Influencing others.

[ironbjorn]

Summer of 2020: One day (of many) I was catching bass after bass on a 1/4 oz Rat-L-Trap at a 6 acre nature preserve pond. I must have caught 30 to 40 of them. A man was there fishing with his female companion. They weren't catching anything. Every once in awhile he would say something along the lines of, "man, you're killing it" or "save some for us". Eventually he asked me what I was using. I don't like giving away what I'm doing on waters I fish but a few times in the past it has bit me in the buttocks. I said, "a lure". He said, "obviously, but what is it?". I knew I wasn't going to get out of telling him, so I said a lipless crankbait and he walked over to take a look. I didn't see him again for over a year.

 

Fall of 2021: About a month ago I was fishing this place and caught a few on a spinnerbait. This same man was there and once again asked me what I was using. I just told him upfront right away, a spinnerbait. He walked over to me and asked if I'd ever tried *this* as he shows me a lipless crankbait. I said of course, I fish them all the time. He said, "man, there was a guy out here last year just SLAYING bass on this. I asked what he was using and he said this. I went to Walmart and bought about 10 of them!" He didn't catch a bass this day. He came after me and left before me. I watched him blank. I wasn't fishing a lipless because for me, at this place, that bite had died a couple weeks prior. This guy didn't remember me at all, and he was probably wondering what my smirk was about.

 

A few days ago I went out (and got skunked, but it's to be expected right now, it wasn't even a good choice but I wanted to throw a spinnerbait so bad I couldn't stand it) to fish one of the spinnerbaits that came in my Fishmas package. Guess who else was there throwing around a spinnerbait. 

 

It's humbling when someone in life sees you succeeding and they want to do what you're doing. I'll give you that. There's also a lesson here that you can copy what someone is using, but you can't copy how they're fishing it, and it doesn't give you the knowledge of the where, when, and why.

[Jig Man]

One of the hardest things I have ever done was trying to catch the other guy’s fish.  Even in the same boat it can be nearly impossible.

[DitchPanda]

Was just gonna say you can't catch another mans fish...gotta find your own and do your thing

[Bluebasser86]

There use to be a small brick and mortar tackle shop here locally. The owner use to tell me he could always tell what I was catching my fish on by what certain people would come in and buy each week ?

[DitchPanda]

17 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

There use to be a small brick and mortar tackle shop here locally. The owner use to tell me he could always tell what I was catching my fish on by what certain people would come in and buy each week ?

That's a hell of a compliment 

[Tennessee Boy]

I think it was Gary Klein who told a story about how he was catching fish and was able to distract his co angler by offering him one of the lures he was catching them on.  Once they guy got the lure tied on Gary switched lures and kept catching fish while the other guy was not.  The co angler kept changing lures and never realized that Gary had figured out how the fish were relating to cover and it had nothing to do with the lure he was using.

[CrashVector]

Guess I'm different...I have zero issues telling people what I'm using.

[flyfisher]

1 minute ago, CrashVector said:

Guess I'm different...I have zero issues telling people what I'm using.

Same here.  I never understood the secrecy that a lot of people have around fishing, especially on a small pond.  Who cares, we are all out to have fun so why not share the wealth. 

[islandbass]

51 minutes ago, CrashVector said:

Guess I'm different...I have zero issues telling people what I'm using.

 

49 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

Same here.  I never understood the secrecy that a lot of people have around fishing, especially on a small pond.  Who cares, we are all out to have fun so why not share the wealth. 

Me three. Just because you tell them what you’re using doesn’t mean they will start magically catching bass like we do, especially if it’s apparent they fishing skills are not yet developed as yours are. Kinda a like shooting a basketball ball. ? if Steph Curry handed you his magic basketball you will NOT be draining 35’ 3-point shots like him. ?

[ironbjorn]

48 minutes ago, CrashVector said:

Guess I'm different...I have zero issues telling people what I'm using.

 

46 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

Same here.  I never understood the secrecy that a lot of people have around fishing, especially on a small pond.  Who cares, we are all out to have fun so why not share the wealth. 

