How do you break down all the science?

[scaleface]

2 minutes ago, NYWayfarer said:

Nowadays there's an app for that.

in the early 90's   a friend of mine bought a tournament fishing game   for PC's  of our home lake . He would add the current conditions , fish the tourney , then find out where and how the tournament was won . Then go out  and apply it to the lake . It was a huge failure .  

[NYWayfarer]

4 minutes ago, scaleface said:

in the early 90's   a friend of mine bought a tournament fishing game   for PC's  of our home lake . He would add the current conditions , fish the tourney , then find out where and how the tournament was won . Then go out  and apply it to the lake . It was a huge failure .  

Sounds like what I did with one of the first PC football games that came out. You could add the current conditions and stats while playing the season. I played my NY Jets that year and they won the superbowl...

[WRB]

"Shallow bass are hungry bass"...Dee Thomas, hall of fame bass angler who introduced flipping to tournament bass anglers.

After bass fishing for a very long time one thing came to mind; bass eat and sleep, it's easier to catch them when they are eating.

Back in the early 70's I was asked to do a seminar on bass fishing. I thought the audience  would be interested on what I knew about bass, it turns out the majority of bass anglers want to know a easy way to catch big bass. I sat down over a weekend and listed everything I knew about largemouth bass and tried to condense this to 1 sheet of paper to hand out at the seminar. What I came up with was my Cosmic Clock and Bass Calender, it was 2 sheets of paper. 

I thought this was perfect and started into my presentation in front of a few hundred audience and quickly realized it wasn't going over well with deer in the head light looks. So I offered anyone interested in all this detail I had a hand out and talked about how to catch bass on jigs.

Lession learned, few anglers are interested in the details and even fewer are analytical.

Tom

[Raul]

On 12/3/2018 at 5:15 AM, jbmaine said:

I've been reading / watching all the info I can on bass fishing this winter and I find it somewhat overwhelming. It seems like we are inundated with " science " on fishing. Fish patterns/ weather patterns/ water conditions/ specific reasons to use this or that line, lure, rod, reel , etc.. To use all of this info we need to be a combination of physicist, mechanical engineer , meteorologist , marine biologist, electronics expert, and so on. 

 Don't get me wrong, I am glad all this info. is out there, and I love learning more about the "science" of fishing, but for me it gets overwhelming and my brain screams overload.

 I have always fished on instinct, my gut, call it what you will. If a place looks " fishy " I'll stop and fish it. If I catch fish I'll find more similar places and fish them. If my sonar shows arches I figure they are fish and try to catch them. If a lure works I'll keep using it. If my rod will cast a lure 50" I don't know or care if a different rod will cast it 10 more feet.

 It seems fish need to eat, feel safe and comfortable doing it ,and some times need to breed.

So I guess what I am wondering is.

 Is there a simple way to break down all this " science" and knowledge to make it easier for a "dummy" like me to use it?

 For example, our first trip out this spring I'll look for sunny shallow water and see if there are any LM warming up on them. I'll look for rock piles, humps, drop offs etc. for SM. If I catch fish great. If not, then I'm stumped. With all the things I've read/ watched, I'm not processing what to do next. 

 Is there a simple way to relate all this info/ knowledge to every day fishing?

                                                        Thanks

                                                                 Jim

Whew ! That was some reading ....

 

Who ? Me ? ... I make it simple Jim, I use The Force, Obi-Wan told me that.

[Bladesmith,]

Me, I'm a big believer in science. Problem is; the bass in my lake aren't. I study my map, figure time of year and water temps and conditions, and determine where they should be and what they should be doing. Trouble is; the bass don't seem to have the same map. After exhausting all the possibilities of where they should be and what they should be doing, I usually start catching fish when I abandon all that knowledge I've accumulated over the years and start doing something unorthodox like going by feel. IMO bass fishing is kind of like prospecting for gold. You can have all the knowledge in the world about geology and still not be able to predict where you will find it. Bass are the same way. They are where they are at any given point in time, and just because you found them doesn't mean you can catch them. 

[jbmaine]

58 minutes ago, Raul said:

Whew ! That was some reading ....

 

Who ? Me ? ... I make it simple Jim, I use The Force, Obi-Wan told me that.

Ya, I tried using a Light sabre, Darn thing kept cutting my line

[scaleface]

I dont know where the bass should be .  I just strive to have something figured out   before the day is over . 

[frogflogger]

Bass tournaments illustrate that (during the same time frame) bass are caught on different lures, techniques, depths, etc. They are caught by anglers of all different types from highly organized to hardly organized - some approach with science and some with a lucky hat. The common theme shared by all successful bass fishermen is they are on the water fishing.

[papajoe222]

This is what I teach the kids and new anglers that want to learn about becoming good anglers (you are the type that want to learn). Don't expect instant gratification when approaching this sport. It's similar to school, you can't expect to be able to apply the knowledge of a college graduate if you're just entering high school.  You can do all the research and be able to access all the information they have, but you don't have the experience off applying that knowledge.

Start with bass fishing 101, how and why bass make seasonal movements and how, being a cold blooded creature, the conditions they are faced with, control their actions. From there, apply  a new piece of information each time you venture into their world. If, over the course of just one season you do this, you'll be spanking those college boys in just a few years. 

