Oak Orchard River Bass Anglers
Archived
President's Corner
By:
December 26, 2009 Sometimes I think that owning a nice high performance bass boat is the down fall of many tournament anglers. The reason that I say this is because owning a good bass boat makes it too easy for anglers to change locations. Because it is so easy to travel from one location to another, and to do so relatively quickly, too many anglers are too quick to give up on good fish holding locations to go search for a “honey hole”.
A nice high performance bass boat provides the opportunity to run and cover a whole lot of water during any tournament day. It is an easy matter to run from one end of a lake to another or from one side of a lake to the other. If a guy isn’t careful, he could spend his whole day running and forget that tournaments are all about the catching and not the running. Before you go chasing that mythical honey hole make sure you have thoroughly fished your present location.
We are a society obsessed with immediate self-gratification. We know what we want and we want it now. Our present economic mess is at least in part a result of this need for instant gratification. Unfortunately, too many tournament anglers carry this attitude over into their tournament fishing. They expect to run to their favorite spot and immediately start catching bass. If they don’t, they run. Before long their tournament day is spent running and not only do they not achieve instant gratification they receive no gratification at all.
These guys end up buying all of the newest equipment hoping that it will provide the instant gratification that they demand. They lose sight of the fact that catching fish is what they are competing at and it is a fact that no one catches fish on demand. Even the best tournament anglers in the world cannot produce bass on demand. However, the very best can, and will, produce bass given sufficient time to do so. These guys only run for a reason and they know how to milk any fishing location for all it is worth. They understand that patience is not just a virtue, it is essential to success.
However, patience must not be without question. An angler must recognize when to make a move. He has to understand when he is not producing what he needs and he has to know when he has run out of options. There are times when a change, even if it is the wrong change, is necessary. It is sometimes necessary to accept that your location of choice is not producing what you need and a change is necessary. It serves no useful purpose to play prevent defense and wait things out. You must go on the offensive and take the game to the bass. You are headed for defeat anyway, so why not go down with a fight?
Many anglers, because they are too quick to change locations and run, never realize the true potential of the locations that they fish. It is seldom that I have won a tournament when other anglers did not fish the same location that I did. The difference is that I was willing to take the time to find the right presentation for that exact time and place. As soon as the bass quit being easy to catch those other anglers left. I did not. I recognized what I had and I figured a way to maximize what was there.
Invariably this took time, but in the long run it was time well spent. It was never a question of are the bass here. It was just a question of what do I have to do to catch them. If you have fished all depths at all speeds and have failed, it is time to move.
I will say this. Once you figure out the right way to catch them, you will be amazed at just how many bass are there. Nothing is more amazing than the number of quality bass you can catch once the proper presentation is found. Experience this situation once and you will understand what I am talking about. If you have never experienced it, then you had better take a good long look at your fishing approach, since clearly you are doing something wrong.
Running and gunning just might be part of what you are doing wrong. A nice high performance bass boat is a necessary piece of a tournament angler’s equipment. It is a tool. Do not let it be a distraction. No one ever caught a bass while running. I guarantee that you won’t either. Don’t let your tools handicap your success; use them properly Happy New Year !
December 12, 2009
For most of my bass tournament life I was opposed to running. In the beginning I had no real option since I started as a non-boater so I was compelled to do whatever my boater decided to do. My first two “bass boats” were small and that fact made running too time consuming to even be considered as a realistic option. Eventually I purchased a full sized tournament bass boat, but even then I seldom considered running. At that time I was not confident enough in my ability as an angler and I did not believe that I could afford to forfeit fishing time in order to make a run to connected waters.
A few of years ago I finally began developing the self confidence that I could consistently catch bass during tournaments. At the same time I also realized that it is not just about catching a limit of bass, it is about catching the heaviest limit possible. I also began to realize that there are certain situations when a tournament angler might be better served by running. However, I further realized that there are a lot of factors that must first be considered before an angler decides to run to connected waters.
First, I have to know that I have an area on the connected water that holds the quantity and quality of fish that I will need to be competitive. It is not enough to hope the fish I need are there. I have to know they are there and I rarely run just to catch a limit. I have to know that I have a location that is holding the size bass that I will need to either win the tournament or at least finish high in the tournament. Over the last 2 seasons I have run during a tournament three times. I finished 2nd the first time I ran and I won the second and third time. I also weighed the heaviest single bass the second and third time. It would be hard to convince me that running wasn’t the smart thing to do.
Second, I have to know that I have better fish holding areas in the area I am running to. This means that I have to have some familiarity with both waters. I have to have a real good idea of what my maximum potential is on each. If one area is clearly head and shoulders above the other, then I must do what I must do to give myself the best opportunity to win. It that means running, I will run.
Third, I consider fishing pressure. If the main tournament water is relatively small and I know that all the good areas will be covered with other contestants, I will seriously consider making a run. Fishing pressure can make even the best fish holding location a tough proposition. Sometimes I can fare better on a lesser location simply because I have the area all to myself. The area may not hold the numbers, but, if I am the only angler exploiting that location, I may still be able to accumulate the weight that I will need to be competitive. Of course the quality I need must be present also; otherwise what is the sense in running?
Fourth, I need to know how much fishing time I will have to forfeit by making the run. Obviously, the less time it will take to make the run, the easier the decision will be to make the run. Again, I must know that where I am running to holds the numbers and the quality of bass that I will need. In most of the tournaments that I fish I am usually shooting for a total weight of between 12 and 15 pounds. There are exceptions, but on most of the tournament waters my Club fishes 12 to 15 pounds will serve me well. This means that I have to know that I can get that weight. I am not talking about hoping to get that weight. I am talking about knowing that I can get that weight if I do my job once I get there.
Fifth, I consider the weather conditions on the day of the tournament. No tournament is worth risking your life over. If weather conditions are not conducive to a relatively easy and safe run, I do not make the run. I simply rule it out and put my best effort into doing the best I can where I am.
Anytime that an angler runs he is taking a gamble. Weather can change or equipment can fail. Many bad things can happen. However, if an angler pays attention to all the details of being properly prepared and makes sensible decisions during the tournament, running can become no more a gamble than not running.
I believe that it is best to decide to run before the actual tournament day. Obviously weather on the day of the tournament could preclude the run, but I still like to make my decision before the day of the tournament. Only by making the decision ahead of time can I be sure that I am mentally and physically prepared for the task that awaits me. Also, resolving the decision to run or not ahead of time allows me to totally commit to my final game plan without distraction. No one will ever thoroughly and efficiently fish any location if their thoughts are preoccupied with another. Make a decision and then commit to it. If you don’t, you will ultimately not fish the first location efficiently and you will eventually end up making the run just to get some peace of mind. Invariably, this is a bad mental position to be in.
To run or not to run, that is the question. Only you can answer that question. I have one final thought on running. If you are not making the run to win the tournament, then don’t bother. Your time would be better served fishing where you are. Heck, you never know. You might even win the tournament.
Know when to run and why
November 30, 2009
From time to time, an angler will win a tournament and win it by a significant margin. Often times, when this happens, I believe that other anglers may assume that the winning angler had an easy time succeeding. I think that these other anglers believe that because the angler won by a rather large margin that he had an easy road to victory. It is often a mistake to believe this way.
In late September I won my Club’s Classic Championship tournament and I won it by over 8 pounds. I guess it would be easy to surmise that I had an easy day and that I caught tons of bass. Nothing would be further from the truth.
The tournament was held on a river that empties into Lake Ontario. If the weather permitted, contestants would be allowed to fish either the river or the lake. My first decision was where to fish.
Many years of experience on the river told me that a catch of 12 to 13 pounds would be outstanding on the river. Under the best case scenario 15 pounds would probably be the maximum achievable in the river.
Lake Ontario was another story. With the increase in the numbers and size of the smallmouth in Lake Ontario in recent years, an angler could reasonably expect to catch 15 to 20 pounds on a good day. The key on the lake would be locating the bass.
During 2 days of practice on the lake a month before the tournament I located one area that was holding big smallmouth. Unfortunately that area was almost 20 miles from the river. The area I found did not appear to be holding a ton of bass, but the ones I did catch averaged almost 4 pounds each.
I knew that 4 pound bass in the river would be the exception whereas on the lake they appeared to be the rule. I decided that weather permitting I would fish the lake. I knew I would need patience and perseverance to be successful because the bass seemed to be few and far between. However, due to their size, I would only need to catch 3 or 4 to win the tournament. Even if I only caught 1 or 2, I would still be way ahead of the average available in the river.
During the tournament I caught exactly 5 bass. In the first 7 hours of the tournament I had a total of 3 strikes that came approximately 2 hours apart. While it is true that I ended up with 3 bass of about 4 pounds each, there was nothing easy about how I obtained them.
I’m relating this experience for a reason. If there ever was a tournament that was won based on practice, past experience, knowledge, self trust and perseverance, this was it. It was also all about being willing to forego a lot of strikes for the chance to get the right strikes.
I spent most of the day doubting what I was doing and fighting a growing sense of urgency to leave and go back to the river. I knew I could catch bass in the river, but I also knew that those bass would definitely be smaller in size.
I started the tournament on the lake and after almost 2 hours of fruitless fishing, I was a cast away from leaving. Then I caught my first bass and it was a smallmouth of 4 pounds. This bass gave me the confidence to continue fishing the area. Almost 2 hours later I was starting to have serious doubts again and just as I decided that this is the last cast, I hooked up again. It was another smallmouth of around 4 pounds.
I forced myself to stay long enough to eventually catch a third smallmouth of 4 pounds. Since I felt that 12 pounds would win the tournament and since I also had a spot I wanted to fish in the river on my way back to weigh in, I left. Long story short, I caught 2 largemouths off my spot in the river. One bass weighed almost 4 pounds and the other weighed just less than 2 pounds.
My nearest competitor, who told me that he caught well over 20 keeper sized bass during the day, finished over 8 pounds behind me. No other competitor had a bass close to 3 pounds. Yes, it was a convincing victory. However, it certainly wasn’t easy.
