Fishing strengths VS versatility

[tie1on]

Most professional tournament anglers fish their strengths.For instance Denny Brauer and Tommy Martin fish jigs the MAJORITY of the time.David Fritts and Rick Clunn fish crankbaits the MAJORITY of the time.My strengths are a spinnerbait,Texas rig,and topwaters.I try to learn to fish a jig, tube,and a rattle trap but these lures are less productive for me.Is being versatile worth the time and money?Or should we just fish our strengths?I have alot of tackle that I dont use.

[squid]

Fishig your strengths is your first bet, but what are you going to do if they don't work for the situation of the lake or day?  Need to be some what versatile in other areas just incase you  are not catching ANYTHING!!  Practice never hurt anyone.  Need all I can get all the time....lol

[5bass]

You've probably heard this before but if you need to perfect a certain lure,when you have some spare time on the water,take only the bait that you need to work on.Say its a jig,take only jigs with you.If it's a crankbait,take only crankbaits and so on.Once you realize that you have to catch fish with that ONE type bait,you will figure out how real quick.

[Nick_Barr]

i say fish your strengths, but spend time learning these lures because you will ner know when youll need them.

[LONGEARS]

My thought is if you NEED to produce fish,than fish your strengh.If you are just playing work on other

things.Don't try other methods if you are not catching fish with your perfered method.It will turn a learning period into discourgament.

[Raul]

It depends a lot on how you look at it, you mentioned that jigs, tubes and lipless vibrators produce less fish for you, the situation is that your weakness with them comes because you 're not able to determine in which point or at what time they will be more productive, also because you haven 't developed the proper technique with them, in other words, you lack of enough practice. The only way to catch fish with those baits you don 't use is to forget about the baits that produce and fish only with the ones that you don 't use, with time you will learn. I 've got, like many of us around here, tons of baits, all of them catch fish in the right conditions but I learned how to fish them all properly. There are certain techniques that I normally don 't use, C rigging is one of them but there 's a reason for it, I don 't use it regularily simply because in the lakes where the technique would be appropiate are infested with tough submerged mesquite trees and brush, having a bait dangling several inches behind yor sinker in those conditions of heavy cover is not a good idea because it 's going to hang up pretty fast. The other lakes are the opposite side of the coin, they are coverless, with steep banks and clear water and dropshotting is better suited for them than C rigging.

[Chris]

Well if you ever take the time to look down the list of any tournament you can tell from tournament to tournament what the major patterns where based on who placed where. If a jig bite was the major pattern angler x,y,z place high. If you look down the list and anglers a,b,c placed high then it might have been a crankbait or spinnerbait bite that was the major pattern. Some tournaments play into anglers stengths and it shows at weigh-ins. If you want to place more often you need to be more versatile. There is not one lure that is going to work all the time every time. So you can either live and die by a bait or survive with being more versatile.

[tritonman]

Strength may also be dictated by weather conditions, so you may become versable to match conditions. It's always best to know how to use many different bait for each condition.

[Nick.Culver]

I believe in perfection. I believe that you have to try and perfect certain techniques. I' don't believe that's possible but i'm sure going to try. I try to get really good at a technique on each spectrum. I feel I'm a really good jig fisherman. I also feel i'm good with cranks. Now I'm looking for niche in the finesse world. Now I wan't to perfect finesse fishing. In the dog days of summer theirs nothing better or when a cold front moves. Also look at docks or wood. I try to learn docks as well as I can because they're every where. Then I feel I'm good at picking apart vegatation. Then theirs wood or sticks. That my hardest to figure out. i can put together a good pattern on docks and vegatation, but sticks get to me. I don't know what's up with it but I just have trouble. I think it because the lake that I've picked apart and have applied to theories or big lakes that I fish. My little lake only has a little bit of wood. It full of vegatation and docks, but has no wood. i'm looking to fix this year. I guess my point is to learn techniques that will work under most conditions.My goal is to perfect three techniques. By perfecting I mean to learn them to the best of my abilities. Denny isn't just known for his Pitching and Flipping of a jig, but also for his knowledge of boat control and his ability to pick apart a dock. So don't just stick to lure to perfect but docks, wood, and vegation. Lures get you the fish if your around them and that's the only time. No matter how good you are at working a lure. You still have to put it in front of the fish. Versitility is the key. Look at the west is stacking up in the bass fishing world. Their doing good. Especially when the fishing gets tough. I really strive to go out under harsh conditions. Weather doesn't look at when yourr tournaments are. So getting good under tough conditions is key to me. That's my .02 cents. hope it will help all of you others as well. i've spent many nights pondering this very same question.

[Gatorbassman]

Speeking of Denny. He had a little bad luck on Clarks Hill Lake today. He had one of our beloved Georgia Pines reach up out of 26ft and grab his lower unit. He was over an hours boat ride away, but never fear he was back fishing in two hours. Thanks to a backup boat. He still ended up with an O.K. stringer of 3 good fish, but no top 12.

[tie1on]

Nick thank you for your response.I work real hard on trying to be versatile.I push myself like you do to try to perfect a lure,technique,or finese fishing.My problem  is that by the time I learn one lure and several different ways to fish it.I get rusty on the things that I really like doing or that I have already mastered.It doesnt take long to get back to my old ways but I cant stand to be rusty with those lures and techniques when I pick them back up.

[earthworm77]

I write a lot of articles. As I go back and review them one of the gospel messages I seem to always touch on is that versatility is the key to success. It is great to have a strength. I have several but I think that being well rounded is more efficient. And also, the pros may tell you they do things one way, when in fact they do it another. They are less obligated to let you know what tactics they use to put food on the table.

[crankbait]

The truth of the matter is this: Lure companies don't want you to know that Denny, Rick, and all the other guys throw what the conditions of the fishing dictate them to throw.....Versitility is the key to fishing but make sure you know when to say you have enough of that one bait to do the job.!

[D.Taylor]

Actually Lure makers will benefit no matter what the conditions are. If some one wins on there brand of crank bait they sell alot of crankbaits.

The pros are more versitile then you think. Denny Brauer was throwing a Crankbait in one of the E50's. Hed have won the tourney if the fish didnt get off.

Its not knowing the technique as much as knowing the Conditions and the areas to use that technique in.