  Day in....day out...this is money.

[buzzed bait]

i would say jigs as well as spinnerbaits.  i was never comfortable with them but reading everyone else's success with them made me go back and give them another try.  i've caught a lot of my fish this summer on a spinnerbait....

[basscatcher8]

My first year back to focusing on fishing more has gone well. I'm by no means just a bass fisherman and definitely chase multple species through the year. So far this year I've become more comfortable with Side Imaging and using that to locate fish. Using harnesses to locate walleye using my electronics and covering water efficiently. I am also getting more comfortable reasearching and fishing new lakes. I come here to learn more about the biology of bass. There are alot of wise folks on here that talk alot about fish movements and behavior. I really enjoy reading those discussions. I just cant get into the bait monkey craze of i gotta have this bait or that bait. I'd rather learn the movements and behaviors and then just match up a bait to that rather then making sure i got the newest this or that.

 

 

I visited 3 new lakes this year and didnt get skunked on one of them yet. Not saying I set them on fire cause I did have some 1 fish days, but I still managed to locate em on a new body of water. I got back to Bull Shoals lake on the 4th of july weekend this year and that place has always been a thorn in my side not able to find fish on my own always managed some with guides but not well on my own. I spent that weekend on the lake all over new spots and managed to pull in some keeper walleyes without help from any of the guides and I considered that a big win.

 

My biggest thing to work on for next year is recognizing an opportunity and going after it. I can think of three times where I caught a fish and didnt stop to think about what was going on with that fish and just kept moving on cause it wasnt what I wanted to see. I was crappie fishing on a lake and wasnt finding many but managed to snag a small walleye. I thought cool and then the wife lost a nice walleye shortly there after. If I would of stopped and thought about it I woulda said forget the crappie for now and searched that area for where those two walleye came from and load up. Instead I kept moving on. On the river here a couple weeks ago I was running a rip rap shorline and casting a buzzbait and had a smallie take it and again I should of just put the breaks on cast that buzz bait a few more times in the area then pull the football jig out and just search the area really slow. Instead I kept the buzz bait in hand and just kept moving on. Came back to that area with someone else the next day and we fished slow then just cause I had someone else with me and we just killed fish on that spot all day. So my biggest thing for the future right now is just recognizing an opportunity like that in front of me and exploit it to the fullest.

 

I also took up bow fishing this year and managed to shoot one carp. Seems like every other time I've been out the water has been too muddy to see anything. Hoping to jump into a couple bow tournaments next year and get better at locating and shooting with the bow.

 

To summarize its been an AWESOME year and aint over yet lol.

[mikekurinka]

How to videos from gene are awesome. Make more in advanced techniques!

[jdl2425]

My bass fishing has really improved this year. I used to mainly pursue trout but this year has pretty much been all bass. I accomplished my 2 fishing goals of the year; 1. Catch a bass 3lbs or over and 2. catch over 100 bass (originally I just wanted to get to 50 but then I realized I was going to pass that with ease). My friend is a great bass fisherman so he really helped me out with my gear and techniques. I learned a lot about baitcasters and how to maintain them from this site.

[Kevin Beachy]

I've gotten a lot better with jigs thanks to the forum... I've learned Too much stuff to list here.

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Justin Mott]

I can't say for sure exactly how my fishing has progressed since the methods I use have stayed relatively the same with a few nice additions. I have just recently came back to the site as my fishing has picked back up and of course this is the best resource for information that you can find anywhere. There is always somebody that has a useful technique or style to pick up. The articles are also the best I have ever picked through.

 

Honestly, I have taken a stronger hold on a great technique this year and added another technique recently that I wouldn't typically use. It seems like each year I add a strong presentation for a specific season and situation that gives me a chance to win an extra tournament. I still have a few things on the list that I want to learn more about but I'm happy with how this year has came along.