Sometimes winning isn’t about catching a lot of fish. Sometimes it is all about having the trust and perseverance to do what you know you must to catch the right fish.
One thing that I do know for sure is that in this case, the ends justified the means.
Trust is a must!!
November 14, 2009
Sometimes tournament bass anglers get all caught up in the sport and over look the little things that really matter.
On October 12th I went into the hospital for a total replacement of my left hip. I had done a lot of research on this type of surgery and I was not overly concerned about having it done. In fact I was looking forward to a day when I could again move around without constant pain. Unfortunately sometimes unexpected things happen. Due to gross neglect by someone on the medical staff I ended up almost losing my right arm. Right now it looks like the doctor was able to save my right arm, but the potential loss of my right arm got me thinking.
Had I lost my right arm I would have been finished as a tournament bass angler. All the growth that I have experienced over the last few years would have been wasted. All the time and effort that I put into trying to be the best tournament angler that I could be would have been wasted. These thoughts made me stop and think.
Maybe we tournament bass anglers put too much emphasis on success and forget that just being able to fish is the real blessing. When I realized how close I came to losing my right arm for life, it put everything else in a different perspective. I had never even considered the possibility that one day I would wake up and not be able to fish the same again. The thought had never crossed my mind, yet there I was looking that possibility dead in the eyes. It was nothing that I had asked for and it was nothing that I was to blame for. It just happened. The fact that it had never happened before was of no real signifance to me since it had happened to me and that was an undeniable fact.
I have often said that tomorrow is guaranteed to no one, but I am not sure that I truly realized the truth of that statement until my experience in the hospital. We truly do not control our own futures. We can do much to shape our future and our lives but there will forever be times when others can alter our lives in a second. Unfortunately we cannot control their actions.
So although I still believe that we should all strive to be the best that we can be, I now know that we must never forget to appreciate the little things that we do. Maybe I did get skunked at a tournament, but I had a wonderful day on the water doing what I love to do the most, fish for bass. Do not play down the importance of that fact. We may never know when our next fishing trip is our last. Enjoy yourself regardless of how you succeed. It may be your last opportunity to do so.
Do not take anything for granted. Life can change in an instant.
Below is a picture of my right arm after my hip surgery
October 26, 2009
I was recently reminded, by a less than stellar tournament finish, just how important pre-tournament preparation truly is to successful tournament fishing. The tournament was on a body of water that I had been successful on the previous 3 seasons. Therefore I felt no need to practice ahead of time. I was smug enough to believe that I knew where the bass would be and that I knew how to catch them. Boy was I ever wrong!
In my smugness I totally failed to consider the effects of weather, primarily an unusual wind direction. During my previous 3 seasons of success on this water I had never faced a day on the water when the wind blew from any direction except the West or the South. It was clear, from my previous results, that I knew where the good fish would be located when weather conditions were normal. What wasn’t so obvious, at least to me at the time, was that a different wind direction would undoubtedly move the bass.
The first problem that I encountered when I confronted the unusual wind direction was my inability to set up a proper drift. Having never faced this particular wind direction before I had no experience with how to properly set up to drift across the area where I knew the bass were normally located. Attempting to properly drift on
The fact of the matter is that the area I wanted to fish did hold some bass and some of those bass were quality fish. I know because other Club members that successfully made the drift weighed in solid weights. However, due to the unusual wind direction, the area I was attempting to fish was not the best location available. 2 members in my Club found the right area. They found it with only one half hour of fishing time left but they still both managed to totally upgrade their limits and finish high in the tournament.
After the weigh-in and talking with the other Club members I finally realized the significance of why they were successful and why their move made perfect sense. They had moved to the up wind side of the structure and obviously that was also where the bait and the bass had relocated. But the real key to their move was that they both had spent considerable time practicing for the tournament. Clearly that practice involved thoroughly checking the entire structure and becoming aware of what options were available should weather conditions change. When they were faced with the unusual wind direction they eventually moved to the proper location. They were able to do that because they knew where that location existed. I did not.
In the end they earned what they caught. They earned it by being prepared. They earned it by spending the time to learn the entire structure and the options that existed. I do not know if they deliberately searched for areas based on wind direction, but it doesn’t matter. They were much better prepared to deal with the existing conditions than I was and their weights at weigh-in clearly illustrated that fact.
Do not ever get so smug that you think you have a place figured out. Unless you know every nook and cranny of every structure available there is always a need for more practice. Prepare yourself for all possibilities no matter how unusual they may be. To exercise any option successfully you have to know that option exists. If that isn’t a reason to practice, I do not know what is.
In my smugness I forgot one important fact. You never practice to catch fish, you practice to learn!!
Learn all of your options through proper practice!!
October 6, 2009
Why is it that the average tournament bass angler is so quickly satisfied when he finally starts catching bass consistently? Why is the average tournament bass angler so afraid to change anything once any type of success has been achieved? I believe it is because the average angler does not approach his mission correctly.
Successful tournament angling, or any angling for that matter, is a process that involves a number of different steps to be successful. Almost every angler realizes this fact. What they fail to realize is that these steps must be followed in a precise order. An angler cannot be consistently successful by skipping steps nor can he be successful following these steps out of their proper order.
The first step is obtaining all the knowledge possible about the particular species being pursued. Be careful when doing so because there are more myths than there are facts. Your personal experience has to be the determining factor in determining what is and what is not fact, but successful fishing has to start with a thorough knowledge of the species that you are seeking.
The second step is learning to locate you targeted species on any body of water, under any conditions and at any time of the year. Obviously to be effective at locating your targeted species you must understand what that species needs, thus the need to first understand the species. Again your personal experience has to be the final determining factor when making decisions of where the fish should be located. To be able to locate the fish you must understand all of the various types of water bodies, what structure and/or cover options those water types offer and how the species you are pursuing adapts their behavior in each of those water body types. A thorough understanding of the seasonal changes and the effects of those changes is also required. The same is necessary with regard to weather and water conditions. Without a doubt understanding location is the most labor intensive part of being a successful angler. The varieties available seem almost endless, but certain general similarities will exist in each specific water body type. You must know what those similarities are and how to adapt to exploit what is available.
The third and final step is lure presentation. This involves knowing and understanding every type of lure at your disposal. You must know what they were designed to do and how they were designed to do it. You must also understand the importance of size and color, speed of retrieve, cover/structure type and all the various techniques for presenting different lures. After you understand the species well enough to always locate it on any water body type, then, and only then, can you accurately determine the best lure for that specific time and place and under those precise conditions.
All too many tournament bass anglers tend to skip over steps one and two and start with step three. Anglers get married to lures and presentation techniques and they do so with no regard for steps one and two. No one can be consistently successful doing so. Although it could certainly be argued that presentation is the final deciding step in successful fishing, it is the FINAL step and not the beginning.
The second that you, as a tournament angler, tie on a lure before you determine where the bass are located, you have effectively sealed your fate. All lures are designed for a specific purpose and operate best when used for that purpose. Lures are not general purpose tools. Each one was designed for a specific condition, speed of retrieve, cover/structure option and probably a specific depth. Unless an angler knows what specific depth, what structure/cover option and what speed of retrieve he requires before he locates the bass, he is unlikely to choose the best lure option. In any event, making presentation changes before locating the bass is no different than selecting your golf club for your next shot before you even know what that shot will entail.
Tiger Woods doesn’t always use a driver on every tee nor does he use a seven iron for every fairway shot. He makes his decision only after he determines his location and determines his best option for that particular time and place. As a tournament bass angler, you would be wise to do the same thing.
Know the steps to successful tournament angling and then follow those steps precisely and in the proper order. I think that you will be glad you did!!
Don’t get the cart before the horse!! Follow the steps precisely!!
September 22, 2009
I want to talk a little more about how easily satisfied the average tournament bass angler is and why they are that way.
Everyone knows that to be consistently successful as a tournament bass angler an angler must catch a limit of bass and he must do so on every tournament day. Even though it can occasionally happen that an angler does win a tournament without catching a limit of bass on each and every tournament day, it happens too rarely to be seriously considered as a realistic approach to being consistently successful. Even when it does happen it is usually an angler that consistently weighs limits of bass that pulls it off anyway. So we are right back where we started. To be consistently successful at tournament bass angling an angler must catch a limit of bass each and every tournament day.
Although must tournament bass anglers will deny it, very few of them are capable of catching a limit of bass on each and every tournament day. Catching a limit of bass on each and every tournament day is no easy task and it is a task that generally takes years of experience and a lot of knowledge to accomplish. This is exactly why most tournament anglers will not change anything once they start consistently catching fish. Even when they know that the size bass that they are consistently catching will not allow them to compete for victory in the tournament, they will not change a thing.
They will not change because they are only too aware of how seldom they really succeed at catching a limit of bass and, in truth, simply catching a limit of bass is a major accomplishment for them. Since they are now in a position that they seldom find themselves in, they have no idea of how to move on to the next step. Not only do they not know how to move on to catching bigger bass, they are actually afraid to change anything for fear of losing what they have found. To them, this all makes sense. To me, it is being too easily satisfied. Tournament bass fishing is NOT about how many, it is all about how big!
Although consistently catching a limit of bass is no easy task, it is only the starting point of doing what you must to be successful. It is only after the bass are located and being consistently caught that presentation changes can make any real difference in results. It is only then that color changes, size changes or even lure changes can have any real impact on the weight of your limit. It is only then that you can make the changes that can tell you conclusively whether bigger bass exist there or whether you need to find a different location.
If you become satisfied with just catching bass in numbers, you may never catch the weight needed to win a tournament. Not only that but you are wasting an opportunity that many anglers don’t get every tournament day. You are as close to unlocking the real secret to winning as any angler can ever be, but you have to take action to unlock the door. The bass cannot unlock it for you unless you first provide them with the opportunity to do so. This is the only effective time to change your presentation.
You have every reason to expect immediate results when you now change presentation and if you don’t get immediate results, change your presentation again. You know the bass are there and you know the bass are eating. If you are not catching bass that are big enough to get you victory, change your presentation. What do you have to lose by not doing so, the tournament? You aren’t going to win with the size bass you have been catching anyway, so why not make the change?
