The One Thing All of the Best Fishermen Do

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Did you ever wonder what separates the good fishermen from the really great fishermen? Is it the gear that they have? Is it their knowledge of a particular body of water? Maybe it’s just dumb luck? Well, I would be naive if I said that those had nothing to do with it. But there is one thing that separates good fishermen from the best. And it doesn’t involve any of those factors just mentioned. The best fishermen are willing to take the time and effort to make small changes to their techniques in order to marginally increase their catch rates.

Now, you might think that if it’s marginal then it’s not worth it. But as a rich man once said, the way you get rich isn’t by selling a single good or service for a large profit. The way you get rich is by selling a large number of goods or services for a small profit. Said a different way, these small improvements in technique add up and compound over time. This habit of continual, albeit small, improvements is a proven process in many aspects of life – and fishing is no exception.

Fishermen and Meteorologists

Another way to think about it is to consider weather forecasting. Being a great fisherman is a lot like being a great weather forecaster. A meteorologist can use science to predict the massive changes in weather patterns. But no matter how good their knowledge of the physics of weather is, there is no substitute for the volumes of real data that computer models collect and use to make strikingly accurate predictions.

And this translates to the fishing world. The only difference is that your brain is the computer and your personal knowledge from past fishing experiences is the data that forms the model. By paying attention to the smallest of changes every time you fish and adjusting accordingly, you will improve your results, just as a weather model improves its forecast.

The Twitch

The following is an example of one such small improvement which has greatly improved our catch rates for walleye.

When fishing a favorite walleye lake of ours in Canada, we like to troll in the last hour or so of daylight to catch walleye that are cruising the shallows for an evening meal. Trolling the original black & white Rapala is a proven technique on many of these lakes. The low-light contrast of the black top with the white underbelly of the lure sticks out like a sore thumb to walleye who can see much easier in these low-light conditions than many other fish (for more on this see Lure Color Selection).

The first time we took my dad with us on this trip we couldn’t help but notice that even though he was using the exact same lure we were using, he was outcatching us nearly 2:1. So I started paying attention to where and when he was catching the fish.

In the trolling route we were following, I wanted to see if he was catching his fish on the shore side or the deeper side. Maybe the fish were really hugging those reeds. But no pattern emerged that pointed to that. He seemed to catch as many fish on the reed side of the boat as he did on the open lake side.

I also paid attention to see if was catching more fish when the boat turned around. Maybe lure speed made a difference. Was the change in lure speed on the turns triggering the strike? Not that I could tell.

To this point, the things I was looking for were more circumstantial. After all, we were using the exact same lures and trolling them in the same areas and from the same boat. How could he be so much more successful than the rest of us?

But then I noticed a small movement out of the corner of my eye. His rod tip had moved slightly from a small twitch of the hand. I started to watch this rod. He would twitch the rod forward and then let the lure fall back, then twitch forward and let it fall back. The rythym of this was very similar to the rythym one might depart to a jig on the lake bottom. And before long, he had another fish on.

Needless to say, I tried it for myself and before long, I too, had my next fish. As I continued to make this subtle change to my technique, my catch rate instantly went up. From that point forward we incorporated that technique to our repertoire. It was a very minor adjustment, but it made a huge difference in our results.

Small Changes Over Time

This was just one example of a way to increase the odds of putting more fish in the boat. There are countless adjustments that can be made to improve the catch rate. Each improvement, however minor, pushes your success rate in a postive direction and often compounds the effects of other improvements you have already made. Much like money grows, so too will your catch rates. And this is what separates the really great fishermen from the rest of the pack.

Nobody wants to make fishing to seem like a job. Fishing is for enjoyment. For many, catch rates aren’t that important. In fact, some folks would find less enjoyment if they had to contuously look for improvements. And there is nothing wrong with that. We all find enjoyment in different ways.

But if you are the type of person who is looking to improve, don’t stop trying new things. Maybe a successful catch goes from a fish or two, to an occasional limit. Or from an occassional limit to limiting more often. Maybe you go from catching smaller fish to bigger fish. Whatever the case, improvement in fishing will come with time and effort like anything else, and it is often the small changes over time that make the biggest diffrence.