 

Justin Mott

[hoosierbass07]

 I think since I started fishing last year, my fishing has gone slightly down hill.  Last year all I did was bank fish and I had to find different places to bank fish.  The bass I caught were not giants but most were nicely sized.  Then over the winter I got a kayak.  I've been doing most of my kayak fishing at a local conservation club that has some strip pit ponds.  I caught one nice sized big bass in the spring but everything else have been dinks.  Really need to find more good spots to go with my kayak.  So bank fishing in 2013 - lots of fun and decent sized bass.  But 2014 - lots of kayak fishing and only two big bass and lots of dinks.  

[Slefler]

Pretty much the only bait I threw regularly was T-Rigs last year. This year I've branched out to just about everything else. The last month I've fallen in love with swim jigs from Siebert Outdoors to the point I've got 12 color variations.... You know, just in case.

[Heron]

How has my fishing progressed?  

 

Well, the short story is, I havent fished in over 18 years.  And back then, I never caught much but bluegill, and my PB bass was only 12 inches. Fast forward to today,  Ive been fishing now for only about 1 1/2 actual seasons, and in that time span, I have landed 16 fish, with the average size range being between 14" - 17," with one personal best at 21" 5lb.  

 

Its not much, but considering my lack of experience, more or less - Its not a bad start. 

 

Im happy with it.  

[BuffaloBass716]

Last year- 39 smallmouth, most on live bait

 

This year- 142 smallmouth, 90% drop-shotting and the other 10% a mixture of tubes, shakyheads, lipless cranks, and inline spinners.

 

The dropshot is my new best friend paired with a roboworm, I can go out anytime and can always catch a few smallies.

[thomas15]

When I was a kid we lived on the Jersey Shore, had a boat and fished off-shore and the bay. When I got out on my own I rarely fished at all. About 20 years ago I started freshwater fishing while still living at the Shore but boatless.

 

At some point a decided to try LM bass. I remember trying all kinds of different things, but no fish, literally. I had a respectable tacklebox but not even a bite! A few chain pickrel and bluegills but no bass. I remember saying to myself, I will give it one more try, if nothing, I will move on. That day I got my first LM and caught many more as a bank fisherman for several years. Me and a co-worker used to fish a pond near our company during lunch break. I cought LM bass 4 or 5 times/week during this period. 

 

10 years ago we moved to PA (from NJ). Oddly enough there are more LM bass lakes in Ocean County NJ and better fishing than in NE PA. Me and the Mrs. bought a boat this summer and true it is a learning curve to transition from bank to boat but I'm worse than a newb now.

[Umair Faizuddin]

I love this forum the best! I have been fishing for over 3 years now and I think I have the hang of things thanks to the forums on here! I also got into carp fishing from here and caught a 18 pound carp from a private pond! Thank you BassResource!!!

[SirSnookalot]

Been fishing over 60 years, last year I probably didn't miss 10 days of fishing so that 350 days throwing lures.  I'm as good as the body of water I'm on and the mood of the fish.   Sometimes I'm world class, other days I'm classless.  

[WillJ]

World class wouldn't boast...I've really just joined the forum and learn something everyday feel like everybody probably does even them battle axes that know WAY more, But I've been fishing since I can remember and went through several phases of obsession, but unfortunately I was like that with several things and flipped in between and fishing got put on the back burner for several years. I gained a new fascination with wildlife and nature and really wanted to be involved with it in some fashion and I already had plenty of nice tackle, old quantum combos from early 2000's, and passed down tackle boxes with gobs of old plugs and several loaded boxes of my own. So fishing just seemed like a good idea since then about a year ago I've maybe missed 3 or 4 days of fishing, I go multiple times a day even, and when you go like that with a little technique it really doesn't matter how good you are, you will catch fish. But i've really did my research, and have also figured out much is a individuals way of learning theres only so much somebody can tell you, but learning patterns and habits has been the most crucial thing for me how this or that type of weather effects the fish is very helpful and knowing the mood that they might be in is pretty helpful. I really got into finesse fishing this summer and it blew my mind, I looked everywhere online, and read as much as possible so I'm sure I learned something from articles about a shakey head or something on this site and just don't remember it I'm looking to learn as much as I can everyday about everything I don't know about, be it fishing, psychology, philosophy I want to know more! The biggest keys to my progressions would be curiosity and focus, I feel if you keep these at all times you always have more than most people.