forward a year or two, and all of a sudden the weights were up again and no one was complaining.
The same has happened to Guntersville in Alabama recently; weights are down, and anglers are complaining about fishing pressure and spraying of the weeds killing fish. It won’t be long until the anglers relocate the fish and weights go up again.
The issue in both of these instances is not that a catastrophic fish kill has occurred and the lake in question is no longer viable, but rather that the anglers lost their easy bite. I don’t mean that locating fish is easy, many of us struggle to put together a solid pattern. The problem is that once we do, we tend to try and ride that thing until the cows come home. If that seasonal spring pattern lasts for a couple years, then we look like a hero, but the moment the fish move, we fall flat.
The overall point is this, bass move when they need to, and bass anglers are stubborn.
Once we find something that works, we tend to go back to the same well over and over again. Once that well dries up we have a choice to make, we can dig a new well, or wait for the rains to fill the water table back up so that well might work again. The trouble with a dry well is that they usually don’t replenish.
The most successful anglers out there learn to think in a tournament by tournament mode – even if they are fishing on the same body of water. Instead of learning spots, a successful angler learns to identify patterns. Sure, a pattern may duplicate itself from year to year, but trying to remember a spot, or a lure that caught them will cause an angler to run around crazy looking for one of his spots to produce, and miss a pattern that could have carried them throughout a week.
Work to avoid getting stuck in a rut when fishing. Try to find something new, even when you are catching them really good. Expand your pattern, locate areas that have the same variables as the one you are fishing and the whole lake might just open up to you, instead of looking like a map without a compass.
FALL 2016
9