How many times in your tournament career have you been this close and never changed a thing? How many times did you get lucky enough to pull out victory? Quit relying on luck. Use your knowledge, skill and experience to make the changes necessary to know whether bigger bass are there or not. If they are, catch them. If they aren’t, go find them. Quit playing prevent defense. Take matters into your own hands and attack, but attack systematically and methodically. I think that you will glad that you did.
Never be satisfied until the fishing is done!!
I know, I’ve been there and done that!!
September 8, 2009
Attention to details. I cannot over emphasize enough just how important this is. I’m not just talking about your fishing either. I’m talking about the entire process.
This season I zeroed in a Club tournament. No one ever likes to zero in any tournament but it was the reason I zeroed that really bothered me. It had nothing to do with my fishing ability. I zeroed because I didn’t pay attention to details. Instead of keeping written records on the age of my trolling motor I trusted my memory. When my trolling motor gave up the ghost 2 days before the tournament, I paid the price. I had a back up trolling motor but it was old and hadn’t been used in several years. I installed it on my boat and it appeared to run fine, but I didn’t have the time to take it for a trial run. On the morning of the tournament the trolling motor refused to steer properly. It would run all right but I had no way of controlling its direction of travel. Naturally it was very breezy and just as naturally I was doomed before I started. Try as I might I was not in control and that lack of control resulted in failure. Later I discovered that the steering problem was a relatively easy fix, but, again, my failure to pay attention to the details left me on the water without the tool necessary to do the repair. I was not in control because I had failed to be prepared.
If I had paid attention to details and kept records on the age of my trolling motor I would have known to replace it before the season even started. Instead I trusted my memory and threw away any chance for success in a tournament in the process. On the way home from that same tournament the wheel bearings went out on my boat trailer. The bearings were only a year old but still I hadn’t checked them the way I should have before I departed for the tournament. I am not sure that anyone will ever know for certain why trailer wheel bearings fail. Maybe there was nothing I could have done by checking the wheels before I departed home, but then maybe there was. I only know that I wish that I had checked them and if I had been paying attention to the details I would have done so. The bottom line is this. I did not control that which I could have and consequently I paid the price. I have no one to blame but me.
At that same tournament another member ended his day before it even started when he was pulled from his new truck while launching his boat and the truck continued to back into the lake. Fortunately the member was not seriously injured although his truck ended up being totaled. I don’t know all the details of precisely what caused this incident, but I feel comfortable in saying that better attention to details could have prevented it from happening in the first place.
Another member, fishing from his brand new bass boat, had the misfortune of blowing a fuse for his trolling motor half way through the day. Unfortunately the member was unable to determine where the fuse was located in the new boat and ended up fishing the rest of the tournament without a trolling motor. Again, it seems clear that attention to details could have minimized this incident entirely.
An angler has to pay attention to all the details whether it is his tow vehicle, his boat, his trailer or his equipment. Locating and catching winning bass is an extremely complex and difficult job to accomplish when everything is working perfectly. It is nearly impossible when they aren’t. In order to have any hope of being successful on the water all of your equipment has to be operating correctly. Locating and catching tournament winning bass will take all the mental attention and capacity that you possess so if you are pre-occupied with other issues you are doomed before you start. Fortunately there is much that you can do to prevent equipment failures, but you must always pay attention to the details to do so.
I also know that paying attention to details while you are fishing can make all the difference in the world in your success. It is often the subtle changes that ultimately determine the winner. It is all about being in control and only properly operating equipment allows for that. An angler must control that which he can control and to do that he has to pay attention to the details. It can be no other way.
Pay attention to the details, all of them!!
August 25, 2009
There is a growth process a successful tournament angler must go through. It is a process that involves moving from one stage to another. In my opinion too many tournament anglers never make that move.
In the beginning any tournament angler must put emphasis on consistently catching a limit of bass on every tournament day. Without catching a limit of bass every tournament day no angler can ever expect to become consistently successful. In too many cases simply catching a limit of bass on every tournament day seems to be an almost insurmountable goal. Many anglers struggle for many years just to get to the level of consistency that allows them to catch a limit of bass regularly. However, it takes more than consistently catching a limit of bass to win tournaments. In order to consistently win tournaments an angler has to become comfortable in moving to the next stage, consistently catching a limit of the largest bass available.
In order to move to that stage an angler must be prepared to make changes. It is not enough to just catch bass consistently. An angler must recognize when the size of the bass he is catching is not the size necessary to compete for victory. Once this recognition is made that angler must make a change. He must either change his presentation or he must change his location. Simply continuing to catch bass of a size that will not allow him to compete for victory will not get him where he wants to be. He must be prepared to leave those fish biting and go in search of the presentation and/or the location that will produce the size bass needed to win. This is where most tournament anglers get it wrong.
When it has taken several hours to start to consistently catch bass on a 6” worm, many anglers are not apt to change presentation and/or location simply because the bass they are now catching are not big enough. If you are like most tournament anglers, you will continue to catch those bass hoping that you will get lucky enough to catch a truly large bass. There are two problems with this approach.
The first problem is that you cannot catch that which does not exist. If no large bass are present to begin with, you certainly can’t make them suddenly appear. The second problem is that large bass do not consistently respond to the same presentation that attracts small bass. If you continue to use the same presentation that is attracting small bass, you will seldom catch the numbers of large bass that may be there. You have to be willing to experiment with presentation until you find the one that attracts the large bass or you have to move to a location that holds larger bass.
If large bass do exist in the location that you are fishing, you may occasionally catch one using the presentation that is consistently catching the small bass. However, if you have caught numerous bass without catching a truly large bass, then it is safe to assume that no large bass exist in that location. If you have caught a large bass using the presentation that is catching the small bass, then changing presentations could consistently produce more large bass.
When numbers of large bass are present at any location, anglers will occasionally catch one even when they are not using the absolute best presentation available. It is then that the angler must change presentation in an attempt to find the presentation that attracts the large bass. Simply continuing to fish with the same presentation that is catching small bass consistently will do nothing to increase your odds of catching large bass. If you haven’t caught any large bass at all, then you need to change location.
I have had several personal experiences with winning a tournament only after I modified my presentation or changed fishing location. Most of my experiences resulted simply from changing the color or size of my presentation. In each of those situations I was catching the fire out of the bass, but I wasn’t catching the size bass I knew I needed to win. I forced myself to alter the color or size of my presentation and in each of the situations I am referring to I ended up finding a color or size that consistently produced much larger bass. I don’t know why the color or size change had that effect. I just know that it did. I am convinced that I would not have won any of those tournaments if I had been satisfied with simply catching bass consistently.
This is where most anglers get it wrong. Do not ever be satisfied with simply catching bass consistently. Your goal has to be to catch the 5 largest bass possible and simply catching numbers of bass seldom achieves that goal. To catch the 5 largest bass possible an angler must be using the best presentation available for large bass and he must be fishing a location that contains large bass.
A presentation that catches numbers of large bass will almost never be the same presentation that is consistently catching small bass. The number of large bass in any body of water is much less than the number of small bass so keying on those large bass is not going to be easy. However, until you are willing to do just that, you will never be a consistent threat to win any tournament that you enter. Never be too easily satisfied!
Know when to leave them biting
August 10, 2009
Many, many bass fishermen struggle with being consistently successful. There are a multitude of reasons why any angler has difficulty being consistently successful. That being said, I believe that most bass anglers fail to consistently succeed primarily because they are not in control.
In order to be successful at any endeavor, an individual must be in control. That individual must have a proven method for evaluating the situation and a proven process for resolving the problem. Once a proven method of evaluation is established and a proven process for resolution determined, it is then simply a matter of controlling the variables in a systematic manner. Before anyone can be in total control he must first understand exactly what variables he can control and which variables he cannot control. This is where most bass anglers get it wrong.
Most bass anglers fail to put all of their effort into controlling only that which they can control. No one can control the weather. No one can control the water conditions. No one can control the behavior of the bass. No one can control other fishermen’s level of success. No one can control fishing pressure or the locations that other fishermen chose to fish. Yet most bass anglers spent most of their time trying to control just these types of issues. It is wasted effort and it is effort exerted that cannot resolve the issue at hand, catching bass.
While it is certainly true that there are very few facts when it comes to bass fishing, facts are what successful resolution of any problem must be based on. As a bass angler you must know the facts and all of your fishing decisions must be based on those facts. You must also understand the variables that you can control and those that you cannot. Then you must forget about the ones you cannot control and place all of your efforts into those that you can. There is no other way to achieve consistent success.
Consistently catching bass requires total control, concentration and attention to details. Every decision you make and every action you take must be made and taken for a reason. If any decision is made or any action taken that does not answer a question or eliminate an option, then it was a waste of your time. Every decision and every action must eliminate options otherwise no resolution can ever be obtained.
Successful bass fishing requires the same mind set that successful chess playing requires, total concentration on the issue at hand. Successful bass fishermen are the greatest of all mystery detectives. They examine the evidence as it exists and they do so with a totally open mind. Minute attention to detail will always lead to solution of the crime because all evidence speaks for itself and does so without preconceived notions or assumptions. Deal with the evidence and do so without prejudice or bias.
Knowledge, experience and attention to details are the keys to success. Know what you can control and know what you cannot. Put all of your effort into controlling that which you can control and forget the rest. If you have knowledge and experience based in fact and if you pay attention to the details, then you will succeed and you will do so consistently. I guarantee it!!
Know what you can control
July 27, 2009
One of the things about bass fishing that has always bothered me is the lack of definitive definitions of the terminology used. Many times terms are used incorrectly. Structure is not the same thing as cover, yet many people use the terms structure and cover interchangeably. All this does is add further confusion to an all ready complex endeavor.
You often hear people talk about deep water. What is deep water? Unless everyone is in agreement about what constitutes deep water, using the term deep water is meaningless. Often times the term deep water doesn’t apply to begin with. The term should be deeper water. Many times deeper water is not deep water. It is exactly what it says it is deeper water.
