Become a Bass Catching Machine – The Difference Between a 5 Fish Day and a 20 Fish Day

There are a lot of misconceptions in bass fishing.  I see guys “barking up the wrong tree” pretty often, and have done it a number of times myself through out my time in this sport.  I’d think a little too highly of myself if I were to say that it doesn’t still happen on occasion.  As a full-time guide, one of the biggest areas that I see guys barking up the wrong tree with often, is in understanding why they aren’t catching as many fish as other guys seem to.

It happens all of the time.  I get someone wanting to book a trip with me and they say something to the effect of, “I fish Lake X pretty often, but I don’t seem to catch as many fish as other guys say they are catching.  I think it’s because I’m fishing the wrong areas,” or “because I never fish with plastics,” or “because I don’t know how to read my electronics.”  I will be the first to admit that there are certain times when one of these may be the case.  However, I can tell you from experience after fishing with many, many clients, that the culprit almost every time, is in the one area that people almost refuse to accept: YOU’RE DOIN’ IT WRONG.

 Call it pride, I suppose, but people have a really hard time accepting it when I tell them the difference maker is in their presentation.  Clients seem to be constantly shocked when we go out on the water and half the day or more we are fishing the same areas and the same kinds of lures they are accustomed to using.  They have these expectations of running to far, remote stretches of the lake and me pulling out rods rigged with “secret” weapons.  I can see the disappointment on their faces when we pull up to the same main lake point or creek mouth that they’ve fished many times and I pull out a topwater popper, jig, crankbait, plastic worm, or some other bait you can readily get at Wal-Mart or Academy and not some obscure Japanese made $50 bait.

Before I continue, let me make a disclaimer.  There are times when throughout the course of the day, my client will say, “Man, I’ve been fishing completely wrong spots this whole time,” or “I’ve been picking the wrong baits.”  Whenever that happens though, it’s very easy for clients to accept, and they can start to adjust their habits no problem.  However, for some reason, when you try to tell someone that their presentation is wrong, they almost refuse to accept that as the answer, and I can tell that’s what they are thinking by their demeanor throughout the day.  I think it’s mostly just when their answer is not what they were wanting it or expecting it to be, it’s just difficult to accept as the true answer.

I recall a trip to Lake Bastrop this past summer with a couple of clients.  The client who booked the trip had mentioned that they fished the lake pretty often but just didn’t seem to catch the same numbers of fish that other guys said they did.  He commented before our trip, “I think it’s because I don’t slow down and throw soft plastic baits very much at all.  I think most guys are getting those numbers by slowing down with soft plastics.  I have a tendency to throw topwaters, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits a lot.”  Now, at the time, Lake Bastrop was fishing pretty well and I was catching on average 40-80 fish per trip… just me… and what was I catching them on?  I was primarily throwing topwaters, crankbaits, and soft jerkbaits (but fishing them more like a topwater bait).  The slow and on-the-bottom approach with soft plastics really wasn’t working that well.  I told my client that I was catching my numbers on the same types of baits he was using, that the problem was likely in his presentation, and that we would work on that while we were on the water.  I don’t recall his exact response, but I do recall that even after that, he repeated 2 or 3 times before and during the trip, that he thought he wasn’t catching the same numbers as other guys because he didn’t use soft plastics much.

Anyway, out on the water, as I had them using some topwaters, it was very obvious to me that the problem was in the presentation.  Now, let me clarify one or two things regarding presentation.  Presentation is not just the manner in which you are using a particular lure or the action you are imparting on a lure.  Presentation can also include things such as your casting ability and your boat position.  In this scenario at Lake Bastrop, we were chasing schooling fish around and you had to be able to make long, accurate, fast casts to reach a fish when you saw one surface.  Then not only that, but you had to impart the right action on the lure.  I instructed and coached each of them several times throughout the day on how to work their baits, but no matter how many times I coached them, or how I coached them, less than 5 minutes later, they would be right back to their “bad habits” and working the baits in an incorrect manner.

When the day was over, I think they probably each caught somewhere around 5-8 fish each.  Which for some people is a decent day… however, I caught over 20 fish that day… and I only picked up a rod for maybe 1/3 – 1/2 of the day!!! There was really only two times I would pick up a rod that day.  One was whenever I needed to give them another demonstration on how to properly use their lures.  Also, if it had been a while since either of them had caught a fish, and I could tell they were starting to question whether or not the fish could even be caught… I’d pick up a rod and catch a couple really quick to try and show that as long as they made the right presentation, they could catch them.

