One word of advice that changed your fishing career

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

What there a piece of advice, an article you read, or a conversation you had that changed your fishing career for better or for worse? If so what was it? 

[islandbass]

Keep the rubber side down. Oh wait, that’s cycling 🚴‍♀️ wisdom, lol. Translation: If the rubber side in not down, you’ve crashed, lol. 

Fishing Advice

Use the lightest line you can get away with. 
 

Try to learn something new on every outing (This came to me via personal discovery).

 

Let your rod and reel do the work for you when casting and fighting fish. They are tools after all. 
 

Take care of your equipment and they’ll take care of you. 

[Bird]

Finesse fishing won't compromise masculinity 😅

[Mobasser]

I was in my early twenties. Now I'm 67. A guy who owned a tackle shop told me to slow down. He said if you want to catch more bass, slow down. It's been true all these years.

[Rockhopper]

Use WD-40 

[Pat Brown]

Depth and speed and location and timing and type of cover - that's about all that matters YMMV

[Kirtley Howe]

To quote the immortal Bill Dance: Wet lines catch more fish. Which I take to mean you can't catch fish if your line is not in the water...so go fishing whenever you can.

[Columbia Craw]

Deeper

[A-Jay]

Over 16 years ago, I joined the Bass Resources Fishing Forums.

The benefits have been countless and priceless.

Thank You.

A-Jay

 

 

[gim]

17 minutes ago, Kirtley Howe said:

Which I take to mean you can't catch fish if your line is not in the water

Obviously you haven’t been watching the pros this season. Many of them don’t even make a cast until they spot at least a 3 pound fish on FFS.

[Kirtley Howe]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Obviously you haven’t been watching the pros this season. Many of them don’t even make a cast until they spot at least a 3 pound fish on FFS.

I will never fish like that. I guess that it is a good thing I am not a pro.

 

[TnRiver46]

9 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Obviously you haven’t been watching the pros this season. Many of them don’t even make a cast until they spot at least a 3 pound fish on FFS.

And set the hook into a channel cat 

[WRB]

Fish Lo-K-Tor. Discovering structure fishing using the original sonar unit change my bass fishing forever.

Tom

[gim]

In all seriousness, the one piece of advice that probably changed me was “be prepared.”

 

I took this as doing everything I could in advance to ensure that my gear, tackle, equipment, and my boat was operating properly so that I could reduce potential problems while fishing. Something as minor as a weak knot or buying cheap gas or using a dull hook could turn a good day into a bad one real quick. I try to control the variables I can because there’s enough items I can’t control working against me.

[king fisher]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good fish story.

[thediscochef]

If you do it long enough, whatever you're worried or excited about will eventually happen to you. Be patient, be ready

[herder]

Fishing Facts magizine in the early 70's, article about or by Charlie Brewer Do Nothing.

Light spinning tackle catching big Smallies.

Walleyes, Pike and Muskies were completely foreign to this suburban kid in North East Jersey.

[J Francho]

A couple guys in a bass boat pulled two decent fish out of the slop next to our dock. I asked them how they were able to fish those weeds and one showed me a Texas rig. They gave me some bullet weights and weedless hooks. A whole new world opened up to me. That was probably 40 years ago. 

[Scott F]

My fishing got so much better after I joined a fishing club where the members freely shared information. Being able to fish with a variety of other good anglers taught me more than reading all the books and magazines or watching videos. 

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

In all seriousness, the one piece of advice that probably changed me was “be prepared.”

 

I took this as doing everything I could in advance to ensure that my gear, tackle, equipment, and my boat was operating properly so that I could reduce potential problems while fishing. Something as minor as a weak knot or buying cheap gas or using a dull hook could turn a good day into a bad one real quick. I try to control the variables I can because there’s enough items I can’t control working against me.

I agree with this 1000% 

In the world of fishing there is so little we can control that I like to control everything that I possibly can. 

[MediumMouthBass]

99% of fish are in the water.

 

Never underestimate how close a bass is to the bank, or how shallow they might be.

Ive caught bass in inches of water, inches from the bank.

 

Line, lure, bait, color, and size mean nothing most of the time. If i took yarn, tied it to a hook with a piece of a plastic straw a bass would probably bite it. Do some things work better than others? Absolutely, but our human minds love to over complicate every single detail and next thing you know, youve got a room with 1 bait in 40 different colors you wont even use. 10 different brands of line, and enough lures to start a tackle shop. Its a rabbit hole within a rabbit hole. For trout fishing i can understand it, but bass arent line shy, and remember they need to eat to survive.

 

Some days are great, and some arent. Try making the bass-less days a learning day, maybe pracitice casting or skipping, try new lures and techniques, etc. And just because you didnt catch any bass, doesnt mean you have to tell the guys at the boat ramp that? You caught a 10lber for sure, state record, for sure, and stick to it.

 

Do the complete opposite of what the popular guys on youtube are saying to use for that week, if they have hundred of thousand of views, than more than likely the people in your local lake have heard about that bait, in that color.

 

And remember, fishing is all about the fun.

[Koz]

“Buy a kayak. It’s a cheap way to get into fishing and tournament fishing.” 🤦‍♂️😱🤣

[Susky River Rat]

Just have fun! Don’t measure your success to others. It’s easier now than ever to see other peoples catches. Try to measure up to them. The fact is you have no clue how long they fished or how many fishless days they had to get that monster bag.

I know some do enjoy going for monster bags. Which, if that’s what you enjoy and have fun with do it! Just do it for you not to impress others or measure up.

 

Ive had a lot more fun just fishing than every trying to best this or that guy. 

[FryDog62]

I can still hear my dad - “Adapt”

[Reel]

Fish where others don't.