Angler progression - Non-linear?

[The Maestro]

This will be my 10th year since starting to fish on a more serious and consistent basis.  I've made slow and steady progress from the beginning but in the last couple of years I've seen my success (both in numbers and size) take a marked swing upwards.  

 

It just feels like the pieces of the puzzle that have been gathered through 1000's of hours on the water are finally starting to all fit together.  

 

Has anyone else noticed that after a certain point your progression really starts to accelerate?

[A-Jay]

Yes ~

And when I fish in places that have a healthy population of both numbers & size,

I often catch more & bigger bass.

Places that don't - well, not so much.

A-Jay

 

[CroakHunter]

I've been bass fishing for around 15 years (since I was 12). And in my first 8-10 years I caught some nice fish and figured some stuff out. Landed multiple bass over 5lbs (on purpose) and Went out on the water with an idea on what the bass should be doing. But this last 5-7 years I really feel like I have stepped up my game and can hang with some of the best "regular Joe's" in my area. Realizing that decent or good equipment helps, technique specific rods help, and using my head and past experience has put me over the edge from average to a pretty alright angler. 

[OCdockskipper]

I believe bass fishing is like many things in that the learning curve is non linear.  I believe it isn't even consistent, that instead there are moments or days when pieces come together and you make great leaps compared to weeks or months when you advance very little.  Often those long periods of no apparent growth are building the foundation for an explosion when the environment is right for it.

 

I remember reading this years ago -

 

"Like any plant, growth of the Chinese Bamboo Tree requires nurturing – water, fertile soil, sunshine. In its first year, we see no visible signs of activity. In the second year, again, no growth above the soil. The third, the fourth, still nothing. Our patience is tested and we begin to wonder if our efforts (caring, water, etc.) will ever be rewarded.

And finally in the fifth year – behold, a miracle! We experience growth. And what growth it is! The Chinese Bamboo Tree grows 80 feet in just six weeks!"

[papajoe222]

I don't know if I'd call it progression, but what I did (and still do) notice is that at some point things become almost automatic. Similar to driving a car. You see something and automatically respond to it, not react, if you follow.

Without thinking about it, you change your retrieve slightly because of something. You don't actually count down your jig on every cast because you know when it should hit bottom and when it doesn't, you set the hook without thinking about it.  Almost instinctively, you cast to the shady side of a lay down. You can't pin-point exactly when those responses began, well, because you weren't thinking about it at the time.

I think that is true with every piece of knowledge you acquire and every presentation you learn. Sooner or later you grow past learning it and just 'swing the hammer' like a carpenter.

[scaleface]

My  first big step was learning how to fish a Texas rig . A   few years later a major reservoir  was  created near by and I learned how to fish deep points , road beds.. . In    the last half dozen years I started employing a lot more crankbaits , especially the ultra deep divers . It never stops .  I feel just as comfortable fishing deep water as shallow water in all seasons .

[Bluebasser86]

I think the big turning point for me was when those moments when I was trying to break down what was going on and it clicked in my head started happening on the water instead of while eating dinner, that's when my learning really accelerated. I was catching more fish and able to experiment more because I spent less day just scraping to try to catch a couple fish. 

[TOXIC]

For sure at some point the puzzle comes together but as you get more experienced the puzzle gets bigger because you realize you have more pieces than you thought.  That's exactly the way I approached guiding.  Every morning after I put the boat in the water and while waiting for clients, I would start putting the "puzzle" together for that day and it was always different every day.  ALL the hundreds of factors that go into fishing are like puzzle pieces and you start putting them together to get the best chance of catching fish.  Time of year, water clarity, current weather, weather the last week, fish species, lake conditions, moon phase, and on and on....you'll find that the more you fish the more pieces you recognize and add to your personal puzzle to get a bigger picture.  He who puts the most pieces together successfully, catches the most fish, or bigger fish depending on which puzzle you want to take out of the box.   

[rejesterd]

Christ, it's been over 30 years now.. but maybe only 20 years fishing regularly and seriously.

