This book is that good. Trust me, you'll read it in about 2 hours, and be glad ya did--it'll all make sense.
I’m going to give you a few topical notations from the book, and how I related them to my fishing the past few weeks. They're brilliant. I won't give them all, as I'm not gonna make it that easy for you without getting a hold of this book and reading it yourself. It's important that ya do so, to fully grasp the enormity and importance of the lessons to be learned. Each of these are little notes the characters in the book wrote to themselves, and highlight various concepts of each chapter.
Having my Cheese makes me Happy - This one is very simple, when I'm catching bass, I'm happy, very happy. When I'm not, I get grumpy, reclusive and tend to be short and easily get angry with those around me. I do not like this state; hence it's important to me that I'm catching fish. When I'm happy, the world around me is happy.
Smell the cheese often, so you know when it's getting old - Take pictures, tell a friend, high five the partner and kids, point to the sky and say Thank You Cooch! Always get over-excited when ya catch one, especially a bigger one. Now ya know why these guys in the bigs who we watch on TV get so excited when they catch a fish--they read this book! Make these a habit, a part of your daily fishing. You will then begin to sooner recognize when these activities begin to subside. You will recognize earlier that changes are occurring and you need to think ahead and anticipate the potential changes that are sure to come. Change will no longer take you by surprise.
The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you'll find new cheese - Don't wait half the day to change the way you’re fishing when things aren't going as they did before. Heck, don't wait more than two hours! As a matter of fact, with yesterday’s client, I
didn't wait much more than 20 minutes on our first stop. The day before, we found 'em real shallow, pitching and flippin' inside the tulles. I realized it was raining today, when yesterday it was not. I picked up my Chatter bait and fished the outside, hmm... 10 casts that didn't work. I dug my spinnerbait out of the rod locker and tried that on the outside and BINGO, Fish On! The sooner you change the bait you're using, the area you're fishing or the presentation of your bait, the faster yer gonna figure out what it is the fish wants, so that you can catch them.
old beliefs do not lead you to new Cheese - The fear that you let build up in your mind is worse than the conditions that actually exist. Don't worry about what the other guys are doing. Don't keep telling yourself it's tough. Stop saying, "2 fish shy, I can't catch a limit." These are all negative beliefs you train your mind to follow. You guide your mind to believe these things. Fill yer mind with positive thoughts, keep telling yourself, "I AM gonna catch 'em. Today is a great fishing day! All I gotta do is change and I'm on 'em. Get that net ready; I feel a big bite coming. Cool, I'm just two fish away from my limit." You are the one in power of creating the atmosphere not only in your mind, but also in the world around you--stay positive! Stop thinking about what is or could go wrong and think about catching the fish!
Bass fishing is a mind game. All the answers to where those fish go are stashed behind specific doors and not others within our minds. You must keep opening the right doors instead of always opening the wrong doors, or no doors at all. You are always in control of knowing precisely where your bass are. You have simply got to make the choice to change. The bass change constantly, whether you do so or not. Make the changes, you WILL find your bass.
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