I just turned 63 this year and have been fishing all my life since age 5. I have fished with 100's of different people and one thing I can honestly say is that I'm still learning new things every time I go out. I think that's one of the things that makes me a better fisherman.
Why are you a better fisherman?
- Thread starter Foxsea
- Start date
Foxsea
Well-Known Member
I'm heading to Poett Nook with my son-in-law and grandson for a week of fishing. This forum's intel (from Fogducker and Salty Alice - thank you) helps me narrow down the first day or two to areas that have been most productive. Saves time, gas and frustration. Does that mean that I'll catch fish? No, there's still a lot of variables to be accounted for. How I see it though, is this networking allows me to fish a little bit smarter instead of harder.
Franko Manini
Well-Known Member
I read this entire topic last night and what resonated for me was the following. There are no secrets here, just what I did when I was really learning (and i still have lots to learn). I'm not a great fisherman, but I am a great learner.
1) Time on the water - I think this means two things. Firstly, you can't catch 'em from the couch (something I say to my kids a lot). You gotta get out there because more hours equates to more fish (it's just math). Secondly, it means building experience. And not necessarily with tactics, but also with how tides and currents work in the area you fish, how to run your boat and set gear efficiently, and skillfully launching and retrieving your boat if you trailer. All of those things can be frustrating time wasters. get those dialed and you'll spend less time and energy sorting out the nonsense and you'll have more focus on the fishing aspects.
2) Persistence - I think a lot of younger guys get frustrated easily. Maybe it's the instant gratification world we live in now, but learning something based on one's experience is a different process than watching a YouTube vid. Again - something I tell my kids. Just because you watched some video doesn't mean you can do it. With so many variables and a good measure of dumb luck, it takes a long time to learn this from scratch. So it's not really about LEARNING everything. You have to do the little things to increase the likelihood that you'll connect with some fish. That's why time on the water is probably the BEST way to increase your fish count. Second to that, you hear use sharp hooks because when you do finally connect, you want to optimize the chances of hooking up.
3) Consistency - You need to do certain things the same way every time you do them. For example - tying knots, prepping your boat for the day, sharpening hooks. People think that developing a system is only to prevent errors by developing proficiency through repetition. That's partly true. If you're consistent, then you will learn what works, but also what doesn't work. In the simplest sense, if you always forget your thermos of coffee in the morning, change your prep routine so you always put your keys beside your thermos. Then you won't forget.
4) There's fishing, and then there's learning - decide what you want to do on any given outing. Sometimes, I just want to enjoy the water, the experience, the company - whatever. I'm not feeling focused enough to measure every leader or tune every anchovy for 5 minutes. I just want to fish. That's fine. But when you're new and you're learning, spend some time focused on LEARNING. Get into the details. Really measure leaders. Look at the action of the bait or hootchie or spoon, study it so you will be able to recreate it if it's successful. Sometimes, when I am just fishing, I hook up and I can't recall which flasher I'm running until I see it come up. When you're learning - take notes. See #7.
5) Change only one thing - This goes hand in hand with consistency. Let's say you've been fishing for a while, and you're not catching. You decide it's time to make a change. Only change ONE thing. Don't change your depth, the area, the lure, the leader, and the flasher. Heck - if you do catch a fish, you won't know why. I'm not a big fan of changing areas. Sport fishers are incredibly inefficient catchers. There are fish all over the friggin' place. Compared to marine mammals, we suck at catching them. So I try to take that variable out of the equation and I stick to the area I've chosen to fish for that day. Usually that's based on some decent research about where the fish are or should be. Of course tides and weather can change your mind, but that should be part of your research process. When things aren't working for me, I change ONE THING - flasher, leader length, lure colour, depth, speed, etc. When I go "learning" here is what I do. I fish two rods. I CAN fish up to four on my boat, but then I'm running gear, not learning. One rod typically will run bait, the other runs a hootchie or spoon. First of all bait can get wrecked easily or snatched away from a weak strike, and it needs to be checked often. Spoons and hootchies fish consistently and don't need to be immediately checked if you get a hit. Spoons and hootchies are less sensitive to speed too. Always have something in the water that fishes consistently - and for me, that's a hootchie or spoon. Each rod gets a different depth. I try to vary them by about 1/3 the water depth, favouring being closer tot he bottom. In deep water, that isn't always practical. A good sounder will help you locate structure and bait that will give you a good starting point. Until I am really dialed into the fish, my lines are never less than 20 feet different in depth. If bait seems to be working, I'll switch the other rod to bait. Vice versa for the lures. I change things in this order: Depth, speed, lure colour, lure type (spoon, hootchie, bait), flasher colour, leader length (fr me, i think leader length is pretty dialed in - shorter for hootchies, longer for spoons, even longer for bait. Then shorter in the winter, and longer as the season goes along). So how long between changes? That depends. If I know there are fish around - i.e. everyone else has a full fish boxes and it's going crazy with lots of nets out, then 15 minutes. If there is no data to indicate that I'm doing something wrong, then maybe 30 minutes. The very last thing I will do is move locations. even if you're not catching you are learning about the tides, currents, and structures of that location. You'll be back and next time you'll know more.
