Thread: Nice thing about fishing - there's always something new to learn

I fished with someone today I'd rather not fish with again and it all comes down to boater consideration for his partner while fishing. I told him once before the only way I was fishing from his boat is if I run the trolling motor and I'm able to choose different areas of the lake I know that have potential this time of year. Early in May we caught close to 200 fish in areas I knew had good potential for many fish species.

Granted, today we caught over 84 fish between us in less than 3 hours, but I was bored early on catching mostly dink crappie, anchored in 6'. I was forced to go to a heavier jig weight because he was fishing areas in front of the boat I couldn't reach with 1/24 oz. jig
My rule of thumb: once I find fish in one direction, I make sure the boat is broadside to those fish so both of us have shots. Plus, I move the boat closer to where fish were caught and then anchor so I don't have to make long casts.

He promised before we went out that he would try north and south ends and at different depth less than 6'. He reneged. He never watches the sonar and doesn't have a clue what's beneath the boat (baitfish, humps, game fish.) We stayed in the northwest near emerging pads. (Early on I got a 6" swimbait cut off by a large pickerel and lost a large bass on a tandem-blade spinnerbait.) Blindly casting is not my thing and both of those fish were in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say, I won't fish with him again or share info such as where I caught fish and other details on this particular lake.

I was forced to relearn that a 1/16 oz jig & plastic lure does better for covering water on long casts and in water over 6' attached to a Ribbon Tail (c.t.)grub that did well. I was reminded that he tires easily in the warm sun and wanted off the lake by 11 am. I would have stayed until 4pm and those numbers would have been much higher.

The 78 y.o. gent I fished with yesterday and I caught 73 fish from 11:30 am - 3 pm under a bright sun. He and I fished before and it is always memorable. He knows I go out of my way to give him room to cast to areas I sense hold fish and sure enough he caught fish that revealed good areas in the pads. Granted, most were sunnies, yellow and white perch, a few bass and crappie caught in 4' or less, but the fights were strong on our light action rods!

The wind was less than 15 mph and boat position corrections kept me busy keeping exactly in spots that had high potential for both of us. Once fish were found - I ANCHORED. I must have anchored 40 times and my arm and shoulder ached from pulling that 15 lb anchor into the boat! The comparison with the other dude's handling of the boat is obvious and where anchoring was rare. My suggestions were ignored and he may just as well have been fishing by himself.

Fishing-as-team goes back decades when I fished bass club tournaments. Granted, we were in competition for year-end total weight, but all partners - boater and nonboater - worked to find patterns which included calling out depths seen on the sonar and the presence of fish. This way the partner who couldn't see the screen knew what to use and where to cast it (depth).

The other nice thing was that my partner yesterday was willing to try different suggestions that most of the time proved fish catchers.
example: he has a hard time tying a uni-knot so I attached a clip/swivel to his line. No problem catching fish even using 1/32 oz jigheads.

example: we both lost lures to pickerel so I gave him a thin wire leader attached to the clip - and again - no problem catching fish.

example: he had forgotten the small tackle box I given him that held my homemade lures that did so well the last time we fished. I always keep more than on board - enough to give to my partner when I'm catching fish and he isn't. Plus, that always helps me take note of all of the lure designs that do well and that I will always want to keep supplied on board. In fact, at timesI would swap rods with him after catching more fish and he would then catch as many if not more than me. Confidence in what you're casting is as important as what you're throwing.

The above is about fishing ettiquette, mutual cooperation towards the goal of catching fish AS ONE UNIT, experiementing so BOTH of us can learn and discover new things and be able to congratulate the other when nice size fish and good totals are caught.

Food for thought.