To me deep water is any water more than 8’ deep. Any depth under 8’ is shallow and any depth 8’ or over is deep. Deeper water is any water noticeably deeper than the water you are fishing. If you are fishing water 2’ deep, then water 3’ deep is deeper water. What this means is that you could be fishing in 2’ of water immediately adjacent to water 3’ deep. In this case you would be fishing shallow water immediately adjacent to deeper water, but not adjacent to deep water. If you then concluded that you were successful because you were fishing shallow water immediately adjacent to deep water, you would be incorrect.
Depth to bass, particularly large bass, is a matter of degree. Large bass need an escape route. Deeper water offers that. The deeper that water is the better, but the key term here is deeper and not deep. It is my belief that truly large bass are never far from deeper water. While large bass may never be far from deeper water, they could be a fair distance from deep water. Herein lays the difference. If you do not make a distinction between deeper water and deep water, you will probably never fish certain areas that may hold larger bass. If you infer that deeper water and deep water are interchangeable terms, then you will never fish much shallower than 8’ deep. All bass, large and small, spend considerable time shallower than 8’ deep and do so in areas that could be several hundred yards from water that is 8’ deep. If you infer that large bass are always immediately adjacent to deep water, then you will never venture that several hundred yards. However, if you realize that large bass prefer immediate access to deeper water, then you will realize that traveling those several hundred yards makes perfect sense. Unless the entire flat is of precise uniform depth, deeper areas will exist and that is all the large bass need.
It isn’t even the increased depth that really matters. It is the increase in darkness that does. Water filters out light and every increase in depth filters out more light. Darkness is safety to bass. If bass cannot see it, it doesn’t exist. Did you ever notice how a bass that is hooked stops fighting when it buries it head in heavy weed cover? Did you ever wonder why? Now you know. Darkness is security. Ignorance is bliss. What you can’t see can’t hurt you. Bass are simple creatures. Just as ostriches allegedly bury their head in the sand to block out danger, so do bass hide their heads in cover.
In the absence of total darkness, bass will instinctively seek the darkest water immediately available and deeper water is always darker water. If bass are prevented from moving towards deeper water, then they will seek the darkness provided by cover. Logs, trees, rocks, docks, boats, and weeds all provide areas of decreased light. Should a frightened bass (i.e. a hooked bass) be unable to get to deeper and darker water that bass will seek the darker areas provided by adjacent cover. The bass isn’t trying to break you off. The bass is simply attempting to find the security that darkness provides.
Successful bass fishing is difficult enough when terms are clearly defined. It becomes almost impossible when they are not.
Understanding is knowledge
July 15, 2009
I want to spend a little more time talking about the mental side of tournament bass angling. It has long been my opinion that successful tournament bass angling is more mental than physical. There are no physical exercises that can be perfected that will guarantee success. In this respect tournament bass fishing is unlike any other sport. In every other sport there are physical factors that can be honed to perfection that will directly result in success. This is not the case in tournament bass fishing. You can discipline your body till the cows come home. It is your mind that you must control.
You can practice casting until you are blue in the face, but simple casting perfection will not guarantee success. You can practice use of electronics until you are the worlds best, but this will not guarantee success. You could be the best boat operator in existence and still never catch a bass. Tournament bass fishing is much, much more than perfect execution of physical skills. Successful tournament bass angling is primarily mental. It is proper mental preparation, proper mental positioning and proper mental execution. When mental preparation and execution is perfect, then, and only then, is it possible that perfect physical execution can improve success.
It seems that lately I hear more and more pro anglers talking about decisions and how important those decisions really are. I read about KVD admitting he chose the wrong location on the first day of the last Classic and how that one decision doomed him to failure. I read about KVD not maximizing a given location on a given day and how he now knows that was a mistake. I hear other pros complain about cancelled tournament days. They complain because they didn’t maximize what they had when they had it. They complain because they chose to try to control a future that never came. The future is guaranteed to no one. Tournament days can be cancelled. If you make a decision to not maximize the present, then you also make a decision to live with the result. When the result is not what you expected, then you have no one to blame but yourself. All anyone can hope to control is the present. No one can control tomorrow.
Any bass angler that settles for less than the maximum potential every day on the water should expect to achieve less than the maximum result for his effort. Every endeavor must be accomplished one step and one day at a time. Total perfection can only be achieved through perfection at every step and on every day. Holding back or failing to perform at maximum potential at any step or on any day can only lead to less than perfection. To expect perfection one must give perfection at every step and on every day. Nothing should ever be left in reserve.
Every decision that an angler makes or opts not to make is of vital importance. Each decision must be made correctly and once made must be committed to entirely. Good decisions can only be made by truly confident individuals. Self trust is the foundation upon which successful angling is built. Try as we may, we will never be capable of deluding ourselves. You can only be as good as you really are and only you control just how good that is. Learn yourself and your true capabilities and then trust yourself to do what has to be done. It always starts with knowledge and experience, but it never ends there. It is the application of 100% of that knowledge and experience that ultimately leads to success. It is that simple and that complex. It all starts, and ends, with you.
Accumulate knowledge, gain experience,
trust and control yourself and you will succeed, I guarantee it!!
July 5, 2009
In bass fishing, there is much that a fisherman can do to prepare himself before he actually goes fishing. He can determine what water type he will be fishing. Will it be a natural lake, a reservoir, a river, a pit or a pond? Knowing what type of water is to be fished should give the angler an idea as to what type of structure and cover he is most likely to encounter. It will also give him some indication of the normal water clarity and the type of prey species that should be present. This information should provide a guide to the types of lures that may be productive and also an idea of what colors may work best. It might also indicate which type of tackle should be most effective.
An angler should also take note of the season and know where the bass are most likely located on that water type at that season. At what depth are the bass most apt to be located at that season and what speed of retrieve is most likely to produce? Are horizontal retrieves likely to produce or are vertical presentations a better approach?
What is the local weather likely to be? Has the weather been stable or has it been constantly changing? Will the angler be fishing pre-frontal weather conditions or he is more apt to be facing post-frontal conditions? Is wind going to be a factor and if so, how will the angler adjust? Does the water type contain a good population of larger bass or are average sized bass more prevalent? How much weight is it likely to take to win the tournament? What types of bass are present in the water to be fished? Are other top line predators present in the lake and, if so, how does their presence influence the probable location of the bass?
An angler should obtain a good contour map of the water to be fished. With the aid of the map and past experience, an angler can select those areas most likely to hold the bass during the precise season and under the precise weather conditions that he will encounter. Much water will be eliminated before the angler even leaves his home. Tackle and lures can be prepared well in advance.
Once the angler arrives at the water to be fished, he will observe the conditions and make any last minute changes that he deems appropriate. Perhaps the weather is not as expected or maybe the fishing pressure is greater than anticipated. The angler must know what effect these changes are apt to have and he must make changes to adapt to them.
A good angler can answer all of these questions before he even gets on the water. Then it is simply a matter of traveling to his pre-selected areas and then fishing those areas thoroughly. The question of whether the bass are there or not should never arise. If the angler has properly done his homework, the bass are there. It is now just a matter of figuring out the right presentation for that exact time and place. The only real question that remains is how easy or how hard the catching is going to be. Many, many times it will be hard. This is primarily due to changing weather conditions and intense fishing pressure. The angler will have to work to catch his bass, but he should not have to work to find them. If you haven’t done that before you start, then you are not likely to succeed.
You cannot catch bass where they aren’t, but if you fish where they are, you should be able to catch some. Know when to slow down or when to speed up. Know when to change your lure size. Know when to experiment with lure color. Be thorough in your approach and only make changes for a reason. Be constantly aware of changing water and weather conditions and adapt your approach as necessary.
There must be a method or plan to your approach. Every change that you make must be made to answer a question. Not catching bass is not all negative. You should be eliminating presentations and techniques as you proceed. Your options should continue to narrow until eventually you find the right technique and presentation. Don’t stop experimenting, but keep looking for the best depth, the best speed of retrieve, the best size and the best color instead. Nothing in bass fishing is static, conditions are constantly changing and so must you. The minute that you think that you have them figured out, you stop progressing and you effectively put a limit on your potential success.
Be a Boy Scout, “Be prepared!”
June 23, 2009
I am a big believer in keeping a fishing log and I have kept a fishing log since 1974. The human mind is a complex and wonderful organ, but time has a way of distorting memories.
Tournament bass fishing is an extremely complex endeavor. The variables that impact success on any given day are almost without number. For any individual to try to remember all of these factors would be an exercise in futility. Often times it takes more than one experience to reveal the real secret to success. Only by recording as much factual information as possible, and recording this information at the time it occurs, can an individual ever hope to see the common thread that resulted in success or failure. All information must be documented when it is fresh and before the influence of time can distort the facts.
The easiest way to do this is to carry a portable cassette recorder with you when you are fishing. It only takes a few seconds to record all the pertinent data such as weather conditions, water conditions, locations fished, lures and techniques utilized and fish caught. Later this information can be transposed into a written record.
I periodically review my logs and by doing so I have discovered such things as lure preferences, color preferences and location preferences for specific bodies of water. I have also been able to identify certain locations and techniques that produce larger bass on certain water bodies at specific times and under specific conditions. These big bass patterns are elusive and can normally only be identified after many trips to the same body of water. Some of these patterns are so strong that if a truly large bass is caught on a particular body of water I can probably tell you the lure type that was used and the color of that lure type as well. I know that I would never have identified these patterns had it not been for written records. It is just inconceivable that I would have correctly remembered the precise details necessary to identify these patterns had I simply relied upon my memory.
There is little question in my mind that on-the-water experience is the best teacher and is what true self-confidence must be grounded on. There is also little doubt in my mind that without written records most of the wisdom that is gained would soon be forgotten. Most people remember the good times with little thought given to the bad ones. Yet it is the bad times that must often lead to the biggest and best discoveries.
It is also human nature to embellish experiences over time and this is never a good thing to do when tournament fishing. Replication of exact details must be grounded in fact and not in distorted memories. Our innate senses often recall specific environmental conditions that our conscious thought processes do not. Even written records cannot exactly duplicate what we have experienced, but written records can provide factual data to support what our innate senses recall. If that knowledge which is innate can be supported by that knowledge which is logical, then we will be much more apt to follow through on it. It is all about accurate recall and trust.