6) Reduce the variables - this is so simple. Get a good pair of binos. Watch other people that are catching fish. You can easily tell if they are using bait or lures (look for leader length). Watch how they prep their gear when they go back in the water. you can easily determine what flasher colour they are using. That's a couple thing you don't have to figure out. Back when I was learning, downriggers were manual so we used to count the number of cracks a guy would use to pull the ball up and then we'd have a good idea of the depth he was fishing. I suppose now you could time it if you could see him hit the button. Find a successful boat and match their speed. That's a key variable you can easily remove. Guide boats USUALLY have their speed dialed so watch for them. Don't interfere with other boats. You don't need to get along side of anyone. Just time them between two points and then do the same tack. And seriously, don't be that guy that races to the same patch of water because you saw a rod go off. That's a douchebag move. Take note of the pot and swing by on your next pass. And don't think that because there is an armada out there, that there is a ton of fish there. In my fist coho season, I didn't know what to do or where to go, So I bombed out to fish with one other guy that was on the water as early as I was. We trolled around together, and were joined shortly by another dozen boats. Later I was eating a sandwich - still fishless - and trolled by the guy I had followed around all morning. we both hold up the arms in the universal "got nothing sign" and as I go by him he says, "It's okay, I didn't expect much for my first time out - EVER". I geared up and left, and spent some time looking for bait balls and sounder marks and got into fish about 45 minutes later. I also swore to never assume that the other people on the water knew anything i didn't - UNLESS they had nets out consistently.
7) Keep a logbook and take notes in it about what worked and what didn't work. I have a crappy memory. My logbook is my best friend.
8) extend your fishing network. take a buddy fishing, get on other boats, offer to pay for the fuel and bring lunch, but learn from others and teach others. There is NOTHING as good as learning from someone else what produces fish. Don't be a curmudgeon - once you learn something, share it with someone else, Show them how to you did it the last time you were out and how it worked for you. It comes back in spades. Don't make the mistake that you have to be super secret or we'll fish out the whole ocean. I have had killer days and been so totally dialed in, then come out the very next day, same spot, seam gear, same depth, same tactics - SKUNK! So sharing a little know how with a mate isn't going to cost you fish. but it will win you friend and friends share helpful information.
Sorry for the novel, but these things help me learn and don't rely on others to give up things they hold sacred.
Have at it.
1) Time on the water - I think this means two things. Firstly, you can't catch 'em from the couch (something I say to my kids a lot). You gotta get out there because more hours equates to more fish (it's just math). Secondly, it means building experience. And not necessarily with tactics, but also with how tides and currents work in the area you fish, how to run your boat and set gear efficiently, and skillfully launching and retrieving your boat if you trailer. All of those things can be frustrating time wasters. get those dialed and you'll spend less time and energy sorting out the nonsense and you'll have more focus on the fishing aspects.
2) Persistence - I think a lot of younger guys get frustrated easily. Maybe it's the instant gratification world we live in now, but learning something based on one's experience is a different process than watching a YouTube vid. Again - something I tell my kids. Just because you watched some video doesn't mean you can do it. With so many variables and a good measure of dumb luck, it takes a long time to learn this from scratch. So it's not really about LEARNING everything. You have to do the little things to increase the likelihood that you'll connect with some fish. That's why time on the water is probably the BEST way to increase your fish count. Second to that, you hear use sharp hooks because when you do finally connect, you want to optimize the chances of hooking up.