Ponds are where I'm most secretive. I've shared soft plastic information in the past, to then discover the same soft plastics littering the ground. I've shared what hard bait and in what color I was using, to find that it suddenly becomes popular with the pond's anglers, and the effectiveness what I discovered through trial and error takes a hit and puts me back at the drawing board (which isn't always a bad thing). I'm a big believer in bass being capable of becoming conditioned, especially in small water. In small water I need to be doing what others aren't; I need to find the juice that others haven't. Fishing pressure requires it. A loud mouth is counter productive. I've seen ponds get fished out. I don't want to contribute to that because it directly negatively impacts me. Believe me, I understand kindness and sharing the wealth with others, but I guess I've become selfish because I've put my success during the happiest moments of my life (I'm happiest fishing) above the feelings of others, especially after being burned many times.

[CrashVector]

24 minutes ago, ironbjorn said:

 

Ponds are where I'm most secretive. I've shared soft plastic information in the past, to then discover the same soft plastics littering the ground. I've shared what hard bait and in what color I was using, to find that it suddenly becomes popular with the pond's anglers, and the effectiveness what I discovered through trial and error takes a hit and puts me back at the drawing board (which isn't always a bad thing). I'm a big believer in bass being capable of becoming conditioned, especially in small water. In small water I need to be doing what others aren't; I need to find the juice that others haven't. Fishing pressure requires it. A loud mouth is counter productive. I've seen ponds get fished out. I don't want to contribute to that because it directly negatively impacts me. Believe me, I understand kindness and sharing the wealth with others, but I guess I've become selfish because I've put my success during the happiest moments of my life (I'm happiest fishing) above the feelings of others, especially after being burned many times.

 

Fair enough.  I wouldn't want my easy spots fished out either, but honestly, THE spot where I know I can go pretty much ANY day and catch a few...is also one of the most highly pressured ponds in my state.

 

It's 10min from my house...all bank fishing, and 30-40 people fish it every single day.

 

It's a big pond...like 20acres, but I still have no issues catching big bass there pretty much at will.

 

It's not uncommon for me to be standing there with 10-15 other people fishing....I'm just usually the one catching them lol

 

In fact, one of the most common conversations with my fiance goes like this 

 

I grab a baitcast combo.  "Where ya going?"

 

"The lake.  I wanna catch three or four then come home.  I'll be back in 20-30min."

"Oh okay."

 

I swear by powerbait pit bosses in ponds man.  Pretty much any pond I've fished, a pit boss puts em on the grass.

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, ironbjorn said:

Ponds are where I'm most secretive.

That's right. My core group gets the juice. We share everything. Everyone else, oh well. However, once in a while a lake regular from outside of the group gets thrown a bone if we like them and they're struggling, and they always are. It's a grind around here these days due to the merciless bucket brigades.

55 minutes ago, CrashVector said:

It's a big pond...like 20acres, but I still have no issues catching big bass there pretty much at will.

A 20 acre pond near the equator with an extended growing season and possibly multiple spawns is a different kettle of fish compared to a 20 acre pond in a cold water state. Water temps here are currently 39* and dropping.

[Deleted account]

We (everyone) affect others directly and indirectly for better or worse by just being, nothing to do with fishing. Merry Christmas.

[CrashVector]

8 hours ago, PhishLI said:

That's right. My core group gets the juice. We share everything. Everyone else, oh well. However, once in a while a lake regular from outside of the group gets thrown a bone if we like them and they're struggling, and they always are. It's a grind around here these days due to the merciless bucket brigades.

A 20 acre pond near the equator with an extended growing season and possibly multiple spawns is a different kettle of fish compared to a 20 acre pond in a cold water state. Water temps here are currently 39* and dropping.

Absolutely..I wasn't criticizing you.  In those circumstances, I'd probably do the same 

[scaleface]

So three years ago I was slaying bass out on a point . A couple of guys trolled out to see how the heck I was doing it . I showed them my Texas rigged Jelly worm  , then left them there to fish while I  try other spots . Three years later they are still on that point . They are probably there right now .

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, Deleted account said:

We (everyone) affect others directly and indirectly for better or worse by just being, nothing to do with fishing.