You are free to do as you please. I know that written records have helped me. I believe that they could help you as well.
Record the facts as they happen
June 8, 2009 I have believed for some time now that “Professional” bass fishing is not a true profession. In my opinion, there is one major reason for this belief and that is the lack of a definitive definition of what is required to qualify an angler as a “professional”. It has always been the tournament organizers that have defined what a “professional” bass angler is and their definition has always come down to one simple criterion, can you pay the entry fee. This is simply wrong. Where would we be if anyone that wanted to be a professional could do so by simply paying a fee? Most professional organizations that I am aware of would pursue criminal charges against anyone that tried to pass themselves off as a professional in this manner. There are strict requirements that must be met before anyone can be considered a “professional”. Even in professional sports it takes much more than money to earn entry into the ranks of the profession. Ray Scott did wonders for bass tournaments and bass anglers, but he failed miserably at establishing criteria for professional status in the sport. I understand that in the beginning survival mandated that the criteria had to be very broad. It was, after all, a brand new field and Ray was learning as he went. However, there came a time when he should have created strict criteria defining what constitutes a “professional” bass angler. The proper way to have done so would have been to organize the “pros” and separate those “pros” from other B.A.S.S. members. These “pros” would govern themselves and would do so independently of B.A.S.S. or any other tournament organizer. All major sports have organizations for their professionals and those organizations are totally independent from the entities that organize the tournaments or the leagues. The tournament organizers provide the venues for competition and the professional organizations provide the professionals that compete in those venues. The tournament organizers do not utilize a professional unless that professional belongs to the professional organization. The tournament organizers do not determine the conduct of the professions without the professional organization’s consent. It is the professional organization that determines and enforces their members’ code of conduct. It is only in this manner that true integrity in competition can be achieved. You can’t become a professional golfer, baseball player, or football player simply by paying an entry fee. Nor can you become a professional without membership in the professional organization. You shouldn’t be able to become a professional bass angler that way either. You should have to earn the title and you should have to earn it the old fashioned way, by proving your bass catching ability. The biggest obstacle standing in the way of this ever happening now is the “pros” themselves. All “pros” would have to belong to the professional organization. Unfortunately there are a few that have all ready become extremely wealthy. I doubt that all of these wealthy “pros” would now be willing to turn their careers over to the majority opinion of a professional organization. They have, after all, fared pretty darn well on their own and what may be good for the majority may not be good for them. However, if tournament bass angling is to ever become a true “profession”, then this is exactly what will have to happen. If it is left to the tournament organizers, it will never happen because salesmanship will always take priority over fishing ability. Since tournament organizers exist solely to make a profit, it can be no other way. Living your dream has to involve more than simply paying a fee. I once dreamt of replacing Mickey Mantle in centerfield for the New York Yankees. Unfortunately my skills were not good enough. If I could have just paid a fee, then maybe I could have realized my dream. Some how I don’t think that would have been in the best interest of professional baseball or its fans. What about you? Oh, by the way, I do not now, nor did I ever, consider myself to be a pro bass angler. There were some (mostly tournament organizers) that referred to me as such, but I never felt that I had earned the right to be called a pro. It takes more than money to be a professional
I have been a bass fisherman for well over 50 years and a tournament bass angler for at least 35. I have been a member of B.A.S.S. since 1972 and a member of Operation Bass/FLW Outdoors since 1996. I became a charter member of a local bass club in 1976 and continue that membership today. At last count, I have fished in 341 bass tournaments, cashed 157 times and won 28. I also had the largest bass in 32 of those tournaments and I have won 1 Ranger Cup. Included in the 340 tournaments are 4 B.A.S.S. Eastern Invitational Tournaments, 6 FLW Tour Tournaments, 35 Redman/BFL Divisional Tournaments and 1 Redman Regional Wild Card Tournament.
At the local club level I have 4 Angler of the Year Titles, 5 Classic Championships and a total of 20 tournament victories. I have spent a tournament day fishing with pros Denny Brauer, Tim Horton, Peter “T”, George Cochran, Mike McClelland and several others you have probably never heard of. I have met and talked with other pros such as Davey Hite, David Fritts, Larry Nixon, Paul Elias, Kevin Van Dam and several “TV” pros. I have also shared a weigh-in stage with Ray Scott, Bob Cobb, Dewey Kendrick, Trip Weldon and Charlie Evans. I mention all of this not to try to impress you (after all my record is not very impressive), but to provide some idea of the background upon which my opinions have been formed.
May 25, 2009
There are a couple of seasons of the year when situational lure types may be your best lure choice. Immediate post-spawn and fall turn over are those times. These are two periods of instability and locating numbers of bass in a precise location can be almost impossible. Often times a run and gun approach will be your only hope of amassing a limit of bass during these two seasons.
I act on the presumption that some bass will always be attempting to feed regardless of the situation. I know that these bass will sometimes be scattered and few in number, but I know where they will be if they exist. These bass will be roaming the feeding flats looking for a meal. I know that if the bass are up roaming, they are also actively feeding and are therefore aggressive. My approach is to fish as many good feeding flats as I know and to do so as quickly as I can. Since I know that I am looking for individual bass that are actively hunting, I don’t worry about trying to finesse them. I throw a spinnerbait, crankbait or topwater and I retrieve these lures quickly and erratically. If there are any of these bass around, I will catch them.
Interestingly, this approach can sometimes produce a really big bass. I guess sometimes the big boys have to eat as well. The key to using this approach is having the knowledge that normal fishing presentations and techniques are totally failing to produce. These are the times when virtually everyone is failing to catch bass of any size. This is straggler fishing at its finest. It takes a total commitment to this approach and it is a lot of hard work, but it will produce. I know. I have won several tournaments with just this approach. I could not have won unless I had accurately read and interpreted the level of the bass’ aggressiveness. To me, I was again playing the percentages and in these cases it paid off. Accurately appraise the bass’ level of aggressiveness and adjust your fishing approach accordingly. You will be glad that you did.
I hate to use the term mood, especially when talking about bass, but an angler has to know what mood the bass are in. Location is always the first vital step to successful tournament angling, but determining the mood of the bass at that location ranks a close second. It is my opinion that no angler can ever maximize the potential of any location unless he first accurately interprets the mood of the bass. It is only by monitoring and staying up with the mood of the bass that an angler can be certain that he is constantly using the very best tool for the job at hand.
Tournament bass fishing is not a static contest and there can be no predetermined perfect goal. The only way to achieve perfection is to catch the 5 largest bass available. Since no angler can know for certain the potential of any fishing location except by catching it, it is impossible to know beforehand the maximum weight obtainable. All any angler can do is catch the 5 biggest bass that he is capable of catching. To do that he must insure that every cast he makes is made with the absolute best tool and in the absolute best location. To do that you must know the mood of the bass.
Get in the mood
May 13, 2009
My normal tournament approach goes as follows. I attempt to select the best location for the exact time and place I am fishing. I always try to take into account the weather conditions, season of the year, fishing pressure and water levels. I also take into consideration the effect of competition and the impact it may have on my location choice.
Once I have decided on my location, my first goal is to get to that location as quickly and as safely as possible. Once at the location I will always start fishing using situational lure types. I do this because the early morning is a time that the bass are often aggressive. I start out throwing a spinnerbait, a topwater and a crankbait. I will not spend a lot of time throwing any of these lure types unless I am catching bass. If I am catching bass, I’ll keep throwing these lures until I stop catching bass. If I am not catching bass, I quickly switch over to soft plastics and jigs. Since early morning is a time of the day that bass are often aggressive, I always give these aggressive bass a chance to show themselves before I switch to soft plastics and jigs.
The key to this approach is not over fishing the situational lure types. If bass are aggressive, it generally doesn’t take long to find out. Where it can get a little tricky is when the bass are aggressive. Too often I will stay with the situational lures long after the bass’ level of aggressiveness has diminished. This is always a serious mistake. As soon as the aggressiveness level has diminished I know that I must switch to soft plastics and jigs. Continuing to throw the situational lure types then is almost always an exercise in futility.
Another key for me is the understanding that there may be a time or two during the course of the tournament hours that these same bass again become aggressive. An astute angler will notice the increase in the bass’ aggressiveness and will immediately go back to the situational lure types. When the number of hits suddenly increases dramatically after a lengthy slow period of activity, it is generally a sign of an increase in the bass’ level of aggressiveness. This is when situational lure types can be much more efficient than soft plastics and jigs. These periods of increased aggressiveness are usually of short duration so I know that I must be attentive and act quickly. It is in this area that I need to improve the most. I am getting better at it every year, but I still have much room for improvement.
Sometimes it is a weather change that can indicate an increase in the bass’ aggressiveness. If an angler is alert and pays attention to every minor change in weather conditions, he can anticipate an impending change in the bass’ aggressiveness and make his lure changes accordingly. Other times it may be a specific type of cover that mandates a lure choice change. If the cover type is isolated and sets up well as a potential holding spot for neutral bass, a situational lure may just trigger an instinctive reflex response from the bass and it may well do so quicker than soft plastics or jigs. Certainly this type of situation at least warrants a cast or two with a situational lure type before more thoroughly fishing that cover with soft plastics and jigs.
Adapting to these situations is precisely what I mean when I say that paying attention to details is the key to success. Without paying attention to the details of every fishing situation no angler should expect to maximize any situation. All situations are unique and your approach must be just as unique or you will fail more often than not.
I always have situational lure types tied on and ready to throw. I may only use them a few times through out the tournament day, but when I use them they will be the best lure choice for that precise time, place and situation. If they fail, I will immediately revert back to soft plastics and jigs. I like to think that by doing so I am maximizing the percentages. My steady improvement as a tournament angler convinces me that I am, not to mention a couple of bass over 5 pounds that I caught along the way.
