names that consistently show up in the top -10. Those are the anglers putting these things together.
The way I see it, to be successful as a competitive bass angler, you have to continue to build on your
experience. Try
new
techniques, fish new lakes, fish with different people – and not just once, as much as you can.
This is where the financial means feeds into this model – it takes quite a bit of capital to spend a lot of time on the water, especially if you are traveling to new water.
However, one could view it as an investment (try using that justification with your spouse) because that experience and time can improve an angler’s confidence, resiliency, and adaptability. If you consistently find fish but cannot catch them, it is time to focus your efforts finding ways to catch them or ways to catch better ones. Spotted bass lakes are great for that exercise…where do I find and how do I catch a few larger spots in a sea of 13- to 14-inch fish?
For those who pay attention, it will improve your ability to find and catch fish. A good example is years ago I fished a pro/am on Lake Oroville as an am. During pre-fish, we found fish and established a solid pattern. Day 1, my pro went directly to where I had located fish during pre-fish, with no input from me whatsoever. What was different was his approach to catching those same fish. We were catching more and better sized fish than I had in pre-fish and we were in 2 nd place on Day 1!
Day 2 pro, different story, but, from that tournament forward, I have a much different perspective and have integrated an entirely new technique to catching fish on Lake Oroville. That is the real benefit of fishing as an amateur.
I cannot say enough about fishing as an amateur to gain experience– but you have to put
44
Dee Thomas in
my boat
it into perspective. It can be hard to
compete and win
as a back-seater.
You are fishing
for experience,
fun with a little
competition and a
chance to cash a
check.
I have enough
years behind
me now that
I know during
given times of the year,
under certain conditions, fish will be in certain
places and I can usually catch them with a few specific
baits (that is what salvaged a 10 th place finish in the
tournament referenced above). But the funny thing
is, it is not 100 percent. And to be competitive, those
have to be the right sized fish too.
I think back to when I was fishing some secondary
points in Potter’s Ravine on Lake Oroville in the
spring, pre-spawn. We had a few consecutive hot
spring days and we had a steady north wind start-up
one afternoon. The light switch flipped and we had
an afternoon filled with 3- to 4-lb spots, one after
another for a few hours.
I’m confident, we were in the right place at the
right time, with the right presentation, and could not
have duplicated that effort the next day or the day
after.
I recently read an article by Cody Meyer about
catching a massive limit of spots, but he noted those
fish likely would not have allowed a repeat day. This
is where the experience kicks in…where do I go now
and how do I catch them? This is what keeps us
coming back and from any one of us winning every
tournament.
FITTING INTO THE MODEL
So, where do you fit into this model?
Would you consider yourself an angler who is better at locating or catching fish?
Could you benefit from spending some time on a new technique or time on new water?
I prepared this article to share my perspective and pass along some knowledge from our bass fishing
®