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Fall 2022
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TOPICS AND TRENDS
Given the recent arms race in side-imaging and forward-facing electronics, it’s no surprise that many of Morgenthaler’s clients seek out his expertise with Garmin units. His home waters of Table Rock Lake, with all three major species of bass and a wide array of structure, provide a perfect venue for this. Although they seem complicated, he said teaching electronics is one of his easiest and favorite tasks because of his own personal learning process.
“I know what they’re going through 100 percent because I was that guy,” he said.
Indeed, part of the reason he moved from Southern Illinois to Table Rock was to get a better handle on offshore structure fishing and the tools needed to master it. That move dovetailed nicely with the vast recent improvements in technology.
“My goal is to show them how to approach structure, what it looks like on the screen,” he said. “Then I get them up on the trolling motor to see what it looks like from that perspective. Then we’ll go through the menus and I’ll explain my settings. Don’t worry, you can’t mess it up – if it gets all jacked up you can just go back to the defaults.”
One additional option he offers is for clients to take a brief video of him going through his settings and explaining their purpose.
Of course, not every instructor will allow you to do this – be sure to ask before taking video of any part of the process, and certainly don’t punch in waypoints of spots they visit during the lesson.
LESSONS AND
TAKEAWAYS
Morgenthaler said that the teaching
process has not only helped him refine
his own skillset, but it has given him great
insight to the next generation of up-and-
coming anglers.
“Last year I was a coach at a fishing
camp in Louisiana,” he recalled. “I had one
14-year-old kid whose dream was to fish
for LSU. We ended up fishing two full days
together through luck of the draw and I
watched how he grasped the info. He had
the basic skill set down, but needed that
extra push.
“On the final day, he had big bass
and finished second overall, but more
importantly he went from coming in with a basic set of skills to being much further along on his path to his dream. Another time, I had a young female angler who had never deep cranked. After spending two and a half anglers on a school, going over the equipment and the retrieve and the approach, by the end of the day she was matching me one-to-one. She was 100 percent dedicated.”
Taken seriously, fishing coaching provides exponential dividends, making each subsequent day on the water a more productive and enjoyable experience. If you’re willing to admit what you don’t know and open yourself up to constructive criticism, there are human resources ready to take your game to the next level. •