It doesn’t matter what kind of fish. Use baits that look familiar to the specie and you’ll catch more fish. Think like a fish. (File Photos)
What I learned about fishing where there is GOOD fishing. When you think like a fish, and use tactics that appeal to fish, you catch more fish.
By Ray Reilly for Press Pros
Just back from six weeks in Florida, and six good weeks of fishing in Florida.
It was something I had always wanted to do, but hadn’t, simply because I hadn’t taken the time. Hadn’t made the effort. And frankly, I learned how to fish better from my having taken the time. And what I learned was…when you don’t have all the time in the world, you make the most of the time that you have.
With a couple of friends with whom I spent time we fished lakes, ponds, rivers, and in a couple of cases what amounted to little more than big ditches. They all had fish in them, and the trick was…what’s it takes to catch those fish.
So imagine my surprise when Steve Montgomery and Dick Busby hauled out a cane pole and a bucket of live bait to fish a drainage ditch one day and we caught bluegills that were ten inches, and hungry.
“You could use jigs,” Dick explained. “But you’d be here longer. These fish are hungry and hungry fish are going to react better to live bait – something they know.”
He was right, of course. And time spent on ponds, in lakes, and on the St. John and Lucowici River (in Georgia) proved over and over that if you want to catch fish you have to think like a fish. No one that I know has spent more money on artificial lures and contemporary gear than I have, but when you’re around places where fish are being caught you’re just as likely to see people using cane poles, spincast reels, bait buckets, and live bait. Because that’s all it takes to catch fish!
On one bad weather day we fished for an hour one morning with jigs and crank baits…and caught six fish. But the minute we changed tactics, switched to red worms with that same jig, at the proper depth and a more natural presentation, the fish suddenly became more interested. The point is, they’re prone to eat what they can find naturally. That doesn’t mean that you can’t incite one to strike a crank bait or an artificial crayfish, but their first choice is almost always something they’ve eaten before, says Dick Busby.
I also learned the value of using an entire night crawler, or red worm, instead of a piece of one. And when you use that whole worm you hook it through the back so that the head and tail can wiggle in the water and present a more natural looking bait. Fish are drawn to that action, and the people who fish every day in Florida will tell you that the bigger worm you use the bigger fish you’re likely to catch. I know when we were catching Shellcrackers on the St. John River that’s how we were catching them, and something I never thought I’d write…it can actually get monotonous when you catch ten inch Bluegill and Sunfish one after another.
You remember catching a six-inch fish in Ohio and how you were satisfied. But when you go to better water and catch fish twice that size, you’re suddenly disgusted with smaller fish wasting your time.
When I wrote about old reels and old rods, I was motivated by the number of people I met in Florida who still fish with names like Zebco, Shakespeare, and Johnson…even Pflueger. I was interested one day when the proprietor of a tackle shop shared with me that he actually sells more cane poles to locals than rods and reels. Because people are still using the same reels they bought thirty years ago. The Shakespeare reel that Dick Busby has used since his dad purchased it new in 1967 has been rebuilt four different times. And it still works like the day he bought it.
I was amazed by people who fish with nothing more than two-pound test line, because, as one put it, “That’s all you need if you’re going to catch fish to eat. And if you don’t eat fish, why do you need bigger tackle to catch a fish you’re going to release?”
“It’s more fun to catch a smaller fish on lighter tackle, than smaller fish on tackle made for bigger fish, when it’s not as likely you’re going to catch bigger fish, anyway,” says Busby. “I fish according to the likelyhood of what I’m going to catch. And if it’s good Bluegills I don’t need much more than two-pound line and an easy-to-use Shakespeare or Johnson reel.
I’m going to spend a lot of time fishing in Ohio this summer, and I’m going to use a lot of what I learned this winter in Florida. Fish at the right time. Fish with the right bait. Fish with equipment that fits the job. And fish with the expectation of having fun, over being frustrated by fish that don’t recognize an unnatural bait that isn’t presented properly.
That’s not saying that artificials don’t work, because they do. But until you learn how, if you want to catch fish…think like a fish.
You’ll save money, and you’ll have more success.
‘Til next time, I’ve enjoyed it.
Olde English Outfitters proudly sponsors coverage of the outdoors on Press Pros Magazine.com.