-Yoda

[thediscochef]

On 12/23/2021 at 10:00 PM, ironbjorn said:

 

Ponds are where I'm most secretive. I've shared soft plastic information in the past, to then discover the same soft plastics littering the ground. I've shared what hard bait and in what color I was using, to find that it suddenly becomes popular with the pond's anglers, and the effectiveness what I discovered through trial and error takes a hit and puts me back at the drawing board (which isn't always a bad thing). I'm a big believer in bass being capable of becoming conditioned, especially in small water. In small water I need to be doing what others aren't; I need to find the juice that others haven't. Fishing pressure requires it. A loud mouth is counter productive. I've seen ponds get fished out. I don't want to contribute to that because it directly negatively impacts me. Believe me, I understand kindness and sharing the wealth with others, but I guess I've become selfish because I've put my success during the happiest moments of my life (I'm happiest fishing) above the feelings of others, especially after being burned many times.

this happened to me this year, I think. It was either conditioning or weather. I'm banking on weather but I won't really know until next year. This particular pond is stocked with trout in the winter and you'll never get a fishable spot on the bank unless you show up at stupid hours when the park is technically closed. If the game warden or the sheriff wanted to make some money, all they'd need to do is sit out there in plain clothes for an hour on the weekends - it's a neighborhood fishing pond managed by TPWD and I see people break the law every time. Either keeping undersized bass, using cast nets, having more than two rods, etc. My favorite thing that happened regularly this year was fishing this pond with one rod and just CRUSHING the bass, while these guys with like six rods aren't catching a thing.

Anyway - off my fishery soapbox - I used the same bait for like 22 of 30 days in October at this exact spot and had great catch rates. I mean I was going there and picking up 10 bass in under 2 hours, which is pretty great from the bank on such a pressured pond. Most of the people around me don't even realize there's bass in there until I pull one out. The skirtless chatterbait just slammed it...I theorize because it was different from what they had been seeing. The other piece of this is that I was casting at angles and directions nobody else was either...much closer to cover. Now, since a few weeks before trout started, I'm not catching a thing there. It's been freezing a few times at night, so I know the water is colder than it was, so I think they may just be deeper. Which is harder to fish with the techniques and lures I'm familiar with.

I was not particularly tight lipped about the specifics of what I was using...but the nearest shop with a chatterbait micro is a solid hour round trip. Most guys can find a catch elsewhere on what they already have...and aren't willing to drive for such an underwhelming yet highly specific bait. So I didn't have a problem with that. I did give a few away to some folks there who were obviously just starting out, but I'm guessing they didn't get much mileage.

Whether the slowdown is from water getting colder plus trout stocking...hard to say. But I became reasonably convinced in November that they had figured me out. Given my complete aversion to the insanity of stocked trout fishing, I'm hoping that a 4+ month break from that spot will make my preferred lure effective again. Until then, I'm at other places, and finally picking up some work on a feature film. 

[Alex from GA]

To show the kindness of others; I was fishing for stripers that were boiling and not catching anything while a nearby boat was killing them.  They noticed I was struggling and came over and gave me the bait they were using and told me how to fish it.  I thanked them and proceeded to catch several fish.  I returned it when the bite was over and went to the tackle shop and bought a few.  It was and underspin with a pearl fluke. 

[gim]

I don't fish ponds so I can't comment on what it might be like to fish there amongst others.  Rarely do I get people ask me what I catch fish on.  I can't remember the last time I asked someone other than a family member what they were biting on.

 

If someone asks me where and how I'm catching fish, my response is generally not very detailed.  Really depends on what lake I was fishing too.  If I say "the west end of Lake Erie" its not giving out much for details whereas if I say a specific reef or spot on a lake, or if I simply name the small lake, that would be disclosed some pretty specific information.  Word on a good bite travels fast these days, especially if its for a species of fish people intend to keep like walleyes or crappies.  You tell someone where you got a limit of slab crappies in the winter or spring and there will be dozen of fish houses or boats there the next day.

[scaleface]

I found   good spots on Table Rock and LOZ by watching a couple of pros fishing on youtube . When I got a good look at the gps I froze , enlarged the screen , then went to Google Earth and found the exact spot  .

[TnRiver46]

12 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I found   good spots on Table Rock and LOZ by watching a couple of pros fishing on youtube . When I got a good look at the gps I froze , enlarged the screen , then went to Google Earth and found the exact spot  .

Awwww come on now. I though you wuz better than that!!!!