10 mistakes amateur anglers make

[Shamster]

I'm sure I'm making all of them!  A lot of these contradict each other though!

[Paul Roberts]

Expecting, or hoping, the fish will find your lure, rather than the other way around.

Straining water, chuck-n-wind, rather than physically probing/nipping/crashing/banging/ripping structure and cover. Once you get hip to CONTACT, your electronics and lure/tackle choices begin to make real sense -they become real tools not just things to have that other people have caught fish on.

[WRB]

The misconception that all you have to do is find bass and they will react to your lure if presented correctly is #1 mistake. #2; Most novice bass anglers pass up bass and miss detecting strikes without realizing it.

Bass are only actively feeding about 10% of the time during the day. When the bass are not active, catching them can be very difficult. Most successful tournament anglers don't waste time fishing for inactive bass, hoping the bass will turn on.  Tournament anglers tend to cover a lot of water fishing for 5 active adult size bass, using techniques and presentations that work well for their specific skills.

Bass fishing at night helps to slow down most anglers and their success rate goes up as a result; thoroughly covering the area and focusing on strikes.

WRB

[dmac14]

Switching baits too often. I did this like crazy my first few years of really fishing, I would change every 5-10 casts.

I feel like people should have 3-4 baits they really trust and stick with using them. I recently slimmed it down to 4 baits and I have seen more fish and also cut down cost a bit because I now only focus on buying the things I will really fish.

[farmpond1]

1) Fishing too slow when they need to speed things up.

2) Fishing too fast when they need to slow things down.

3) Sticking with a lure too long.

4) Changing baits too often.

5) Staying in one location too long

6) Moving too often.

7) Relying too much on expensive equipment

8) Not spending enough for quality gear.

9) Not utilizing their past experiences/observations

10) Thinking they've nothing new too learn.

[Osprey39]

Switching baits too often. I did this like crazy my first few years of really fishing, I would change every 5-10 casts.

I feel like people should have 3-4 baits they really trust and stick with using them. I recently slimmed it down to 4 baits and I have seen more fish and also cut down cost a bit because I now only focus on buying the things I will really fish.

What fun is that? 

Spending money is like 1/2 of the fun of fishing.  You can't be on the lake all the time so buying a new lure gives you a little something to remind you of fishing until your next trip, lol.

[avid]

Alot of good stuff here, but the one thing that all newbs I have ever known, including myself do, or rather fail to do is learn how to tie knots.

The palomer knot, loop knot, and uni as well as some others have applications where they are the best choice.  Learning some basic knot tying skills will improve the experience for most new anglers.

[Mattlures]

I thought of a couple more good ones that I dont think has been mentioned.

BE QUIET!

dont bang your box and your compartments. Walk softly.

Also dont draw atention to yourself when you do catch a fish.

[MFBAB]

I think it's complacency.  I know that if I tie on a T-rig worm and start hitting visible cover I can go out and catch fish on it pretty much any day of the year, that won't always be the best pattern going but it will get bites and a lot of people never want to expand on that.  If you are willing to leave your comfort zone once in a while and try some other techniques like using new presentations or idling around and finding/fishing structure, you might fall on your face a few times but you might start learning some new ways to catch them too.  I think leaving that comfort zone is really tough for most people, they would rather stick with the guarrantee of a few small bites than take a chance on striking out while looking for a better pattern.   I've gotten to where I really relish the days I get to fish alone and break out of that mold, most of my buddies start to get the hives if they are more than a cast length from the bank, lol. 

[Raul]

I thought of a couple more good ones that I dont think has been mentioned.

BE QUIET!

dont bang your box and your compartments. Walk softly.

Also dont draw atention to yourself when you do catch a fish.

Man, you tell that to my compadre !

Raul: "compadre, lower anchor pleez"

Raul 's compadre grabs the anchor and throws it, anchor lands creating a huge splash kinda like a cow just landed on lake after being thrown from a plane without chute and reaching terminal velocity.

What part of "lower" he didn 't understand ?  :-? for what I know lower and throw are not the same.  :

[Fishing Rhino]

I thought of a couple more good ones that I dont think has been mentioned.

BE QUIET!

dont bang your box and your compartments. Walk softly.

Also dont draw atention to yourself when you do catch a fish.

Man, you tell that to my compadre !