Have a game plan
April 30, 2009
If an angler considers the facts I presented in my last 2 columns, he will realize that his ability to correctly interpret the bass’ level of aggressiveness is key to his success. Although crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters are lower percentage lures for bass, there are specific conditions and circumstances when the level of the bass’ aggressiveness makes these lures your best choice. The key is your ability to correctly identify the bass’ level of aggressiveness. But it is even more involved than that.
A bass’ level of aggressiveness changes and these changes can happen quickly. It is not enough to just identify the level of the bass’ aggressiveness and then choose your lure types for the day. You must constantly monitor the bass’ level of aggressiveness so that lure type changes can be made as the level of aggressiveness changes.
It would be abnormal to find the bass’ level of aggressiveness remaining constant through out a tournament day. There will be peaks and valleys and lure choice must reflect these peaks and valleys. As any experienced angler knows, bass are most generally at a neutral level of aggressiveness. However, periodic increases in aggressiveness will occur throughout the day. Those lure types that may be productive on neutral bass will also work on active bass, but other lure types may be more efficient.
If an angler will tailor his lure selection to match the aggressiveness level of the bass, the angler will be in the best position to truly maximize the situation. This could result in several more bass being caught during an aggressive period and the more bass caught the greater the options. Using a lure type that affords faster presentation and execution affords more presentations in a limited period of time which in turn allows for more potential responses from aggressive bass.
If I can make three or four retrieves with a spinnerbait while you make one with a soft plastic or jig, and if the bass are aggressive, I will have a better chance of catching more bass than you will. I am simply taking greater advantage of the aggressiveness of the bass than you are and I am doing so simply because of my lure type choice.
Levels of high aggressiveness and a total lack of aggressiveness are not the norms. Finding bass in a feeding frenzy or in a totally inactive stage are rare occurrences and are usually very brief in duration when they do occur. The vast majority of the time the bass’ level of aggressiveness is somewhere in between the extremes.
This is a fact because the stats tell us it is a fact. The predominate success rate of soft plastics and jigs for all sizes of bass, big and small, is all the evidence that we need to prove this fact. Day in and day out soft plastics and jigs will catch bass and they will catch bass regardless of the bass’ level of aggressiveness. There will be times when crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters will produce bass quicker, but crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters are designed to perform at their best when the level of the bass’ aggressiveness is high. The lower the bass’ level of aggressiveness, the less likely that these lure choices will produce.
This is why I consider these lure options as situational lure options. They are tools designed to perform at their best when the bass’ level of aggressiveness is high. Sure an expert at their use may make these lure types continue to work when the aggressive level wanes, but why bother when more efficient tools exist for the job?
We all know that any lure can catch a bass at any time and under any circumstance. However, we also know that these are the exceptions and not the rule. Certainly lures designed to be most effective when bass are aggressive can be made to work when the bass are inactive. This is one reason that so many different techniques exist for presenting different lure types. However, why buck the percentages?
Use the tool designed for the job. In the long run it is not only more effective, it is easier and much more efficient. Consistently catching quality bass is a difficult enough task as it is. Don’t compound the difficulty by using the wrong tool at the wrong time and in the wrong place. Remember, bass tournaments are fished under time constraints. The more efficient and effective you can be the better you will succeed. Match your presentation to the bass’ level of aggression. I think you will be glad that you did.
Know when to be aggressive
April 17, 2009
Over my many years of tournament fishing I have also kept stats on what I have caught my bass on. My results, on over 2400 bass, are almost identical to the stats included in other tables I have seen over the years. My weakest lure type is crankbaits and that fact is clearly evident where comparing my results with the results of these other tables. The discovery of these facts has significantly changed the way that I fish tournaments.
I now consider spinnerbaits, crankbaits and topwater lures as highly situational tools. I only fish these lures when I believe the bass are at a high level of aggressiveness or are in precise cover situations where I may be able to trigger an involuntary, reflex response. The vast majority of my tournament day is spent fishing soft plastics and jigs. The only times that I will alter this approach is during the immediate post spawn and during the fall turnover.
I alter my approach then because I know that during those two periods I am fishing for stragglers and not concentrations. During all other periods I believe that concentrations will exist and I fish for those concentrations with soft plastics and jigs. If the activity level of the bass appears to increase, then I will pick up the other lure types and fish them. I just feel that I am more efficient by taking this approach. Soft plastics and jigs will catch highly active bass, but the other lure types will catch them quicker. By using the quicker presentations only when the bass are active I am able to maximize the situation as it occurs. As soon as the bass cease to respond to the faster presentations, I revert back to soft plastics and jigs. Since I made this change, my tournament success has improved.
Selection of the right lure is primarily dependent upon accurately determining the activity level of the bass. Generally, bass can be said to have 3 levels of activity: active, neutral and inactive. This is to say that bass can be active, completely inactive or at some level in between. Most anglers understand that most of the time the activity level of bass is somewhere between active and inactive.
By design, certain lure types are made for active bass and certain lure types are made for inactive or neutral bass. Lure types designed for active bass almost always have more attracting qualities than triggering qualities and are designed to be retrieved at faster speeds. These lure types are also often used to trigger reaction strikes and this almost always involves fast speed and surprise. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters are the lure types designed for active bass. They are the very same lure types that take up the majority of the space in most bass anglers’ tackle boxes. Yet they are the lure types least likely to be productive for the vast majority of any tournament day.
Without a doubt, most of the time, bass are at a neutral level of activeness and will not expend much energy chasing prey or feeding. Sure, some of these bass may be capable of being provoked, but if you are using crankbaits, spinnerbaits or topwaters your presentation will have to be exactly precise to do so. On the other hand, soft plastics and jigs, by their very design, are easy prey for neutral bass and can be easily eaten with very little expenditure of energy. The slower these lures are fished, the truer this statement becomes.
It should also be pointed out that soft plastics and jigs will catch actively feeding bass as well. They just aren’t as efficient at doing so as quickly as are crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters. On the other hand, crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters almost never catch neutral bass except when a reflexive strike is triggered.
This means that when the bass are in a neutral state of activity most presentations with crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters have virtually no chance of being successful. Your only hope then is that you can somehow get lucky enough to come close enough to a bass to trigger a reflexive response. Unless you can see exactly where that lure type is being presented, the odds of this happening are pretty slim.
When you consider all of these facts, and these are facts, it should be eminently clear that soft plastics and jigs should be your lure type of choice the vast majority of the tournament day. The greater the fishing pressure, the truer this statement becomes and fishing pressure during tournaments is always intense.
Do yourself a favor. Learn what each lure type is designed to do and how it was designed to do it. Understand the activity level of the bass and then select your lure accordingly. While it is absolutely true that a bass can be caught at any time, any place and on any lure, a smart angler would learn to play the percentages. If you aren’t spending the majority of your tournament day using soft plastics and jigs, then you are not playing the percentages. Be a percentage player. Make soft plastics and jigs the main tools in your search for success. I think you’ll be glad that you did.
Know your lures
April 9, 2009
A couple of years back I came across some interesting stats. The stats were a breakdown of the types of lures used to catch largemouth bass of 10 pounds or more. It was a list of lure types used to catch a total of 626 bass of 10 pounds or more over a period of 5 years. As is always the case with these types of lists, the authors did not combine the lure types completely and they mixed in techniques with the lure types. Since combining techniques in with lure types does nothing to clarify the issue, I combined lure types and eliminated the techniques. I also combined soft plastics and jigs because these 2 lure types are almost always fished in combination with each other.
If you look at just artificial lures while eliminating live bait, the percentages for the different lure types are as follows:
soft plastics/jigs: 63.1%;
crankbaits: 17.8%;
spinnerbiats: 11.5%;
topwaters: 7.1%.
If you include live bait, the percentages are as follows:
soft plastic/jigs: 50%;
live bait: 16.2%;
crankbaits: 15.9%;
spinnerbaits: 10.1%;
topwaters: 7.6%;
What do these percentages tell us?
They tell us that soft plastics/jigs are clearly the highest percentage lures for bass of 10 pounds or more. These lure types even out fish live bait and they out fish live bait by a substantial amount. Live bait and all the other lure types are obviously situational and are not an angler’s best choice most of the time. These stats are only for bass of 10 pounds or more, but stats for keeper sized bass (those of 12” or longer) are remarkably similar. If anything, the dominance of soft plastics and jigs is greater for truly big bass than it is for strictly keeper sized bass.
These facts are important to any bass angler. The stats clearly indicate exactly where an angler’s emphasis should be placed. Soft plastics and jigs are the bread and butter of successful bass angling. Clearly any bass angler should be putting most of his efforts into mastering these lure types. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters are situational lure types and therefore should not be expected to produce with the consistency of soft plastics and jigs. This is true and it is true regardless of what specific technique is used to fish crankbaits, spinnerbiats or topwaters.
If you are spending the majority of your time using crankbaits, spinnerbaits and/or topwaters, you are seriously limiting your potential success. The facts do not lie. If you want to catch more bass, and bigger bass, you should be spending most of your time and effort mastering soft plastics and jigs. Once you have mastered soft plastics and jigs, you then need to learn the specific situations when crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters are your best lure options. These situations should then become the only times that you utilize these lure types. As soon as the situation changes, you should revert back to fishing with soft plastics and jigs.
By taking this approach to your fishing, you are maximizing your odds of success. If you approach your fishing in any other way you are placing severe limitations on your success and you will fail more times than not. After you master soft plastics and jigs, you should master the situational lure types in their order of effectiveness; crankbaits first, spinnerbaits second and topwaters last. Assuming you can locate bass consistently, you will then be in a position to catch bass consistently and you will be in position to catch bigger bass as well. Simple, isn’t it?
Stats are facts
March 21, 2009
Perhaps one of the most difficult things to accomplish successfully is self-evaluation. I am of the belief that the only effective way to advance your level of success in bass fishing is to be capable of accurately evaluating your skill level. To me it is very important that you understand both your strengths and your weaknesses. Often times, weaknesses are weaknesses only because you lack the self-confidence to properly execute them. If this is the case, then you must do whatever it takes to develop the self-confidence necessary to eliminate that weakness.