 

It's a combination of linear and non-linear.  It's non-linear in the sense that every now and then, a big lightbulb goes off in my head and I realize I've learned something important.  Then it becomes linear for a while as I progress based on that new important thing I've learned.  

 

I think the best thing you can do is keep experimenting, even if it doesn't make sense to you at the time.  It puts the odds of learning a new important lesson in your favor.

[Deleted account]

Oh yeah, without a doubt, it's like one of those video games where you earn progressively more powerful and useful tools or weapons. You build on what you already have. And as a side note, very few things in life are linear. 

[The Maestro]

8 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I think the big turning point for me was when those moments when I was trying to break down what was going on and it clicked in my head started happening on the water instead of while eating dinner, that's when my learning really accelerated. I was catching more fish and able to experiment more because I spent less day just scraping to try to catch a couple fish. 

This is a big one.  Making the adjustments on the water instead of realizing it on the drive home or at the diner table as you stated.

3 hours ago, TOXIC said:

For sure at some point the puzzle comes together but as you get more experienced the puzzle gets bigger because you realize you have more pieces than you thought.  That's exactly the way I approached guiding.  Every morning after I put the boat in the water and while waiting for clients, I would start putting the "puzzle" together for that day and it was always different every day.  ALL the hundreds of factors that go into fishing are like puzzle pieces and you start putting them together to get the best chance of catching fish.  Time of year, water clarity, current weather, weather the last week, fish species, lake conditions, moon phase, and on and on....you'll find that the more you fish the more pieces you recognize and add to your personal puzzle to get a bigger picture.  He who puts the most pieces together successfully, catches the most fish, or bigger fish depending on which puzzle you want to take out of the box.   

Very well put.

12 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

I don't know if I'd call it progression, but what I did (and still do) notice is that at some point things become almost automatic. Similar to driving a car. You see something and automatically respond to it, not react, if you follow.

Without thinking about it, you change your retrieve slightly because of something. You don't actually count down your jig on every cast because you know when it should hit bottom and when it doesn't, you set the hook without thinking about it.  Almost instinctively, you cast to the shady side of a lay down. You can't pin-point exactly when those responses began, well, because you weren't thinking about it at the time.

I think that is true with every piece of knowledge you acquire and every presentation you learn. Sooner or later you grow past learning it and just 'swing the hammer' like a carpenter.

It absolutely starts to become instinctual.  I can't really put my finger on anything specific as to why I've suddenly started to catch bigger fish.  It's just the culmination of A LOT of hours spent on the water.  This is hands down one if the coolest things about fishing I've experienced to this point.

[Paul Roberts]

Congrats on your success!

 

Hmmmm... I really can't remember. I gain new insights all the time. Each season, more and more comes together. I do a ton of reading, both fishing, fish, and ecosystem stuff and that simply takes time to acquire. One thing I've noticed over the years is that I get more out of everything I read now. Even fishing articles I read years ago, I can now "read between the lines" a lot better -get more out of each of them. In education circles, that's called "transfer", the ability to take what you know to better access new information and ideas. Yes, it is a progression. Enjoy the journey, I say.

 

As to "instinctual", or maybe long term memory and second nature... Our bodies have a "record button", and the more you see and experience, the more you'll recognize when you're out there on the water, or in the woods. One of my favorite quotes, paraphrased: "There is only as much beauty available to us (in nature) as we are prepared to appreciate. And not a grain more." -HD Thoreau

[The Maestro]

19 minutes ago, Paul Roberts said:

Congrats on your success!

 

Hmmmm... I really can't remember. I gain new insights all the time. Each season, more and more comes together. I do a ton of reading, both fishing, fish, and ecosystem stuff and that simply takes time to acquire. One thing I've noticed over the years is that I get more out of everything I read now. Even fishing articles I read years ago, I can now "read between the lines" a lot better -get more out of each of them. In education circles, that's called "transfer", the ability to take what you know to better access new information and ideas. Yes, it is a progression. Enjoy the journey, I say.

