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  • Super User
Posted

With the season starting up (for us northeast guys at least) I figured I'd ask something of the more experienced guys on here. What do you feel was the biggest "leap" in your fishing that helped you be more successful? Did you have a season where you started approaching things differently and they started to click better? Sometimes (to be honest, a lot of times) I go out and I feel like I'm just missing something if that makes any sense. I might have a decent day still but rarely have those days where I feel "locked in" to what the fish are doing. 

  • Like 3
  • Super User
Posted

The biggest leap for me was the first fish I caught on a T rig plastic worm. Over 35yrs ago. It changed how I fished and where I fished from then on

  • Like 3
  • Global Moderator
Posted

I’m with you. I’ve been reading, talking on here, watching shows, and videos and I still haven’t had that light bulb moment. I’m fighting the urge to go back to beating the bank. 

  • Like 2
  • Super User
Posted

Confidence.

 

Condifience in the baits and techniques in addition to using the electronics more to locate the fish.

 

Throw in patience; map studying; reading books and articles; and time on the water to expand and support my confidence.

  • Like 1
  • Super User
Posted

Things got better  for me when I started thinking of fishing as hunting.

 

When hunting, it was never about the shot, but more about finding the deer

  • Like 9
  • Super User
Posted

My biggest thing has probably also been confidence. I'm a firm believer that this is a prime hobby where if you wanna get better you really gotta spend time and pay your dues...really take your lumps. Most things are that way I guess but I really notice it alot in bass fishing. If I didn't have confidence then I don't think I'd ever improve as id be more prone to just stay home after unsuccessful outings and id never get the experience required to adapt. Case in point my last several trips have been fishless...I realize a lot of it is water temp\ weather related...but years ago I would have just thought I suck and would just sit at home feeling bad for myself. Now days I feel like no matter how my previous trip went that I know what I'm doing and will get it figured out.

  • Like 1
  • Super User
Posted

Joining a bass club with lots of good fishermen exposed me to a multitude of techniques and equipment in a short time.

  • Like 1
  • Super User
Posted
11 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

With the season starting up (for us northeast guys at least) I figured I'd ask something of the more experienced guys on here. What do you feel was the biggest "leap" in your fishing that helped you be more successful? Did you have a season where you started approaching things differently and they started to click better? Sometimes (to be honest, a lot of times) I go out and I feel like I'm just missing something if that makes any sense. I might have a decent day still but rarely have those days where I feel "locked in" to what the fish are doing. 

  Reading about and watching videos of what other bass anglers do, can be very helpful. 

However for me, often times the info doesn't totally 'translate' to success on the water.

 

 So I will say most important factor for me that definitely Improved my fishing for both numbers & especially size was to make a concerted effort to find my own fish, my own way. 

  Also using my own definition of what a successful day on the water was, not someone else's. 

Many times that means there's bass caught.

Sometimes that means there's a ton of 'scouting' - especially on new & / or big water. 

 

 If I feel like I've 'failed' for some reason, that can put me in a bad place mentally, and especially spiritually.

Makes fishing the next time out far less enjoyable - perspective can be very powerful. 

When my mind's right - It's just Better. 

 

It would be all kinds of awesome to splash the rig and take off, stop at every spot & wack big bass, but that may not happen all the time. (OK hardly ever for me).

 

 If & when I can learn something / anything about the the bait or the bass on a trip - I'm feeling good.

 

Some of my most anticipated trips are when I've spent two days looking for the bait & the bass and right before I leave on the second day, I find them and leave them biting; knowing I'll be back before first light the next day.

Well that's a long sleepless night for me - regardless of what actually happens the next day. 

 

:smiley:

A-Jay

 

 

 

  • Like 9
  • Super User
Posted

Back in '74 I came to the conclusion that bass behavior was tied to water temperature, see The Cosmic Clock and Bass Behavior. This discovery change how I fished for bass.

The spawn cycle was obvious and well known, but not well understood....bass spawned in the Spring. When I figured out bass had 6 seasonal periods; winter, post spawn, spawn, post spawn, summer and fall, it changed everything by allowing me to know where to fish year around.

Tom 

  • Like 10
Posted

‘Locking in’ in to what the fish are doing also means accepting that they often aren’t doing much.   The closest thing to having a code is resilience.  
 

Passion feeds resilience.  Resilience feeds efforts.  Effort feed experience. Experience feeds wisdom.  Wisdom feeds resilience.  

  • Like 2
  • Global Moderator
Posted

Not sure when it was but I had a season when it really "clicked", in my head where I could really visualize what my bait was doing underwater and what I should be doing to best fish the area I was in. A few years ago it really hit me how much time I wasted fishing unproductive water and I started spot hopping a lot more and covering just the most productive areas instead of the areas that "this one time I caught a good one here 5 years ago but haven't caught anything since". Now if an area or spot isn't productive more often than not, I don't bother with it most days.

  • Like 4
Posted

the bass is a predator ... follow the forage ... the bass will be there ... find a pattern if you can ... make presentations that appeal to the bass not what you might want to present ... 

 

good fishing ... 

  • Super User
Posted
3 hours ago, Mobasser said:

The biggest leap for me was the first fish I caught on a T rig plastic worm. Over 35yrs ago. It changed how I fished and where I fished from then on

 

I have had this experience too. It wasn't strictly the first fish i caught on a T-Rig, but when I started using it regularly.