3) Consistency - You need to do certain things the same way every time you do them. For example - tying knots, prepping your boat for the day, sharpening hooks. People think that developing a system is only to prevent errors by developing proficiency through repetition. That's partly true. If you're consistent, then you will learn what works, but also what doesn't work. In the simplest sense, if you always forget your thermos of coffee in the morning, change your prep routine so you always put your keys beside your thermos. Then you won't forget.
4) There's fishing, and then there's learning - decide what you want to do on any given outing. Sometimes, I just want to enjoy the water, the experience, the company - whatever. I'm not feeling focused enough to measure every leader or tune every anchovy for 5 minutes. I just want to fish. That's fine. But when you're new and you're learning, spend some time focused on LEARNING. Get into the details. Really measure leaders. Look at the action of the bait or hootchie or spoon, study it so you will be able to recreate it if it's successful. Sometimes, when I am just fishing, I hook up and I can't recall which flasher I'm running until I see it come up. When you're learning - take notes. See #7.
5) Change only one thing - This goes hand in hand with consistency. Let's say you've been fishing for a while, and you're not catching. You decide it's time to make a change. Only change ONE thing. Don't change your depth, the area, the lure, the leader, and the flasher. Heck - if you do catch a fish, you won't know why. I'm not a big fan of changing areas. Sport fishers are incredibly inefficient catchers. There are fish all over the friggin' place. Compared to marine mammals, we suck at catching them. So I try to take that variable out of the equation and I stick to the area I've chosen to fish for that day. Usually that's based on some decent research about where the fish are or should be. Of course tides and weather can change your mind, but that should be part of your research process. When things aren't working for me, I change ONE THING - flasher, leader length, lure colour, depth, speed, etc. When I go "learning" here is what I do. I fish two rods. I CAN fish up to four on my boat, but then I'm running gear, not learning. One rod typically will run bait, the other runs a hootchie or spoon. First of all bait can get wrecked easily or snatched away from a weak strike, and it needs to be checked often. Spoons and hootchies fish consistently and don't need to be immediately checked if you get a hit. Spoons and hootchies are less sensitive to speed too. Always have something in the water that fishes consistently - and for me, that's a hootchie or spoon. Each rod gets a different depth. I try to vary them by about 1/3 the water depth, favouring being closer tot he bottom. In deep water, that isn't always practical. A good sounder will help you locate structure and bait that will give you a good starting point. Until I am really dialed into the fish, my lines are never less than 20 feet different in depth. If bait seems to be working, I'll switch the other rod to bait. Vice versa for the lures. I change things in this order: Depth, speed, lure colour, lure type (spoon, hootchie, bait), flasher colour, leader length (fr me, i think leader length is pretty dialed in - shorter for hootchies, longer for spoons, even longer for bait. Then shorter in the winter, and longer as the season goes along). So how long between changes? That depends. If I know there are fish around - i.e. everyone else has a full fish boxes and it's going crazy with lots of nets out, then 15 minutes. If there is no data to indicate that I'm doing something wrong, then maybe 30 minutes. The very last thing I will do is move locations. even if you're not catching you are learning about the tides, currents, and structures of that location. You'll be back and next time you'll know more.
6) Reduce the variables - this is so simple. Get a good pair of binos. Watch other people that are catching fish. You can easily tell if they are using bait or lures (look for leader length). Watch how they prep their gear when they go back in the water. you can easily determine what flasher colour they are using. That's a couple thing you don't have to figure out. Back when I was learning, downriggers were manual so we used to count the number of cracks a guy would use to pull the ball up and then we'd have a good idea of the depth he was fishing. I suppose now you could time it if you could see him hit the button. Find a successful boat and match their speed. That's a key variable you can easily remove. Guide boats USUALLY have their speed dialed so watch for them. Don't interfere with other boats. You don't need to get along side of anyone. Just time them between two points and then do the same tack. And seriously, don't be that guy that races to the same patch of water because you saw a rod go off. That's a douchebag move. Take note of the pot and swing by on your next pass. And don't think that because there is an armada out there, that there is a ton of fish there. In my fist coho season, I didn't know what to do or where to go, So I bombed out to fish with one other guy that was on the water as early as I was. We trolled around together, and were joined shortly by another dozen boats. Later I was eating a sandwich - still fishless - and trolled by the guy I had followed around all morning. we both hold up the arms in the universal "got nothing sign" and as I go by him he says, "It's okay, I didn't expect much for my first time out - EVER". I geared up and left, and spent some time looking for bait balls and sounder marks and got into fish about 45 minutes later. I also swore to never assume that the other people on the water knew anything i didn't - UNLESS they had nets out consistently.