 

As to "instinctual", or maybe long term memory and second nature... Our bodies have a "record button", and the more you see and experience, the more you'll recognize when you're out there on the water, or in the woods. One of my favorite quotes, paraphrased: "There is only as much beauty available to us (in nature) as we are prepared to appreciate. And not a grain more." -HD Thoreau

Very true.  I'll re-watch fishing shows I have pvr'd and pick up on things I miseed before.  Subtle things they don't talk about like how they work the bait with the rod, details on the areas they fish etc...  it's amazing looking back at how all this info was really pretty much useless even though we'd hear it and read it over and over.  But like you said at some point you just start to extract more from this information.

[NHBull]

My biggest improvement has been in locating fish and reading water and weather patterns.  This probably accounts for the majority of my recent success. 

 

Also, there is no substitute for time on the water and the summers are limitless. This allows me to dedicate a full day to use only 1 or 2 set-ups, expanding my comfort zones

[Turkey sandwich]

I had a similar conversation about this kind of stuff over the weekend while teaching a friend to fly cast on the river.  

 

Early on, we have to focus on some real basic stuff - casting, learning to feel through a rod, very basic presentations.  And this stuff is a lot to focus on early.  Simply, we don't know what we don't know.  There's a whole lot of excitement and a whole lot of ignorance that comes with it.  

 

Once you get the basic stuff down and you put in years of data entry (be it via a notebook, journal, laptop, or the ol' brain), you realize that a whole lot of your learning happens off the water.  This, to me, is a big step that a lot of guys just don't take because it feels like work to read maps, water gauges, fishing reports, tournament results, researching different ways to present, and of course practicing off the water.  It's a lot more than filling a cooler full of beer or rolling up whatever and simply heading out for the day to try your luck.  I find that I get much luckier the more I fish mindfully and put in work.

[Deleted account]

57 minutes ago, NHBull said:

My biggest improvement has been in locating fish and reading water and weather patterns.  This probably accounts for the majority of my recent success. 

I know it can be a foreign concept to a niche of anglers obsessed with techniques, patterns, and magic lures, but 90+ % of catching fish, (any fish) is finding fish. 

[The Maestro]

1 hour ago, Turkey sandwich said:

I had a similar conversation about this kind of stuff over the weekend while teaching a friend to fly cast on the river.  

 

Early on, we have to focus on some real basic stuff - casting, learning to feel through a rod, very basic presentations.  And this stuff is a lot to focus on early.  Simply, we don't know what we don't know.  There's a whole lot of excitement and a whole lot of ignorance that comes with it.  

 

Once you get the basic stuff down and you put in years of data entry (be it via a notebook, journal, laptop, or the ol' brain), you realize that a whole lot of your learning happens off the water.  This, to me, is a big step that a lot of guys just don't take because it feels like work to read maps, water gauges, fishing reports, tournament results, researching different ways to present, and of course practicing off the water.  It's a lot more than filling a cooler full of beer or rolling up whatever and simply heading out for the day to try your luck.  I find that I get much luckier the more I fish mindfully and put in work.

So true.  In some weird way I miss those days when it was all so new....the excitement of thinking a lunker could be hiding under the next lily pad....blissfully ignorant to the fact that I really wasn't fishing very high percentage water.

[BuzzHudson19c]

On 7/10/2018 at 8:52 PM, The Maestro said:

Has anyone else noticed that after a certain point your progression really starts to accelerate?

Yes. I have fished for bass since I was a child and sometime in my early 20's it started to click. Once I stopped focusing on lure selection and instead focused on where the fish are it got a lot easier. Ever since I added techniques to my arsenal and gotten better every season.

[Brew City Bass]

I feel like every time I go out I learn something new or get better at a technique. I specifically feel this way when the fishing is tough. It makes me really focus on what I am doing. 

Some days I can go out and throw anything and get bit. Other days it's an absolute grind for 5 fish and that's when I notice how much I progressed.