I have heard many a bass angler say things like, “that is not my style of fishing”. Whenever I hear this type of statement, I immediately eliminate that angler from my concerns. What these types of statements tell me is that these particular anglers lack self-confidence and that they are not likely to ever do what is necessary to win. Rather than make a commitment to learning the style that they have no confidence in, they would rather write it off as not being their style. I do not concern myself with these anglers as their unwillingness to do what they must to get better indicates to me that they are very unlikely to be successful very often.
I believe that knowing which of your competitors have real self-confidence is the true key to identifying who it is that you are going to have to out fish. No angler can control what other competitors do, but knowing who has the real capabilities of succeeding is important to me. It allows me to ignore most of my competition while spending my time directing my full attention to what is really important, my fishing. In addition, if I happen to observe what my real competition is doing, it could help direct me in the right direction.
Rumors have a way of spreading throughout the tournament day. You are bound to hear reports of how other anglers are faring. Often times these rumors are fairly accurate. If you are struggling but then hear that a truly competent angler is doing well, this information, coupled with your knowledge of your competition, could help point you in the right direction. When you fish against the same competitors for many years, you come to recognize your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. You can not help but learn what each competitor’s favorite strength is. I am not talking about stealing their location or moving in on the fish that they have found. I am talking about changing your approach to their approach. If you hear that a competitor, that you know loves to dock fish, is killing the fish, then it would probably be in your best interest to start fishing docks.
A truly smart tournament angler will use his competition to check certain patterns and techniques for him. Many, many tournament anglers are shallow water fishermen. I often ignore the shallower waters and let these other anglers check that location for me. If it becomes obvious that these anglers are catching a lot of fish, then I can use that knowledge to my advantage and start fishing shallower water. This is particularly true if the deeper water that I usually concentrate on is not producing for me.
The key to this whole approach is the self-confidence to know that you can successfully use whatever technique/presentation is necessary regardless of whether or not it is “your style”. Versatility truly is the key to success. However, it has to be versatility backed by true self-confidence and true self-confidence can only be obtained through success. So it is learning from successful experience that really establishes self-confidence. A technique/presentation/lure can only work successfully for you when you have experienced success with it previously. The only way to gain that success is to force yourself to learn the technique/presentation/lure when you are not competing. The only way to know what technique/presentation/lure you need to work on is to be able to accurately and honestly evaluate your past experiences. Identify which technique/presentation/lure you are inadequate with and then make a commitment to become self-confident in its use.
Do not do this during a tournament. Tournaments are not the time to be trying to build self-confidence in techniques/presentations/lures that you have not all ready mastered. This is what practice is for. Practice must have a purpose. If it does not, it is just a day on the water.
Ask yourself this question, “When was the last time that I devoted a practice day to learning a new technique/presentation/lure?” True practice is learning. It is not necessarily catching all the fish that you can. It is about becoming the best angler that you are capable of becoming. Ponder this. If you always use the same techniques/presentations/lures, how will you ever achieve your true potential?
No matter what the conditions, bass can always be caught. This is a fact. Accept it and do whatever you must to be capable of always catching bass. It is an achievable goal.
Evaluate yourself
March 11, 2009
A decision that often has to be made at any tournament is whether to run or to stay. At the last Classic, this decision was of the utmost importance because running involved a significant loss of fishing time. Many of the Classic contenders did end up making a run, but the winner did not. Since it is now obvious that the Classic could be won without making time consuming runs, one has to wonder why so many competitors choose to run in the first place.
A study of the tournament history on the Classic water indicated that the tournament would almost certainly be won in pool 5. Pool 5 was well known for good fish holding locations and for producing the size bass that would be needed to win the tournament. Pool 4 also had fish holding locations and good quality bass, but pool 5 was still considered the best pool to fish if for no other reason than the extra fishing time that would be gained by doing so. After all, the tournament was being run out of pool 5.
Every Classic competitor had this information prior to the tournament, yet many still chose to run to either pool 4 or pool 3. It was well known that locking through once would cost an angler at least one and a half hours per day and perhaps as much as 3 hours per day and locking twice would cost an angler twice that much time. Now if an angler is going to forfeit that much fishing time each tournament day he had better know that he can catch five when he gets where he is going and those five better be big enough to win. There can be no indecision on this matter. Any indecision or uncertainty about numbers or size and the choice to run is a mistake. Particularly when it is well known that the numbers and the size needed are immediately available within the launch pool.
I have to believe that some of those competitors that chose to run during the Classic made that decision for reasons not directly related to winning the tournament. When a competitor admits that he made a run to get away from competition, then he is also admitting that he will avoid winning locations simply to be more comfortable. Being a professional is not just about doing what is comfortable. Being a professional is the ability to adjust and adapt to whatever the contest presents. A professional would base all decisions on one factor and one factor only; what choice gives me the best chance to win the event. Whenever I hear things like, “I can’t stand fishing in a crowd”, “That’s not my style of fishing” or “I don’t like fishing with spinning gear”, I know that the speaker is not a true professional. Not only is he not a true professional but he is also very insecure about his overall abilities.
A true professional has real self-confidence and the knowledge that he can do whatever he must to give himself the best chance to win any event. It is never a matter of what he enjoys doing, but rather a deep seated belief and trust that he can do whatever it is that he must to succeed.
When you consider all of these facts, it becomes immediately clear why Skeet Reese won the last Classic. He was more “professional” than the rest and he trusted and believed in that fact. In the end, that made all the difference.
Trust is a must
March 3, 2009
I, like most tournament bass anglers, followed the 2009 Bassmaster Classic as closely as I could. It was an interesting event and ended up going right down to the wire. Skeet Reese’s win was well earned and will, I think, be good for professional tournament bass fishing overall.
I enjoy following these big money tournaments and watching how the “pros” react. The longer I spend in this sport, the more I become convinced that it is the mental aspect that ultimately makes all of the difference between the winners and the losers. It is the mental decisions that are made that always end up deciding these contests.
This Classic was held on a river impoundment. It was a river impoundment with a multitude of backwater areas and a series of dams and locks. Boat travel within the main channel area of this impoundment was relatively easy and fast, however travel in the backwater areas and through the locks was very slow and time consuming. It was clear, early on, that contestants would not be able to run and gun on this impoundment. Taking a run and gun approach would just be too time consuming and would result in very little actual time for fishing.
The first decision that each contestant had to make was where to concentrate his/her fishing. This decision was critical since, as KVD discovered, not catching a good limit each and every day would effectively eliminate an angler from any hope of winning the event. Some competitors made good decisions and some did not. Those that made good decisions competed until the end and those that made bad decisions didn’t.
Some of those that made good location decisions failed to make good presentation decisions. Fralick succeeded for the first two days, but ended up failing in the end. He failed because he did not effectively alter his presentation. The depth to fish was pretty well established and it was shallow. Where Fralick and others made bad decisions was when they did not change their speed of presentation and, perhaps, the size of their lure. Clearly the location that Fralick fished held the potentially winning fish. We know this because Snowden caught over 18 pounds there on the final day and he did so after losing 3 hours of fishing time to a boat breakdown. To me it is clear that the pressure of the situation resulted in Fralick simply fishing too fast and doing so without regard to speed or size control. It was his inability to control himself that ultimately led to his failure. He simply crashed and burned.
Another decision that some contestants, including Ike, made was to not fish their locations to the max on each and every tournament day. Reportedly, Ike left his main area early on the first 2 days of competition after catching what he thought was enough weight to advance. Since Ike ultimately lost the tournament by 11 ounces, his decision to not fish his chosen area to the max each day was obviously a mistake. Multiple day tournaments are much tougher to win than single day events and many pros claim that they try to save fish by leaving their best areas early once a certain weight is obtained. I could understand this tactic if there were a cut involved after which all anglers restart at zero weight. I cannot understand this tactic when the tournament winner is determined by total weight for all days fished. While it is true that you cannot win a 3 day tournament on the first day, you certainly can establish a big enough lead on the first day to effectively eliminate much of your competition and you can gain a big psychological edge. A bass on the scales is worth much more than all the bass in the lake. Tomorrow is promised to no one. No two days have ever been identical and no two days ever will be identical. Conditions change. People change. Mental attitude, stress level and the physical condition of individuals change. Psychological games are played and insecurities are exposed. A smart angler makes hay while the sun shines and only worries about crossing bridges once those bridges appear. Tomorrow only exists in perception. All realities are rooted in the here and now. It is difficult enough to control that which can be controlled without fixating on that which has yet to come. It is only by maximizing each and every moment that the ultimate in potential can be obtained. Let others worry about tomorrow. Do your best to maximize today.
Ike’s motto is “fish the moment” yet Ike’s failure to do just that ultimately doomed him to failure. Had Ike “fished the moment” and maximized each day’s catch, he just might have won his second Classic championship. He didn’t and he finished second and, as is well known, nobody cares who finishes second at the Classic. From this day forward Ike will forever second guess his decision to settle for less than the maximum on days one and two. All of his other decisions proved correct. Not fishing for the maximum on days one and two was clearly THE decision that sealed his fate. I love Ike’s motto, but Ike must not just talk the talk, he must walk the walk. He failed to do that at this Classic and he paid the price. We will probably never fish the Classic, but perhaps we can learn some valuable mental lessons from those that do. It is one thing to get beat, it is quite another to beat yourself.
Make good decisions and fish for today
February 20, 2009
Whenever bass anglers talk about patterns, they are really talking about location. The single most important aspect of a pattern is location. Without the right location, presentation is meaningless. While it is true that presentation must be fine-tuned, it can only be fine-tuned after the right location has been found and defined. It is true that color of the lure will probably be important, but only if it is used in the right location and when coupled with the right presentation. All things must take place in the proper order. Color should not precede presentation and presentation should not precede location. Location is the foundation of successful fishing. It is the foundation upon which everything else is built. Without the bass no presentation, color, size, or lure can ever be successful.
Since the bass are not randomly located throughout the water, the first order of business must be finding those areas that hold the bass. Only then can a specific game plan be devised via trial and error. Knowledge of the specie being sought, past experience on similar waters under similar conditions and expertise with equipment will all help in finding the right location. This knowledge will also be of great help in selecting the right presentation.