 

I have always kind of felt that the Texas Rig is the foundational presentation of bass fishing. Once you learn how to fish a t-rig, everything else comes easier because it trains so many basic skills, perceptual and motor, as well as problem-solving and mindset. It teaches you about location and depth, how to identify and cast to targets, as well as fearlessness about heavy cover, patience & concentration as you learn to feel the bottom and other objects, see and feel strikes, deliver proper hooksets...and bass looooooooove plastics anywhere, any time, so some version/weight/size of a texas rig can produce wherever or whenever you are.

 

I would take the IN-fisherman approach and identify three "next level" factors, based on the nature of the fish (F), location (L), and Presentation (P):

 

F: Learning about seasonal behavior patterns

L: Internalizing that location takes precedence over lure choice.

P: Learning to fish the texas rig!

 

 

  • Like 5
  • Super User
Posted

When I learned to turn the lights off! 

 

While I wholeheartedly agree with Texas Rigs as being the #1 presentation I truly learned how to feel subtle bites at night.

 

Night fishing does for your sense of feel what tungsten did for many of y'all. It focuses all your attention on what your lure is doing.

 

Oh yeah not just Texas Rigs but all your lures ?

  • Like 7
  • Thanks 1
  • Super User
Posted
10 hours ago, A-Jay said:

 

Sometimes that means there's a ton of 'scouting' - especially on new & / or big water. 

 

Some of my most anticipated trips are when I've spent two days looking for the bait & the bass and right before I leave on the second day, I find them and leave them biting; knowing I'll be back before first light the next day.

Well that's a long sleepless night for me - regardless of what actually happens the next day. 

 

 

 

 

I don't see myself as a "naturally gifted angler" that has been able to learn and put things together quicker than most on the water.  My improvements have mostly come as a number of little light bulbs here and there, and not just in one year of fishing.  I think "scouting" has been the biggest bulb to come on for me.  When I learned to graph more and fish less, things improved quite noticeably.  However, previous to this particular instance of illumination I had many smaller light bulbs come on and two in particular would be learning seasonal behavior and how it relates to structure and forage.  Without those smaller bulbs I wouldn't have known where to start graphing.  

 

Additionally, other much smaller bulbs seemed to click such as when I became proficient with a jig, or when I learned some finesse techniques that subtracted a number of fishless and near fishless days from my calendar.  It is a journey on which I never want to think I have arrived, because if I keep my mind open I hope to continue to have light bulb moments.

  • Like 4
Posted

I think the thing that helps me the most is just constantly trying to be more well rounded; always trying new baits and techniques and knowing when to use these tactics. 

 

Having a large arsenal, and knowing when to use it, can turn those slow days into great days.

  • Like 2
  • Super User
Posted

I think sometimes I focus too much on lure selection rather than location. Has anyone ever just had a couple styles of jigs on hand and gone fishing with nothing else and tried to find them? Or is that too narrow sighted? 

  • Super User
Posted

Fishing blind without any idea of where the bass should be, what depth and location, is very frustrating regardless of the type of lure being used.

For me having a basic concept of seasonal period bass behavior eliminates a lot of unproductive water. Sonar is your freind as it shows you what depth bait and predator fish like bass are at. Without a boat or sonar all anyone can do is try to select a high percentage area based on seasonal period and be observant to aminal activity around the shore area. T-rigged soft plastics with a sliding bullet weight is my go to lure when bank fishing in lieu of jigs because it snags less and gives you a wider range of worm selections that are easy to carry.

While jigs are excellent lures they tend to be a more precise presentation covering less water. If you know the areas where bass are located and the depth you expect strikes to occur then jigs can be a good lure to use.

Tom

  • Like 5
  • Super User
Posted
2 hours ago, Bigassbass said:

Going fishing is what has helped me the most, you can't catch fish unless you're on some body of water fishing it!   Keep at it wherever you are. 

Ha ha, simple approach but very effective.

 

For me it's been, keep it simple. 

I don't carry a large variety of tackle but rather a large inventory of baits that have proven themselves over and over.

 

Just a couple days ago was catching fish consistently on a certain bait and never strayed from it the entire outing.

 

Water temps are huge.

 

 

  • Super User
Posted

I've had a lot of light bulbs go off. They just don't always apply to the next scenario! A Native American elder was quoted as saying, "My Grandmother told me that the road of life is strewn with clues. Guess I missed a few." :)

 

 

 

  • Like 2
  • Super User
Posted

When I stopped trying to force the bass to hit the bait I was using, and started to let them tell me what they wanted. 

  • Super User
Posted

Fishing different water.  I was in a rut for years and followed some bad advice. When all you fish is hollows lakes with stained water you miss so much variety.  When I got my own boat and began to fish other venues things clicked.  I used to think 8 feet was deep.  Now I consider 58 feet as deep.  I view bass fishing as situation or conditional.  I look at the conditions and situation to determine where I would be if I was a bass and employ the lure and technique that I feel would be the most effective for that condition and situation.  I follow Coach Bill Belichik's  situation football philosophy and apply it to bass fishing.

  • Like 1
  • Super User
Posted

Back in the day, a friend of mine found out about a seminar,  the Bass Fishing Instutute presented by Indiana University.  The seminar was in Manhattan, Ks   I was living in Columbia, Mo at the time - Road Trip Time!  They spoke about stuff that I'd read about in various magazines available at the time, but their much more visual approach clicked with me some how.  Over the next 8 years, I attended the Institute 5 more times.   One time in Warrensburg, MO, twice in Springfield, MO, once in St. Louis and once in Kansas City.  Same information, some different presenters, each time I went I "got it" a little bit more.  Seasonal patterns, types of waters, different opinions on which bait to use where & when, etc.  It made my time on the water better because I had different things to consider  & think about.

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