Am I a bad Angler?

[GAMEOVER]

Man catchin just one fish a day is good, some days you wont catch crap because of weather, time, etc etc, then you have to go threw lures, setups etc etc til you find something that works cant catch em all the time every time.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Another point I'd like to add, along the lines of Jim's thinking is that you only suck if you don't learn anything.

An old friend of mine (passed away sea captain) always chanted and preached that EVERY FISH TELLS YOU SOMTHING!  Even the ones you didn't catch.  

You learn from them too whether it's where the fish aren't or what they aren't willing to bite.  These mental notes are part of the process that leads you to figure things out.  To find "the angle" as an angler if you will.

Time, attention, patience and recall.

[dodgeguy]

there's this one lake by me you can catch 50 a day on a good day and 20 sucks.i fish it once in a while to make myself feel good.the lake i usually fish is much tougher and a great day is 12 fish but 4 is average.the payoff is the average size is much bigger than in the #'s lake.

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

We are not the folks fishing kiddie ponds downtown stocked with twice as many 2# hungry fish as nature could sustain, that will bite a bare hook. Few of us are fishing a lake greatly overstocked with ravenous juvenile bass eager to eat anything moving. We are no less than hunters going into the wild after a deer, squirrel, or bear. Those animals will evade you the same as a bass will avoid contacting you. It takes skill, luck, and a favorable wind to get close enough to get a shot. Most come away with no game. Deer hunters invest weeks of days without a shot, most getting their only buck that was distracted in the rut. We do our best when wary bass are distracted with the spawn. Anglers invest a tremendous amount of time in hopes of finding feeding bass beyond the insanely easy spawn catch.

Welcome to the world of bassing, all ye not filling the livewell. It's part of it. As said above, listen to the fish. Learn from those that get away. Learn from those in your hand. Study them. Are they thin, hollow bellied? Not much food fo them today, so they will take more risk. Go for the wild, noisy, easy to find lures. Fat bellied? Food is plentiful. They won't take risk, more likely to avoid artificial lures. Time for fat lures that look like the real thing, put right on their head. Belly crunches when massaged? Feeding on crawfish, so imitate those. Shad tail sticking out the throat? Steal it and examine the colors and size, imitate that. Swim the lure like the shad swims, evading becoming a meal. You read the signs like a deer hunter reads signs like rubs, scrapes, licking branches, cropped honeysuckle or stirred acorns, tracks & trails, droppings, mashed bedding grass.

Jim

[Brad_Coovert]

Another point I'd like to add, along the lines of Jim's thinking is that you only suck if you don't learn anything.

LBH, that is so, so true.

My #1 goal is to have fun

My #2 goal is to learn something, anything on that trip. Something about the lake, something about the fish, something about a new rig or a better way to fish something. Any knowledge gained makes any trip a success, even if it's fishless.

Now, remembering what I learned, that is a whole different story.

Brad

[Siebert Outdoors]

I hope I can explain this right so I will give it a shot.

I fish quite a bit and all of my info I give I try to be 100% accurate.  I do this because there are so many people that bend the truth.  I just think that is poor sportsmanship.

Yes, 20+ fish days do happen, 50+ fish days happen,100+ fish days happen.  I fished Lake St Clair this year and our boat 2-3 people avg over 100+ fish on multiple days.  We also fished extremely hard and avg 9-14 hrs a day.  This is rare but if you locate and pattern fish it can happen.  I fished a buddy tourney one time and we caught over 60 fish.  The catch is we only weighed 3 I believe.  If we fished the points we could catch a fish around 14" like crazy but a keeper was 15".

The total counts I give are on "bass" unless I would say I caught 3 that weighed 3lbs.  

Like said above.  We dont report the bad days.  If I posted everytime I went fishing and said "I caught 2 fish or I caught 1 fish" alot of you guys really wouldnt care especially if I reported I caught 1 that was 10" long today.  I fished for 5 hrs too.  It happens.  We only like to see the good stories.

These forums have helped me out a ton in my fishing capabilities, by no means do I think I am a pro.  I learn from others posts and try these techniques.  You do have to sift through some BS but take the good out of the posts and put it to good use.  This will make you(all of us) a better fisherman.  When I first started on these forums I was a bank beater.  Since then I have shed that and started catching better fish, and learning how to locate them.  

IMO fishing from the bank for bass is alot harder then a boat.  Your restricted by the terrain.  

On a typical outing my goal is the same as Brads

My #1 goal is to have fun

My #2 goal is to learn something, anything on that trip.  Something about the lake, something about the fish, something about a new rig or a better way to fish something.  Any knowledge gaines makes any trip a success, even if it's fishless.

[RiskKid.]

Great post SFC_AL, sure makes me feel better! I just enjoy getting out and having fun hoping to learn more and get better. Wish I could get out more than I do but that work thing always gets in the way. Usually I only get to go for 2-5 hours at a local small lake once or twice a week. It's either bank fishing or rent a jon boat (paddle or trolling motor only). No electronics etc... so it makes you hunt somewhat blindly for structure, cover and fish. I usually catch 0-4 fish but always have a great time and really enjoy using different baits and techniques. The times I get to go someplace different with someone that is more expeienced and has a boat with all the bells and wistles I tend to do a little better. I'm looking forward to owning a boat with electronics in the not too distant future. Although I still will be learning I think it will be a really nice tool to help improve my skills / luck. I wouldn't say I'm a bad angler, just need more time to get better. Sounds like you and I have a ways to go before we can compete with Bill Dance but he has to do it for a living and we are doing it for fun and relaxation!

