Technique Overload

[Deleted account]

4 hours ago, Mike L said:

To me there are 2 techniques...

To me there are no techniques. Fishing is fishing. 

 

[WRB]

When I 1st started participating on bass fishing forums (Bass Insider aka Oldschool) it became obvious that unlimited and unfiltered bass fishing knowledge could “overload” anglers with information quickly.

I wrote a thread on Beware of Overload” about 15 years ago.

I used the reference if a beginner golfer buying a bag of 15 clubs without knowing how to use any of them expecting to be a good golfer. The equipment doesn’t make you good, proper technique practiced properly does.

1. Proper casting technique, learn how to cast correctly. Learn how to cast under all types of fishing conditions accurately and  ease.

Watching other anglers fish is shocking how poorly they cast.

It’s like watching a golfer with a jerky jerky swing with no control where the ball is going. 

2. Trying to use every club in the bag before knowing how to use 1 is the same as anglers trying to use every rod they own and every lure they bought without knowing what they are doing.

3. Overloaded with information without understanding basic bass habits. Start at the beginning and Keep It Simple Stupid apply’s to bass fishing.

Tom

[Bubba 460]

Techniques, so many techniques, not only that but now you have rods especially made for certain techniques!  You have cranking rods, jig rods, drop-shot rods etc. Even reels geared for specific techniques. A person can spend a small fortune on technique equipment alone and the industry keeps putting more and more "technique" products out there.

 

Well I'm as guilty as the next guy, I have thousands tied up in fishing gear, more lures than I'll ever use in a lifetime. I don't know about you but I seem to keep using the same five or six lures over and over again, why?... because they catch fish! For me they are (in no particular order) a spinner bait, a jerk bait, a top water, a worm (couple of styles) A crank and a jig from Ned rig to larger. Those are warm water baits. Then you need a few for winter, some of the above can be carried over to winter but a few more come into play like a blade bait, swim baits and maybe a spoon. I don't like to get anymore "finessey" than I have too to catch a bass.

 

I like to start out power fishing then slow down to whatever starts getting bit. I don't know if you would call that a "technique" but it works for me. The fishing is easy, the catching is a little more tricky some days.

[WRB]

Someone needs to define the difference between a technique and a presentation?

Lets say I am jig fishing, jig fishing is the presentation. How I present the jig is the technique.

Tom

[MN Fisher]

4 minutes ago, WRB said:

Someone needs to define the difference between a technique and a presentation?

Tom

One example off the top of my head

Technique: T-Rig

Presentation: Anything from a 4.75" Zoom Finesse Worm tossed weightless to a 12" Zoom Magnum Ol' Monster punched with a 1oz weight.

[optimator]

27 minutes ago, WRB said:

Someone needs to define the difference between a technique and a presentation?

Lets say I am jig fishing, jig fishing is the presentation. How I present the jig is the technique.

Tom

It sounds like you just did 

[soflabasser]

It is best to master a handful of techniques than several techniques without knowing them well.

[Bluebasser86]

22 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

It is best to master a handful of techniques than several techniques without knowing them well.

This is how I learned. I'd pick a few baits each year to learn and really dedicate myself to learning them. If you try to learn 10 things at once, nothing sticks and you don't learn anything. When I learned to jig fish, I took 2 jig rods and a box of jigs and trailers for almost every trip for the entire year. I'm sure it wasn't the best bait option a lot of days, but it taught me how to fish a jig, even how to force them to eat it on days they don't really want to.

[scaleface]

Once an angler learns to detect bites with slow moving baits such as Texas rigs then all techniques are easy . There are some that I havent ventured into but there is no doubt in my mind that I can do them competently . Except for skipping .

[MGF]

A tool is useless to somebody who doesn't have the knowledge and skill to use.  I don't think you can separate the tools from the knowledge/skill and make any sense. 

 

I've seen people who will go into a well stocked tool box and always grab a crescent wrench and a hammer. Other people use that well stocked box to grab the right tool for the job at hand.

[bigbassin']

34 minutes ago, MGF said:

I've seen people who will go into a well stocked tool box and always grab a crescent wrench and a hammer. Other people use that well stocked box to grab the right tool for the job at hand.

Anyone with skill would know the crescent wrench is a hammer.

[the reel ess]

1 hour ago, bigbassin' said:

Anyone with skill would know the crescent wrench is a hammer.

This reminds me of our old auto shop teacher. He would hurt your feelings if he caught you with a screwdriver and a hammer in your hands at the same time. He reduced some guys to tears. It didn't take long to learn.

[Bird]

It's hard to overload a mind with limited resources but the resources within should not be a limiting factor. 

 

 

 

[galyonj]

17 hours ago, Mobasser said:

Do any of the more experienced fisherman here think that a beginner would do better by taking a simpler approach, and not try to absorb so much technique specific info?

 

I'm not gonna pretend I'm an experienced fisherman, but I would no sooner expect a beginner in the hobby to be intuit the best presentation for a given set of variables (water clarity, temperature, current, structure, etc) than I would expect a new racer to be able to eyeball the best line through the rollercoaster at VIR, or someone that's never touched a table saw before to be able to make me a nice set of cabinets.

 

But everybody wants to run before they can walk.

 

Same as it ever was.

[MGF]

For the past few years (maybe more) most of my fishing has been on the same river. It's kind of small and shallow. I'm rarely fishing water deeper than 4 ft and, for most of the year, anything deeper than 3 ft is a hole.

 

I can throw any bait in the water and the bass will see it but that doesn't mean they'll bite it. Not that this is anything but anecdotal but it sure seems like baits quit working. I'm always looking for fresh ways to present to the same fish in the same spot.