7) Keep a logbook and take notes in it about what worked and what didn't work. I have a crappy memory. My logbook is my best friend.
8) extend your fishing network. take a buddy fishing, get on other boats, offer to pay for the fuel and bring lunch, but learn from others and teach others. There is NOTHING as good as learning from someone else what produces fish. Don't be a curmudgeon - once you learn something, share it with someone else, Show them how to you did it the last time you were out and how it worked for you. It comes back in spades. Don't make the mistake that you have to be super secret or we'll fish out the whole ocean. I have had killer days and been so totally dialed in, then come out the very next day, same spot, seam gear, same depth, same tactics - SKUNK! So sharing a little know how with a mate isn't going to cost you fish. but it will win you friend and friends share helpful information.
Sorry for the novel, but these things help me learn and don't rely on others to give up things they hold sacred.
Have at it.
ILHG
Crew Member
fishbadger
Active Member
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
learn the peak migration times, take your time off work then and fish hard, Seems like thats what its come down to these days, Unless you are lucky enough to fish in areas rich with chinook feeders.
blake_a
Active Member
I'm sure the 2 rods vs 3/4 rods has been debated on this forum before but unless fishing is very good, there is a lot of junk in the water or the current is strong it seems to me that running 3 or 4 is beneficial. Recently I was fishing in 90-100 ft of water in the same small area and caught my first spring at 90ft but then then next two came on a top rod at 50 or 60 ft. I rarely tangle a bottom rod fish in one of the top lines and if I do will still get the fish despite the crossed or tangled line.
I agree 100% that if fishing is hot you should run two and concentrate on maintaining good looking gear on the two lines but as soon as you are waiting for bites I like to get a third or fourth set up. It's more work for sure but satisfying when it pays off.
Rain City
Crew Member
I've paid attention to the guides over the years for this exact reason. Always see four rods. Personally I fish 3 most of the time. One deep and moving and the other two at set depths
aMonster
New Member
As a life long canoer I have completely mastered my technique for bottom fish but for salmon, my only option has been to cast a buzzbomb, surprisingly effective actually. After I finally graduate to a powered boat (soon) I will have much to learn with brand new downriggers and no clue how to use one. Fraser sockeye hopefully this year!
I think I will need lots of help.
I think I will need lots of help.
kevind
Well-Known Member
iFish
Member
Cut my teeth power mooching for salmon in Active and Porlier Pass back in the 80's, man those were the days. That I think was a very steep learning curve for me. In that type of fishery, the fish have time to study your bait, if it is not presented just so then "no-fish-for-you"!
I was away from the chuck fishery from the early 90's until last year when I built up my project boat. So I'm back on the ocean, where I love to be.
For me, attention to detail. Bait presentation, leader lengths, sharp hooks all play a part in helping to catch fish. I'm new to this forum, but I hope to participate in the coming days ~ years.
I am a teacher by heart (and a learner) and always share my info to anyone that asks, and am very appreciative of any and all contributors and sharers here. There are too many to thank individually.
I was away from the chuck fishery from the early 90's until last year when I built up my project boat. So I'm back on the ocean, where I love to be.
For me, attention to detail. Bait presentation, leader lengths, sharp hooks all play a part in helping to catch fish. I'm new to this forum, but I hope to participate in the coming days ~ years.
I am a teacher by heart (and a learner) and always share my info to anyone that asks, and am very appreciative of any and all contributors and sharers here. There are too many to thank individually.
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