This is the one time of the year when I have time to work on something besides tournaments, tackle development and sponsor support. Every year I do the same thing. I try to learn at least one new technique that’ll help me catch fish sometime in the future.
Doing this is critical. Even if you are a casual angler you need to spend some time doing this. I preach about education all the time. This is a part of it. There’s no standing still in fishing. You either move forward or you slip backwards.
I’m going to tell you how I work on a new technique. Hopefully, you can take something away from my story that’ll help you.
VMC has a new line on spoons that are designed to catch everything from panfish to trophy bass. I don’t know how to fish them. That needs to be corrected.
My first step is to spend a few days on the lake over the next couple of weeks with nothing but a box of spoons. Every other lure has been removed from my boat. I have one option. That forces me to use them regardless of what else might work better.
My boat will be loaded with a huge collection of rods and reels. I want to know how each rod, reel and line — type and test-weight — affects the spoons. That’s critical.
I’ll learn how they fish, what they do, the best places to use them and what sort of tackle makes them do what sorts of things. I’ll also be able to figure out if they need something like a new split ring, snap or set of hooks. This is unlikely but sometimes special circumstances require special modifications.
When I first start throwing them I’m not at all concerned about catching a fish. In fact, I don’t want to catch fish. I want to see how they look and act in the water. I especially want to know how fast they sink — lure weight, design and line makes a big difference here — and how to make them do certain kinds of things. Swimming is not fluttering; twitching is not jerking.
At least one full day will be devoted to this. You can’t fish any bait effectively unless you know which size, color and design to tie on, what rod to throw it with and what line to use given the specific situation you’re facing.
Once I have all of that nailed down I’ll try to catch a fish. The idea here is to learn something about how the fish bite this particular bait when it’s doing certain kinds of things and how to properly set the hook.
To be fair, I know that most recreational anglers can’t always do everything I’ve talked about here. There just isn’t enough time. When a recreational angler goes fishing he or she wants to catch fish. That’s perfectly understandable.
But, if you’ll try to do some of what I’ve talked about you’ll be surprised at how much your catch will improve. Success isn’t about having six of everything. It’s about fishing what you have effectively. You can’t do that without skills, and you can’t develop skills without education.
Mike Iaconelli’s column appears weekly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter or visit his website, mikeiaconelli.com.