By the way, a sincere thanks for your service to our country and all of us who are fortunate enough to live here.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Jeepers, all these great points.

I never report the "not so active" days.  For each video I make, there are hours between high points that are back to back on film.  Today I caught 4.  The 2 days bfore that, I caught 1 each day.  My partner slammed them, gofigure but just saying.  Sometimes when its 2 weeks before I put up another video, watch that video and realize that those could be the high points from 10-14 days worth of fishing.  Then again, we don't record the dinks so we can have a 20+ fish day and never rolll film because, like gman said, everyone likes a good story.

[volman33]

i guess it depends on how long your on the water...if your only staying out for a shor period of time say, maybe an hour then that is a good bass count...but if your out there fishin for six hours thats a little low but it could depend on where you are fishing and how much pressure is on the fish i suggest using lures that other anglers arent using

[wheezo]

if you're bad... i don't know what i am...

i know i'm a beginner but yea... been fishing for a good 3 months this year.  1-2 fish is a good day.  3 would be a great day but it never happened  and i get skunked about 90% of the time. i want to catch a limit -.- and i'm stuffing my head with as much bassresource.com as possible.

[dodgeguy]

if you're bad... i don't know what i am...

i know i'm a beginner but yea... been fishing for a good 3 months this year. 1-2 fish is a good day. 3 would be a great day but it never happened and i get skunked about 90% of the time. i want to catch a limit -.- and i'm stuffing my head with as much bassresource.com as possible.

i remember those days!!!stick with it and learn.soon you will catch your limitmost days and get skunked rarely.it does happen if you learn.good luck dude!!!

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

and i'm stuffing my head with as much bassresource.com as possible.

it's only a matter of time!! Hang tough, keep at 'em.

[nboucher]

Wheezo, take a trip and go fishing with LBH!  8-)

[Lightninrod]

If you're a "bad angler", then I am too. :-?  I rarely catch 10 and more normally, it's 2-6(not counting 'dinks') for me.

Good Luck(and thank you!) Soldier from an ol', former Marine 8-)!

Dan

[Valascus]

In addition to Time on the Water, you need Dumb, Dogged Persistence. If I have the time and I'm on the water, I simply won't give up. I have been out there eight or nine hours at a stretch catching NOTHING, and I tell myself I ain't leaving until I catch SOMETHING. There have been one or two days this year when after that length of time I left without catching a thing. I left with a headache from concentrating so hard for so long, and a sunburn on the back of my neck (redneck). Then I got home and sat down and tried to review everything I did to figure out what I did wrong. I like to think those days made me a little smarter about fishingor not.

I recently had a day when I was out for six and half hours, having caught exactly two fish, and I decided to give it another half hour. Five minutes later, I'd caught my personal best, 6lb, 7oz.

I'm just too darn stupid to give up and go home!

Amen brother!!! When I am out I am the exact same way. Fish hard and figure 'em out. If I don't catch anything I feel good knowing that I gave it my all and take accounts as to what occurred that day and chalk it up as a learning experience.

A lot of the time I tell my story whether or not I catch anything or not. It may not be the most exciting read on the planet, but it may teach someone else something or maybe someone else will think of something I maybe didn't try that day or some clue I may have missed. After all 5000+ heads are better than one  . I also like to tell all of my accounts for the same reason this thread was started, I like to show that it can happen to anyone and that you shouldn't get down about it. Like muddy man, I'll enjoy my time in the great outdoors either way.  

[Top]

thanks everyone... you all have made this an awsome thread... its nice to know that even though I am a relatively new to bass fishing after a 10year break I am doing SOOOO much better because of all the advice I am getting here... I am the type that I will do research and I am lucky enough to be able to afford decent tools to help me be successful with what I am trying to achieve which is be a consistant angler...I know I can't expect to limit every time ... but by practice and just keep hammering at it I can hope to get better and better ... so when I retire and finally get a boat I will be ready to hold my own...

[mudcatwilly]

When I get skunked or catch one dink, I suck.  When I catch 12 fish in an hour, I am great.  You're going to have good days and bad days.  As you learn how to locate fish, your good days will increase.  Even still, you can be right on top of them and they won't bite.  It doesn't mean you suck.  I see it as the fish suck that day.

[fishingrulz]

In this heat I would consider 5-8 bass A LOT of fish. 30,40, and 50+ bass caught in a day is and absolutley monster day...even for you southern boys. Its even more monster if they are of any size. These numbers aren't coming in the summer heat...or at least heat as hot as this. I'd say if you catch 5 or 6 bass in the heat that your in right now you should be doing backflips. I know I would. The huge numbers are more common in the Spring and Fall when the bass are gorging out. Especially in the Fall because in the Fall you can get on huge schools of bass and catch them all day on a variety of lures,retrives etc. etc. Even in the Spring and Fall these numbers aren't common. You definetly don't suck. I belive there is a certain amount of luck envolved with these numbers also.