Frustrated From The Back Of The Boat

[F14A-B]

I didn't watch the vid, but I always would throw spinning & small ( Ned ) or 4" to 6" worm.. A jig worm.. And always do decently.. In spring when fish are aggressive & chasing good, throw a trap..

Fish behind your buddy with small stuff & catch fish he's missing.. It works!

[SudburyBasser]

I feel your pain OP. I like to fish slow and deliberate and really dissect a target and I invariably get paired with a run-'n-gun power fisher :-)

 

Like Ike said in the video, find a complimentary style to the guy in front. It's helped me a lot to understand the boat isn't going to slow down... I'd claim to have invented power finesse but Iaconelli wrote about it years before I started.

[scaleface]

The only complaints I ever got was from my uncle who always said I was going to fast even if I was texas rigging and inching along .. He just fishes to dang slow and wont make the adjustments needed to catch fish. Most days he got skunked even if I was having a great day .Dont be like my uncle .

[Montanaro]

My only problem is that most in the club will make one cast to a badass laydown or skip it entirely. That's without even having a pattern down. Ridiculous.

[Justin Donaldson]

Shaky head, wacky rig, and drop shot are a coanglers best friend...

[roadwarrior]

Troll a Rage Tail Eeliminator and out fish the boater!

 

 

 

[FloridaFishinFool]

I don't have a problem with fishing from the back of the boat. I guess here in central Florida I am spoiled by having some great waters around me that are productive all the way around the boat 360 degrees.

I read the OP and all of the comments since and I get the feeling that there is a stigma being put on back of the boat fishing as though it is an automatic given that front of the boat = new waters = more fish and the back of the boat = old non-productive waters = no fish. And for me it just is not so cut and dry like that.

On a recent fishing trip on the St. Johns River I gave up the front of my own boat to a fishing friend of mine who thinks he knows where all the fish are. So to avoid conflict over where to go, I told him on that day you have the front, I'll take the back, go where you want to go. You drive.

I also told him there is no imaginary line dividing front from back and I will cast around him sometimes if I see a fish say on his left and he is fishing off to the right I will make a cast right past him but never with any intention of messing him up. I'm just not going to let him have all the new water all the time while up front.

My attitude on this situation was actually passed down to me by my father. When I was a little boy my father told me that he and his older brother did a lot of fishing together in north Florida on the St. Johns River and smaller places. My dad made it a point to tell me that he would pyss his brother off to no end because of this very situation.

My dad said his older brother ALWAYS took front of the boat. He always had new water to fish. My dad being the younger, smaller brother was stuck in the back of the boat. My dad said his brother would cast to a spot and not get a bite and would often not make a second cast to the same spot. So my dad would cast into the same spot the older brother had just cast and catch a fish. My dad did this over and over to his older brother again and again. My dad said it really pyssed him off.

I suppose the whole point and lesson for me to learn was that the front of boat did not always mean catching all the fish. And my dad wanted me to learn this lesson and I did. So today I refuse to let this sort of back of the boat stigma affect me. I know there are fish all around me out where I fish and the back of the boat is no different to me than the front of the boat. No one standing up there can cast to every single spot out there around us. And the few degrees out 360 that fisherman up front is blocking me from is not where all the fish are! From the back of the boat I have close to 340 degrees of a circle around me to cast to.

So on December 24th about a week ago, I caught a fish in the same manner my father did to his older brother. The guy up front was moving the boat forward to where he wanted to fish next and I moved in right behind him casting a different lure to the same places he had just given up on and I catch one of the biggest bass I have ever caught over 9 pounds.

My point to all of this is that we are the ones putting a stigma on back of the boat fishing and this is something that is INSIDE of us, not out there on the water that does not care. And it can only be this way if you let it. Fish do not look at a boat and all run to the front of it to make themselves only available to front of boat fishermen.

Back of the boat fishing should make each of us a better fisherman, not a frustrated fisherman. If this is the case, then we need to change something inside of ourselves and with what we are doing and how we think about it, because simply switching a physical location from back to front is not the only solution here. We gotta look within ourselves and turn the back of the boat into the front of the boat inside ourselves, not let it defeat us!

This is the mystic in me speaking and my dad from beyond the grave! Thanks for the wisdom dad! Wish you were still here but I'll catch them for you now! And try and pass down to my sons what he passed down to me... fishing- and that the back of the boat is not a bad place to be- or as bad as some make it out to be...

What's that old saying? If life gives you lemons make lemonade? Same thing.

[GoCougs14]

Awesome thread, really good read. Been searching alot of threads for good info on all aspects of co angling and I learned alot from this thread!

[Glenn]

Here's some good articles on the topic;

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/back_seat_strategies.html

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/back_seat.html

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/backseat_fishing.html

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/fishing_partners.html

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/co-angler_clinic.html

Enjoy!