Bassin’ brethren, therein lies the great divide between a 5 fish day and a 20 fish day… the majority of the time.  I’ve seen it happen over, and over, and over, and over again.  I would also suggest that the divide lies in being “mechanically perfect.”  Too many guys don’t pay attention to the details.  What makes guys like Kevin VanDam and Aaron Martens such bass catching machines?  That’s just it!  They’ve almost literally turned themselves into machines.  They pay attention to every little detail.  They make sure that they are using the right rod, the right reel, the right line, the right lure, imparting the right action, and hitting a bullseye with their cast… 99% of the time.  Think about it.  We’ll do a little simple math here with easy numbers.

Let’s just take one simple element: casting accuracy.  So let’s say that in order to get a bite, you need to make 10 accurate casts (I’m going to define “accurate” as being able to hit a one square foot area).  That’s one bite per 10 accurate casts (1/10).  Now, let’s say that you only make an accurate cast 20% of the time, so one in every 5 tries you make an accurate cast (1/5).  1/10 x 1/5 = 1/50.  So, if you are hitting your target only 20% of the time, it is going to take you 50 casts to get a bite.  Let’s say there’s a time frame of 1 minute in between each cast.  That means, during an 8 hour day, you will have made 480 casts.  If it takes you 50 casts to get a bite (480/50 = 9.6), then that means you will have had 9 bites during an 8 hour day of straight casting.  Now, what happens if you are KVD and you hit your target nearly 100% of the time?

If you get a bite one in every 10 accurate casts, and you make an accurate cast 100% of the time, that means you are getting a bite every 10 casts.  If you make 480 casts in a day (480/10 = 48), you are now getting 48 bites in a day instead of the 9 you were getting when you only made an accurate cast 25% of the time.  THAT’S HUGE!  Obviously these are very dumbed down numbers for easy math and there is a whole slew of other factors that we can work in other than casting accuracy.  But you hopefully get the point.  All of the “minor” details in bass fishing can add up really quick in order to make a HUGE difference in your day.

Anyway, my purpose in writing this post is to hopefully give ya’ll a little insight on what you can do to improve your bassin’ game.  Here’s what I want you to take away from this: 1) Presentation is huge and is the most important factor (after location) when it comes to catching bass.  Location obviously has to be the most important because if you are fishing in a spot where there are no fish, then it doesn’t matter how good your presentation is, you can’t make a non-existent fish bite.  Most of the time though, most guys can pick a spot where there’s at least a fish or two swimming around.  2) Turn yourself into a bassin’ machine.  Pay attention to details!  Make sure your soft plastic is rigged 100% correct on the hook every cast.  If the bait is bent a little, straighten it out!  Work on your casting.  Even if you only go from hitting your target 25% of the time to 45% of the time, that will make a huge difference in the number of bites you get in a day!  Work on your hooksets… make sure your hooks are sharp… check your line often to make sure it’s not frayed… learn to position your boat correctly… become more stealthy in approaching areas… It all adds up and it IS the difference between catching 5 fish and 20 fish in a day.

One last thing, hire a guide that can help show you where you can improve, and be willing to LISTEN and DO.  The guide can only do so much.  We will help show and instruct you how to improve, but you have to be willing to accept what it is he’s telling you to do and you have to do it.  Some guys are quicker learners than others.  I’ve seen it many times on guide trips where for the first several hours of the day, my client struggles to catch anything.  Then all of the sudden… it’s like they flipped a switch and the light bulb came on and they start slaying fish on the same lure they’ve been using all day.  They suddenly just figured out how to properly use the lure and they start getting that right presentation every cast.  On the other hand, some guys are slower learners than others.  I have many clients who never quite get dialed in during our trip.  They have to go out on the water later and continue to practice the skills we talked about during our trip.  Suddenly a few weeks or a few months later, I’ll get an excited e-mail from them saying that they’ve now “got it” and they’re catching fish.  And unfortunately, some guys just never get it.  These are the guys who too prideful, too stubborn, and too unwilling to put the time into something that may be hard for them.  Then, instead of accepting that it may be their problem, they blame it on the guide and say that they had a terrible guide.  In my experience, most guides are pretty good.  If you don’t do very well during the trip, go home and practice, practice, practice what you learned.  You will get it.

If your guide picks up a rod and is catching fish and you’re not… that means you’re doing something wrong.  Don’t get mad at your guide because he’s “catching all the fish from in front” of you and “not leaving any” for you to catch.  That is almost never the case.  My tournament partner (who is a solid fisherman) in team tournaments almost always catches the same number of fish that I do as he’s fishing in the back of the boat behind me… and when I fish out of the back of someone else’s boat, I pretty much always catch the same number of fish the guy up front does, and many times, more.  Always be willing to accept the fault on your end before trying to blame someone else.  Also, don’t try to just chalk it up to “luck.”

Once again, bassin’ brethren, presentation and becoming mechanically perfect, is the great divide between having an ok day and having a great day.