Improving your skills
by Mike Gerry
The norm for most fisherman is to rely on a few presentations, and a few baits, that they are comfortable with!
I can’t say as I blame them but you can’t make yourself a better fisherman and improve your skills by just being a worm fisherman or a jig fisherman. Today’s skill sets have to be wide and versatile. The lakes are getting way too much pressure, and the bass are all too accustomed to the fisherman that does the same thing, the same way, every time they fish. If you’re not versatile enough, the lack of skills catches up with you and eventually you become frustrated and left to wonder why you not catching fish. The last thing you need is to be frustrated when your weekend is packed with more to accomplish than time available so improving is key!
The best way to improve your fishing is to become proficient, and confident, at presenting a wide cast of baits. If you have a bait or lure in which you just do not have confidence, take that out and fish until you do! Read some tips about the bait, understand the presentation, picture the bait in your head catching a fish. Believe it or not being able to envision how that bait works in the water and see it drop or move in your minds eye will help you get better at presenting it. One of the first things I tell an inexperienced fisherman when I am teaching him how to catch a fish is to envision the bait moving, then cast it out and make it do what your mind tells you it should look like. It’s also important to leave every other bait at home so you don’t have a choice but to fish it and learn.
The next thing that falls in the same category as expansion of your lure presentation, is the ability to take the same bait and present it several different ways and catch fish on each presentation. What people do not always think about is often the weather plays a role in what you can do with your bait. The wind changes the bait, as does the current, or the sun and more.
When you can make the same bait do different things your catching ability goes up considerably.
Captain Mike