Am I becoming a better bass angler or did I just get lucky?

[Cgolf]

So on a recent week long trip I landed the most largemouths ever on that trip (taken yearly, yes I keep records of how many fish caught and how many fish caught on each lure along with trip logs with weather conditions. I honestly thought the previous record would never be touched. I have used this data to limit bad spends on tackle and to also learn what works over time. So leading into the trip I bought some baits like a flat sided squarebill and the newer flicker shad shallow 7 a week before the trip.

 

The weather was not great all week with some storms and at least one cold front. I generally had to grind out the fish, only getting 2 strings of 5 fish on 5 casts and 4 fish on 5 casts. The interesting part was in one case I picked up on my father in law getting bit one night on a RES and my lipless happened to be a quake thud also started catching them. That night though, I have known orange craw is a good June color but my gut said go with the 1/4 ounce instead of the 1/2 ounce he was throwing. Sure enough the next day, I landed 45 bass on that bait and he got maybe 3 on the larger size. Once the bite slowed that afternoon I picked up a plastic again and caught 3 fish and I knew the lipless bite was over and went back to plastics. The last change that stuck out to me was on the last day it was quite windy so boat positioning was a challenge, especially with 2 people and I made 2 decisions that helped me get my PB fish count. I downsized my spinnerbait to an 1/8 ounce bait and picked up some bass on a spinnerbait bite that had disappeared, and then I made the decision to pick up the flicker shad after the plastics weren't even working and I pretty quickly picked up 11 bass, and it was really easy too, they were pretty much jumping on the bait.

 

After I got a bass on my last cast and was letting my father in law finish fishing we saw the funniest take ever. He was using a smaller flicker shad that had gotten out of tune from pulling it off a reed. It basically barrel rolled back to the boat. We watched a short bass come up and take this lure that I honestly thought would repel fish. It was a nice way to end the trip with him getting a fish and it not being the brightest fish in the lake giving us a good laugh:)

 

So has my experience helped me and I have grown as a bass angler, or did I get lucky? Heck is it a combo of the two. The above is the decisions that stick out in my head, but I made others each day as well.

[detroit1]

I hate to tell you but yeah, you are getting better.  But i think one gets better after every time out, if you are really trying to learn or improve. Luck has something to do with it. (i think luck comes in to play more than most folks do).  Congrats, pb's of anything is always fun.   1/2 - 1 oz. gold willow #4 and #5 spinnerbait is my favorite windy throw.

[Mobasser]

I say any time on the water can make you a better fisherman.I think your becoming a better bass angler.

[TOXIC]

I found that I did a lot better once I quit counting fish.?

[Cgolf]

10 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

I found that I did a lot better once I quit counting fish.?

 

I work in the sciences on the instrument design/test side so I have the engineering mindset and am very analytical. I also found I was wasting a ton of money on baits I don't use. So this has really helped me figure out my purchases and save money and storage space. I do find I don't fish to a certain number, it just helps me to analyze each trip, usually 4-5 each day we are up there. 

 

Right now I am in the process of boxing up lesser used plastics and putting them in the basement. After some period of time I will likely give them away. Will be doing the same with crankbaits too. I have been burned by giving baits away though when I finally figured out how to use them years later and then realized I gave them away.

 

I am also strategizing my packing list for next year already lol. I get one to two week long fishing trips a year, so planning is part of the fun for me and cracks up my wife so a win win.

[Team9nine]

1 hour ago, Cgolf said:

So has my experience helped me and I have grown as a bass angler, or did I get lucky? Heck is it a combo of the two.

Sounds like a great trip. I’m going with combo of the two. An aggressiveness on the part of the fish, for whatever reason, always helps bite numbers - some days/times the fish just don’t bite, and there’s little you can do to force the issue. But, there are certainly decisions in location, presentation, etc. that can make a big difference in final outcomes. Great trips happen when both parties come together at the same time.

[Choporoz]

3 hours ago, Cgolf said:

Am I becoming a better bass angler or did I just get lucky? Am I becoming a better bass angler or did I just get lucky?

Yes....but be prepared to ask similar question after your next skunkish outing

[Darth-Baiter]

ebbs and flows..ebbs and flows.  

[Cgolf]

On 7/6/2023 at 11:17 AM, Darth-Baiter said:

ebbs and flows..ebbs and flows.  

 

This is an interesting lake. The biggest thing that will tank the number of fish I catch is the wind. This lake can an will get 90% unfishable. Luckily this trip I only had one day that I got two trips in. Some days I just have to adjust the baits I use due to the wind.

 

The actual fishing this year was slow but consistent in a way. This was a year that the stars aligned weather wise. Pre trip I was expecting half the number of fish I caught to be a successful trip, little did I know.

[Swamp Girl]

On 7/6/2023 at 8:11 AM, Cgolf said:

only getting 2 strings of 5 fish on 5 casts and 4 fish on 5 casts.

 

^Wh-what?^ This is extraordinary fishing and I say this as someone who's had quite a few hundred-bass days on wilderness lakes. Even on a hundred-bass day, five fish in five casts is rare. The bass have to be clustered AND active AND you have to be tossing what they want. 

 

All I know is that someone days I am the Bass Master and some days I am the Doofus in a Canoe who struggles to catch a single fish. Heck, I've had five one-fish days in 2023. I've also caught the biggest bass of my life in 2023. As the guys upthread wrote, a fisher's success ebbs and flows. 

[Woody B]

Luck?  Luck can and does play a factor in many things but..........Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.