The Key to Catching More Bass

About ten years ago, I had an experience that taught me more about fishing in one day than I had learned in the previous twenty years.  Local anglers around these parts are pretty secretive about their techniques, so I was very excited when I got a chance to fish with one of the greats.  This fellow doesn’t fish much anymore but I am fairly sure he has every inch of the Harris Chain burned into his brain. 

The day started out with him asking me where I wanted to fish.  I told him I had been fishing in Little Lake Harris and wasn’t having much luck.  He said, “Great, just where I wanted to fish” , and off we went.   To my surprise, he directed me to the exact spot where I had previously gone fishless.  We started fishing and nothing happened for about an hour as we fished around and around the same little island.  I was beginning to have doubts and was wondering if this guy was playing with my mind.  After about an hour and a half I was completely disgusted, thinking about my lawn that needed mowing and wishing that we could move somewhere else.  Anywhere!!  It didn’t matter, as long as I could get away from this stupid fishless island! 

About that time, the old man got a bite from a nice keeper bass.  I was totally shocked and was convinced it was a fluke.  Then another bass jumped on his lure, then a third.  Soon we had a very nice limit of bass and I was totally stunned.  How could there be fish here when I had tried everything I knew the day before without a bite.  As I stared in amazement, he told me that he had “willed” the fish to bite and they did, it just took a little longer that he had expected.  

Since that day, I discovered that the old man knew the fish were there because he had caught them many times before.  He had the confidence to stay on those fish until they were ready to bite.  I had no confidence because I was spending my time riding around the lake, jumping from place to place, looking for the “secret spot” when the spot was right under my nose. 

Confidence affects your whole attitude and causes you to pay attention to what you are doing instead of going through the motions and dreaming about the “perfect spot”.  The secret to catching a lot of bass is “Go early, stay late, learn from other anglers and build confidence in what you are doing”.