By Brian Waldman
Here is an interesting piece I came across at another website I frequent. Read the following and see if it doesn't make great sense:
That is, by far, the secret to large ----.
My "tips":
1. Find multiple waters with large ----.
2. Put your time in and learn the peak times in each.
3. Fish each water during the peak times.
4. Do NOT get lazy with one water.
5. Do get out and fish even for short sessions, even when you're tired and want to watch TV.
6. Do NOT get caught up into the super rigs, keep it simple.
7. Fish alone or with one other angler who is also dedicated towards large ---- angling.
8. Fish all year.
Of course, you probably already figured out the dashes. "----" is obviously bass, right? If that is what you guessed then you'd be wrong! This bit of advice was posted by Scott Osmund of Lowell, MA over on the CAG website in response to a post inquiring about the "secrets" to catching large carp. CAG stands for Carp Anglers Group and the 4 dashes replaced the word "carp", not bass. You see, Scott is one of the best carp anglers in the country, especially big carp. He has already totaled over 800 carp for the year including 35 over 30 pounds and 3 over 40.
Now before you dismiss this post, consider this. One of my favorite things to do is read and research noted experts and very successful anglers of other species of fish. What makes them so successful? What is their approach? What is their mindset? I then take that information and try and see how it might be applied to bass fishing. Sometimes you have to generalize a bit on the concept but usually there is some striking crossover potential in lots of different areas. I especially look for the simple theories and approaches. Perhaps you've heard of "Occam's Razor". It is commonly paraphrased as, "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one." I like that kind of thinking. So lets look at the suggestions.
Find multiple waters with big fish: The more waters with big fish potential you can find, the better your options and chances for catching a big bass. If you fish small fish waters, you'll likely catch the same.
Spend time and learn the peak times for each water: We already know that in general, the pre-spawn will be the most ideal time to try and catch a big bass for many waters. However, what you'll find with enough time on the water is certain lakes have certain other times throughout the year when the bite can be real good. This time will often be different for different bodies of water. Learning these times for a given lake will help define specific "windows of opportunity" that you can try and capatilize on.
Fish each water during the peak times & don't get lazy with one water: Simple and makes sense. Once you have several lakes identified (#1) and then learn the key times when big fish opportunities exist (#2) on those lakes, it only follows that you will want to try and hit those waters during their peak times. It can be real easy to not want to pack up and haul 90 miles to a given lake even though you think a key bite might be happening on that lake. This is especially true if you have a decent lake within 1/2 hour of the house, but this might really hurt our chances for numbers of big bass. I'll be especially prone to this as I hate making long drives to fish anymore, but I'll have to get over this pretty quick if I want to be successful in this project.
Get out and fish short sessions: There are times where you might only have 3 hours to fish. Do you pack everything up and go or just stay home and catch up on the yard work or watch TV? You can't catch big fish if you are not on the water trying. This is where those close lakes will come in. One big fish in a coupe hours fishing will definitely make it worthwhile.
Don't get caught up in the super rigs: Face it, we get bombarded by article upon article promoting this or that way to big fish success. Lets not get too fancy here with the approach. Try some different things for your area and see if you might not adapt some of the successful methods of others, but the simple approach, be that gear or baits or technique should be first and foremost on the list.
Fish alone: We've all read about chasing big bass and going hours or days without a bite. If you have someone with you in the boat who doesn't have that same kind of patience or perseverance, the temptation to just go "catch some fish" will be overwhelming. If you want to try "different" baits or new locations, often times doing so alone is the right move for that first trip.
Finally, fish all year: Again, a big fish could come just as easily in February up here as it could in November. It might be the only bite you get but again, you won't catch anything sitting at home.
Overall some pretty sound advice that is directly applicable to a goal of catching big bass. So today's recommendation is to take the time to read good articles about other fish, be they walleye, muskies, crappie or yes, even carp. You might be surprised at what you find and you'll be tapping a resource that most of your other bassing buddies have probably overlooked.
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