One word to the wise, if I may. Treat other angler's advice as what it is, advice.  Base your learning on facts and you won't make poor decisions. There is no best rod, reel, lure, etc. as there is nothing set in stone when it comes to this sport. Lastly, remember that even the most experienced, professional anglers are faced with conditions when they can't figure out what and why those little pea brained creatures do.  You, too, grasshopper will be there someday.

[scaleface]

I worked with a guy who was trying to get into bass fishing and he just gave up . He  bought a boat , rods reel lures and expected to have success . He would complain to me that he is fishing where the bass are suppose to be , with the correct lures and getting skunked . He just  wasnt cut out for bass fishing .

 

 I would say that more times than not , the bass are not behaving the way I suspect them to be .  Connecting the dots to try and figure it out  is fun to some people but not   others  .  I love it . 

[TOXIC]

51 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I worked with a guy who was trying to get into bass fishing and he just gave up . He  bought a boat , rods reel lures and expected to have success . He would complain to me that he is fishing where the bass are suppose to be , with the correct lures and getting skunked . He just  wasnt cut out for bass fishing .

 

 I would say that more times than not , the bass are not behaving the way I suspect them to be .  Connecting the dots to try and figure it out  is fun to some people but not   others  .  I love it . 

You bring up an excellent point.  I have seen it many times while guiding where I have 2 anglers in the boat fishing the same lures on the same gear in the same spot and one will be smashing them while the other doesn't get bit.  I have watched and looked for anything I see one angler is doing different from the other and it's just not there.  Always perplexed me.  I just tell them that they're just not holding their mouth right.  

[jbmaine]

Thanks again for all the replies,

From reading all of these It seems I am like many, When the fish do what we think they should do, catch rate is pretty good ( most of the time I do OK). But when something changes, and the fish aren't where we think they should be, I am not alone in sometimes struggling to find/ catch them. The best advise seems to be more time on the water/ keep looking until you find them, and even then, some days it just isn't going to happen.

 I guess reading and viewing all the specific info out there put me in the mind set that I was missing some critical link. 

Seeing someone say " if you go to X and use Y and Z you will catch fish, and having them catch a 5 lb'r while they're saying this, got me to thinking, what am I missing.

                            Thanks again

                                        Jim

[boostr]

I just go out and fish. I don't have the time to fish only when a chart or the stars tell me when. I go out when I have the chance. I do adjust to time of year though. I just hit the probable spots then fish the out of the box areas... Thats my science.

[RPreeb]

On 3/12/2018 at 5:15 AM, jbmaine said:

I've been reading / watching all the info I can on bass fishing this winter and I find it somewhat overwhelming. It seems like we are inundated with " science " on fishing. Fish patterns/ weather patterns/ water conditions/ specific reasons to use this or that line, lure, rod, reel , etc.. To use all of this info we need to be a combination of physicist, mechanical engineer , meteorologist , marine biologist, electronics expert, and so on. 

 Don't get me wrong, I am glad all this info. is out there, and I love learning more about the "science" of fishing, but for me it gets overwhelming and my brain screams overload.

 I have always fished on instinct, my gut, call it what you will. If a place looks " fishy " I'll stop and fish it. If I catch fish I'll find more similar places and fish them. If my sonar shows arches I figure they are fish and try to catch them. If a lure works I'll keep using it. If my rod will cast a lure 50" I don't know or care if a different rod will cast it 10 more feet.

 It seems fish need to eat, feel safe and comfortable doing it ,and some times need to breed.

So I guess what I am wondering is.

 Is there a simple way to break down all this " science" and knowledge to make it easier for a "dummy" like me to use it?

 For example, our first trip out this spring I'll look for sunny shallow water and see if there are any LM warming up on them. I'll look for rock piles, humps, drop offs etc. for SM. If I catch fish great. If not, then I'm stumped. With all the things I've read/ watched, I'm not processing what to do next. 

 Is there a simple way to relate all this info/ knowledge to every day fishing?

                                                        Thanks

                                                                 Jim

I'm right there with you.  I'll also add the overload of shopping for tackle.  The first time I was in a BPS after deciding to try bass fishing after my 50 year hiatus, I left without buying anything.  My head was spinning.  The last time I had fished for bass the entire bass section in a tackle shop would have fit in one aisle at BPS.  Now I have a marginally better idea of what I'm doing, and before I go to Cabela's, I have a general idea of what I'm looking for.  

 

I feel the same way when reading some of the articles and watching the videos here at Bass Resource.  So much info, and so much of it that I am forced to modify because I don't (and may never) own the gear that the particular demonstrator is advising.  Ultimately, I now try to watch for methodology and just pass over the advice on rods and reels that I just don't have. 

 

At least for this season, I'll also be doing without any sort of electronics, so a lot of my fishing will be pure trial and error, searching... searching... searching, just like I did it growing up.  I expect to be doing a lot more fishing than catching, but that's just how it's going to have to be.

[bagofdonuts]

One of the things that makes bass fishing great is that there is something for everyone. Some folks get great satisfaction and enjoyment from the science behind the fishing, and in the end, knowing more of the science will bring more satisfaction to your hobby.

But it is not necessary to know all that to catch fish. I have bass fished for a long time and know quite abit about them, but most of the time I just like going fishin. I don't think much about science, i just fish and try to pay attention to what the bass are telling me and then try and repeat it.

I would say learn the science, enjoy it; but don't let it get in the way of fishing. There's an art to it as well.

[Graham]

Recreational Biology!