Raul: "compadre, lower anchor pleez"

Raul 's compadre grabs the anchor and throws it, anchor lands creating a huge splash kinda like a cow just landed on lake after being thrown from a plane without chute and reaching terminal velocity.

What part of "lower" he didn 't understand ? :-? for what I know lower and throw are not the same. :

What would he do if you told him to weigh anchor?  Look for a scale?    :D

[Raul]

My compadre is a special person, can 't help it, I love the guy but there are days I 've thought about using him as anchor  :, the man is loud for everything and since he is quite disorganized you can imagine his tacklebag, so when he needs something he practically opens his bag and pours the contents on the boat ( t bag pukes tackle  ;D ), of course with it 's subtantial amount of noise, wants something from the cooler ? get ready for a good session of noisy cooler rummaging, on his end of the boat there 's always some kind of noise happening most of the time, actually in those rare ocassiones there 's silent I just gotta check if he still alive. 

[farmpond1]

My compadre is a special person, can 't help it, I love the guy but there are days I 've thought about using him as anchor :, the man is loud for everything and since he is quite disorganized you can imagine his tacklebag, so when he needs something he practically opens his bag and pours the contents on the boat ( t bag pukes tackle ;D ), of course with it 's subtantial amount of noise, wants something from the cooler ? get ready for a good session of noisy cooler rummaging, on his end of the boat there 's always some kind of noise happening most of the time, actually in those rare ocassiones there 's silent I just gotta check if he still alive.

Sounds like you could write a book about him.   

Maybe you could add an extra layer of carpet or foam on his end of the boat.

[WRB]

I thought of a couple more good ones that I dont think has been mentioned.

BE QUIET!

dont bang your box and your compartments. Walk softly.

Also dont draw atention to yourself when you do catch a fish.

Man, you tell that to my compadre !

Raul: "compadre, lower anchor pleez"

Raul 's compadre grabs the anchor and throws it, anchor lands creating a huge splash kinda like a cow just landed on lake after being thrown from a plane without chute and reaching terminal velocity.

What part of "lower" he didn 't understand ? :-? for what I know lower and throw are not the same. :

I mentioned learning from mistakes; wrap a loop of anchor rope around your compadre's foot, then he may understand.

WRB

[Osprey39]

My buddy is kind of like that too Raul.  There have been multiple times he moved from one side of the boat to the other so rapidly he nearly threw me out on the front.  I finally had to ask him to be a little more subtle in his movements (ie:  don't rock the boat!)

[BassThumb]

I thought of a couple more good ones that I dont think has been mentioned.

BE QUIET!

dont bang your box and your compartments. Walk softly.

Also dont draw atention to yourself when you do catch a fish.

Good ones. The first two really annoy me.

I have another, but it's minor. The long tag-ends on people's knots. I have seen a few fish pics online where they have 2-3" of line hanging from the knot. There's no need for a tag-end of longer than 1/8 or 1/4".

[triglet]

crying when they lose a big big fish.   :'(  that was me this week.  lost about a 7 lb smallie at pickwick.

umm the one problem with "amateur" in the boat is they forget they are in a confined space.  as in i get whipped with a bait every now and then. 

[senile1]

. . . . . and last but not least, spending too much time on forums when they should be on the water.   

[RockvilleMDAngler]

.

9.not giving a 100 %,100% of the time

This is huge!  I take a lot of my friends fishing and usually I am the only person they have ever fished with.  The first few times out they only catch the fish that really slam the lures since they are not completely 100% focused on the lure and they never felt or noticed the subtle bites.  This is mostly true for soft plastics but I have seen it happen with frogs and buzzbaits too, if you are not dialed in and ready to set the hook at any given time then you will definitely not catch as many fish.  By the fourth or fifth trip (if they like it the first time) my friends are usually getting much better at this and when that happens they have a lot more fun but talk less/drink less beer/eat less etc.  This is not a problem just for brand new anglers, I have had guys in the boat in tournament situations who considered themselves serious anglers who have not figured this out, they pay attention for the first 1/3 of the retrieve then just go through the motions while talking or staring off into the distance.  When you get a bite you should be able to quickly identify what your lure was doing when it was bit so you can repeat it.

[Ol� Dirty Basstard]

60% of the time, whatever I'm throwing works every time!