There is nothing like past experience when it comes to determining the right location and then determining the correct presentation for that time and place. However, past experience doesn’t always equate to success. There are no hard and fast rules. Experimentation is the only correct approach. Methodical experimentation will always lead to the right presentation. Past experience, knowledge and expertise can only lead you in a particular direction. It is up to you to fine-tune your fishing compass.
The reaction of the bass must be your ultimate guide to success. Just as catching bass leads you to the right location so to does catching bass aid you in fine-tuning your presentation. It must be a never ending process. Do not stop experimenting simply because some bass are caught. This is precisely the time to finer-tune your presentation. It is my opinion that way too many bass anglers are too quickly satisfied and therefore cease experimenting precisely when they should not. You must never be satisfied with your results. You must be constantly striving to improve your catch. It is only by taking this approach that you will ever maximize what you have found. Don’t ever be satisfied while still on the water. There will be plenty of time for satisfaction after you catch is weighed, so never be satisfied while still fishing. Only by taking this approach will you ever have a shot at the ultimate catch.
Keep these things in mind the next time you are on the water. Are you too quickly satisfied? You shouldn’t be.
Good bassin’
February 7, 2009
Finding the best location is only the first step in successful tournament bass angling. Once the right location is found the real work begins. It is then that the final key to the puzzle must be found. It is now all about presentation.
There was a time, not too long ago, when just finding a good location was all it took to finish well in a bass tournament. Back then, any angler that could find a good location would just about be guaranteed a good finish. That is not the case any longer.
Many tournament anglers today fish good locations and yet these same anglers fail to do well in tournaments. They fail to do well because they are not versatile enough to thoroughly fish the good location that they have found. Their idea of thoroughly fishing the location is to fish the location using a single lure, a single technique and a single presentation. If they catch fish, they don’t change anything and if they fail to catch fish, they move. It just isn’t that easy anymore.
Tournament anglers today are better educated, have access to better information, have better equipment and are better at finding the good locations. What they are not very good at is fully exploiting what they find. Tournament anglers are too willing to fish a known location with one lure, one technique and one presentation and then write it off as unproductive when they fail. Bass are just not that predictable and catching bass is just not that easy.
It is the ultimate in conceit to fish a proven location using only a single lure, a single technique and a single presentation and then conclude that the bass are not there. If you have found a good location, the bass are there. If they are not there, where will you look for them? You haven’t caught them because you are just not versatile enough to methodically experiment with depth and speed control until you find the absolute best presentation for that precise time and place.
It takes a concerted effort to methodically fish any location and to do so in a manner that guarantees that you have fished every available depth and have done so using every conceivable speed of retrieve. Catching bass is not the end of the process. It is only the beginning of the final fine-tuning. It is only after some bass have been caught that changing sizes and colors can really reveal anything about the bass’ preferences for that particular time and place.
For most anglers, tournament or otherwise, bass fishing will forever be a form of recreation. Successful tournament bass fishing is not recreation, it is work. If you are not willing and prepared to put the effort into the job that the job requires, then you are unlikely to ever consistently experience any real success. Consistent tournament success is achievable, but it takes well directed and concerted effort and that effort must be exerted in the best location possible.
Your goal, as a tournament angler, is to first find the best possible location and then methodically determine the absolute best presentation for that precise location. If you really think that you can accomplish this by only using one lure, one technique or one presentation, perhaps you should think again.
I will guarantee one thing. The more effort and thought that you put into your angling, the more successful you will be. Learn how to find the best possible location and learn how to methodically experiment with lures, techniques and presentations to find the one that is most effective for that time and place. Keep the horse in front of the cart, follow the blue print and you will succeed. Quit hoping that you will succeed. Take control of your actions and put some thought into what you do. You will be glad that you did.
If you want to learn to fish, you must fish to learn,
January 27, 2009
The more that I think about tournament bass fishing, the more I become convinced that fishing the right location is the first real secret to success. A tournament bass angler has to find an area that contains everything that bass need on a daily basis and on a seasonal basis. This area will have sufficient food, cover and/or depth with an adequate spawning area nearby. Availability of deeper water would be a plus, as would the presence of a spring or in-flowing stream. Locating the best such area, on the body of water being fished, has to be the first key to tournament success.
Once this area is located then all any angler has to do is fish it thoroughly and completely. All of the angler’s efforts should be directed towards finding the fish within this area. Having now eliminated all other areas, total effort must be directed towards finding the precise spots within this area where bass are presently located. It is important to understand that there may be several spots within the area that are holding bass. There may be shallow water bass, intermediate water bass and deep water bass. Only by first selecting an area that must hold bass can an angler have any hope of maximizing his tournament day. Tournaments are timed and time is limited. It is extremely important that this limited time be put to maximum use. If all of your tournament time is devoted to locating bass, you may never have time to be successful at catching them.
If it is true that 10% of the water holds the majority of the bass, then you must ensure that you are concentrating on that 10%. If you have to fish 100% of the water in order to find the 10%, you are wasting most of your time on the water. Bass do not hit on cue. Often times, even in areas that hold tons of bass, you will find that timing and presentation are everything. If you are not there when the bass are active, you may never catch a bass, but even if you are, you will still have to use the best presentation for that precise time and place. All too often the bass will not respond at all unless a precise presentation and/or technique is employed. Simply fishing the area using only one technique or presentation will not get it done. All depths must be checked and all speeds of retrieve must be checked at every depth.
If the bass are easy to catch, consider yourself lucky and work to maximize your success. If the bass are not so easy, systematically fish all depths available using every speed of retrieve at every depth fished. Sooner or later you will find the right depth and the right retrieve speed and you will catch bass. It may be a slow process but you have to believe that sooner or later you will find the right combination of depth and speed. This is when versatility can really pay off. One technique and one lure fisherman are going to fail more often than not. The bass are just not that predictable.
You must remember that bass tournaments are not about catching the most bass. Bass tournaments are about catching the heaviest bass. It only takes five bites a day to win a tournament. Keep your lure in an area that contains bass and you have a chance. All the casts in the world to an area where there are no bass cannot provide success. You have to have the confidence to play the percentages and you have to have the confidence that you will find a way to make them hit. It is that simple and that complex.
Find the best location
January 13, 2009
I was thinking about the increase in fishing pressure and the effect it will have on tournament bass fishing. I have to believe that the increase in fishing pressure will have an effect on techniques and presentations. I have written previously about the difference between techniques and presentations used to target bigger bass as compared to those used to successfully catch average sized bass. It occurs to me now that by conditioning average sized bass, via catch and release, we are in fact creating more experienced smaller bass. While it is true that we are no longer removing the most aggressive bass because we now release them, there can be no doubt we are now providing opportunities for conditioning that never existed previously. What this means to me is that, as tournament anglers, we will have to become more subtle with our techniques and presentations.
This doesn’t mean that power techniques and presentations are totally out. It just means that we should expect power techniques and presentations to work less often than they may have worked in the past. Of course it also means that catching truly large bass will probably become even more difficult than it has been in the past. If we are forced to use techniques and presentations that are slower, more natural and more precise just to catch average sized bass, and if we keep releasing these bass once we have caught them, larger bass are bound to become even more experienced and even more difficult to fool. Clearly, our only hope as anglers is that most bass cannot be conditioned to smaller, more natural techniques and presentations. It seems clear to me that the presentation with the least amount of negative clues is the one most apt to be successful. So I guess that we will have to become adept at big bass techniques and presentations whether we fish for large or average sized bass. We are just too good at conditioning bass to the power techniques and presentations.
The problem with power techniques and presentations are two-fold. First, power techniques and presentations are always fast techniques and presentations. You fish fast and you hit as many likely holding spots as possible. The theory being that over the course of a day’s fishing you will expose your lure to more fish and, based on the law of averages, you will catch some of them. The problem with this approach is that every time a bass is caught and released the law of averages diminishes. Eventually too few bass remain that haven’t all ready been conditioned to power techniques and presentations.
The second problem with power techniques and presentations is that, besides speed, power techniques and presentations usually emphasize attracting qualities and not triggering qualities. While it is true that attracting qualities will definitely get the attention of the bass, it takes triggering qualities to entice a bass to strike. This is particularly true if those same qualities that attract bass are easily identified with the negative experience of getting caught. So, while it is true that any successful technique or presentation must have a combination of attracting and triggering qualities, to successfully catch conditioned bass we must put the emphasize on triggering qualities. It is just too easy for bass to equate the negative experience of being caught with qualities like bigger size, brighter colors, faster speed, unnatural sounds and unnatural smells. While these may well be the very qualities that get the bass’ attention, they are also the very qualities that allow the bass to become conditioned in the first place.
Certainly any creature should be able to condition itself to that which is not a part of its natural environment. This is why emphasis must now be directed towards those techniques and presentations that are most in harmony with the natural conditions. These techniques and presentations may be lousy at getting the bass’ attention, but they are difficult for the bass to refuse once they are found. Attention to detail will take on paramount importance and patience will not be just a virtue, it will be mandatory for success.
Power techniques and presentations will still play an important part in tournament fishing success, but this success will be primarily concentrated around the spawning season. When bass are mandated to reproduce, the individual survival instinct takes a back seat to survival of the species. Bass behavior during the spawn is driven by instincts that place survival of the species before individual survival. If this were not the case, the largest bass would never spawn since their self-survival instincts would prohibit them from putting themselves at risk. Just as breeding deer engage in risky behavior in order to reproduce, so must bass. Were it not an innate instinctive drive that forces the individuals to do so, the largest and most experienced would never risk their own survival just to breed. Yet breed they must, otherwise those individuals with the best survival genes would never contribute to the betterment of the species. In nature it is always about survival of the species and never about survival of the individual. The system only works if the individuals that are best at being what the specie is are the ones that reproduce and pass on their genetic traits.
As a bass tournament angler your success will become more and more dependent upon the effects of increased fishing pressure. To remain consistently successful more emphasis on finesse techniques and presentations will become mandatory. It cannot be any other way.
Be in harmony