 

So...the more techniques (or is that presentations?) the better.

[galyonj]

4 minutes ago, MGF said:

Not that this is anything but anecdotal but it sure seems like baits quit working.

 

I don't think any presentation works literally every time it goes into the water, because the fish never got that memo. I try to tell the ones I find, but they all look at me like I'm an idiot.

 

Keep it as simple as you can get away with, but don't be afraid to experiment.

 

This is supposed to be fun. People forget that -- I know I do.

[ajschn06]

18 hours ago, Mobasser said:

I've seen quite a few post from novice bass fisherman here on BR about learning all the new techniques. We have so many now, it gets confusing at times.                    Many members here( like myself) started bass fishing before everything became so technique specific.                                         Is casting a spinnerbait into a stump field a technique? Or is casting a lipless bait around a choppy water cove a technique also? How about slowly reeling a big, 10" weightless worm over some pads or moss patches? Is this a technique too?                                       Do any of the more experienced fisherman here think that a beginner would do better by taking a simpler approach, and not try to absorb so much technique specific info?  I think they would do better this way.                    What are your thoughts here?                                                  

 

It really depends on what you want to accomplish.  If you are looking to get into tournaments and really be competitive, you'll need to be much more versatile to have consistent success.  Myself, as a "weekend angler" who gets out 3-4 hours a week- I like to throw jigs, swimbaits, bladed jigs/spinnerbaits, and toads so that's what I do.  I don't have many other options at my disposal.  I don't get skunked much, but I don't have many days where I bring in more than 2-3 fish over 3 pounds either.  I'm perfectly fine with that, you may not be....

[Catt]

2 minutes ago, galyonj said:

Keep it as simple as you can get away with, but don't be afraid to experiment.

 

We can make this sport as simple as possible or as complex as possible.

 

Choice is yours ?

[jimmyjoe]

18 minutes ago, galyonj said:

But everybody wants to run before they can walk.

 

Same as it ever was.

 

   Ain't that the truth!

   I'm just glad I've never been impatient like that!   ??  ??  ??

[MGF]

13 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

I'm not gonna pretend I'm an experienced fisherman, but I would no sooner expect a beginner in the hobby to be intuit the best presentation for a given set of variables (water clarity, temperature, current, structure, etc) than I would expect a new racer to be able to eyeball the best line through the rollercoaster at VIR, or someone that's never touched a table saw before to be able to make me a nice set of cabinets.

 

But everybody wants to run before they can walk.

 

Same as it ever was.

I guess the thing is that you have to start someplace. In order to progress with max success you have to focus on the right thing. Sounds simple enough but...there's always a but.

 

Ideally a new angler can be pointed to a method that's working. I started by following my father around the bank throwing his version of a floating worm. I didn't know how to cast, what a bite felt like, how to set the hook or even how to traverse the brush with any measure of grace but I could have confidence in the technique because Dad was catching fish.

 

Eventually I caught a few fish and branched out to other techniques (or is that "presentations"?) when it seemed like a good idea.

[Dens228]

I think some people confuse mastering a technique with knowing when to throw what.

Some approaches definitely are a more of a learned technique......for example jigs or topwater frogs......

Others are more of a method, reeling in a crankbait or a spinnerbait.  Of course there are some nuances to each method but some require more "technique" than others.  

[NHBull]

I think for a beginner it is far more important to learn how to detect a bite and set the hook than it is learn Techniques/presentations.

 

That is why when I take out beginners I like going for numbers and a wacky rig stick bait usually gets the call...followed by Neko and Trig of similar bait on a Med Spinning rod.

[galyonj]

5 minutes ago, Catt said:

We can make this sport as simple as possible or as complex as possible.

 

Choice is yours ?

 

Absolutely. And, too, complexity is relative based on the individual. Having a half-dozen different presentations tied to the front deck makes perfect sense if one is to the point in their growth that they have a discrete best-case use for each rig, but that many options and different flavors of muscle memory doesn't do someone that's new to the sport any good and, indeed, could actually prove a hindrance to their growth.

 

2 minutes ago, MGF said:

I guess the thing is that you have to start someplace. In order to progress with max success you have to focus on the right thing. Sounds simple enough but...there's always a but.

 

Ideally a new angler can be pointed to a method that's working. I started by following my father around the bank throwing his version of a floating worm. I didn't know how to cast, what a bite felt like, how to set the hook or even how to traverse the brush with any measure of grace but I could have confidence in the technique because Dad was catching fish.

 

Eventually I caught a few fish and branched out to other techniques (or is that "presentations"?) when it seemed like a good idea.

 

The hardest thing about learning a new skillset is knowing how to filter out the BS. Without guidance -- or with crappy guidance, which is worse, the whole enterprise becomes maze-like and frustrating. Fishing can be so even with guidance, because the fish eat what and when the fish wanna eat, and there's not a whole lot you can do about that.

[TOXIC]

Easy answer.....bait companies need to sell baits.  New technique means more sales.  Somebody has to feed the bait monkey.?

[FishinBuck07]

16 hours ago, Catt said:

Pick one topwater, one mid-depth, & one bottom contact lure.

 

Decide whether ya prefer shallow water or deepwater.

 

Once you're efficent with those 3 lures expand to others.

 

K.I.S.S. ?

This is one thing I still have to keep telling myself!  I have only owned my boat for a couple years now so I got overly excited and started buying stuff for every technique that I seen others fishing, that just got way too overwhelming and started to stress me out.  Had me questioning if I really even knew how to fish like I thought I did.  I realized this winter that I need to do just what you wrote and learn my lakes and then add different styles of fishing down the road later!  Definitely need to remind myself of the KISS thing all the time!  haha