It's been said already, but I'll say it again. Amateur anglers, like me, sometimes take too much stock in the words they read on the internet. Only a 5/0 for those!; Never go less than 50lb braid!; You need an 8'6 X-heavy, XX-fast, XXX-expensive rod if you really want to catch anything!; That brand sucks, don't bother!

Please don't get me wrong; I think this site is a wealth of information! It's a great place for beginners and old-timers alike.  But our best teacher is (almost) always experience. We need to get out there and get some bait wet and learn/remember the basics. What does this lure look like underwater? How can my rod make it look different? What is it touching? What is it snagging? When are they hitting? If I do the exact same thing, can I make them hit it again? Those are probably more important that the lure itself, but I think folks new to the sport don't always understand that. Once you have a good command of the basics, then you can start experimenting a little. But it seems like now-a-days things go in the opposite direction.

I'm too lazy to go back to see who wrote it, but I recall his pic looking like he might be a younger guy. Anyhow, he said he cut is tackle box down to 4 types of bait that he knows how to fish. Since then, he's catching more bass. Wow. How non-amateur is that? I catch his drift; and I like it!

[wisconsin heat]

my dad is a horrible fisherman and will lob a huge lure on his ml spinning rod and let it crash down on the surface,gets annoying, and even when i catch alot of fish he'll just say that the fish wernt biting, thats a little more annoying

[Nitrofreak]

As a ammature I don't think we exude enough patience and we look too hard for the correct advice.

1: We tend to look for advice from pros when we should be looking for club's to help hone our underdeveloped skill's.

2: We spend too much money on thing's that may or may not work without asking why first.

3: The learning curve is too broad and we take to many shortcut's to try and shorten the curve and end up backtracking and starting over and getting frustrated in the process.

4: We don't pay enough attention to detail with the structures around us and below us.

5: We tend to start off wanting to turn pro and then realisation becomes reality we are not as good at this as we think.

6: We tend not to learn from our mistakes and failure to document them in mental notes leads to more frustration.

7: We don't know how to establish patterns yet so we over think and don't react to what's right in front of our face.

8: We still haven't joined a good club yet.

9: We spend more money and still have not joined a good club yet.

10: We spend even more money and still have not joined a good club yet.

11: Patience,Patience,Patience and the lack of it.

[Blue Streak]

Fishing presents an opportunity to make a different mistake every day. Conditions change and that is about the only thing you can really rely on. After many, many years of fishing I still make bad decisions at times and on the ride home I think about what I coulda or shoulda done. That is the mental part of our sport and one reason why we love it so much.

[Dinky]

I've made all of the listed mistakes at least once and expect to make many more.

I have been a marshal at the Elite Bassmaster tournaments several times the last two years and a few things I have noticed about the pros that seem universal:

They don't change lures much throughout the day.

Now, of course they have 10-12 rods/reels pre-rigged so changing lures is not an issue usually. (some are duplicate rigged)

But, the point is-they knew what they were going to use the night before when they rigged their rods/reels.

They carry very few different types of tackle in the boat.

Example; if they are going to be using a crank bait for a significant time they usually have at least 3 similar/same style cranks pri-rigged, but each one is for a different depth. They may not be carrying any more crank baits other than a few of the same style already rigged in case they lose one.

Example; If they are going to be using a C-rig for a lot of the areas they will have at least two pre-rigged--one with a lizard maybe and one with a worm.

Also, assuming the bass may be chasing shad on the top of the water, they will always make sure they have a top water rig on deck, with the lure unhooked and ready to throw.

Knots: some tie a knot faster than you can imagine and some not so fast. But, all of them constantly check their line for evidence of wear and retie often.

They spend zero time looking for a place to fish. They know exactly where and how they are going to fish a spot and go to it--if it is occupied they go to another one they have marked. No wasted time.

They don't change their strategy or technique (throughout any single day at least) easily or quickly.

They have confidence in their reading of the lake conditions and that their technique will produce results.

Finally: their casting technique and accuracy is unbelievable. They can skip a jig and pig half way under a dock with a bait caster. Most seem ambidextrous and can throw back handed as well.

The point being they can reach the proper zone and are seldom if ever wasting a cast.

It is both mental and physical.

Makes it tough on us old, not so bright guys!

[J Francho]

Beginners or amateurs? Amateurs, and I mean those with some fishing experience, usually think they know more than they do. They get to a plateau in their ability, and quit learning. I know I've been there at times.