Fish As Many Places As Possible
This blog is all about learning how to fish and improving as an angler. This post goes into why you should try to fish as many different bodies of water as humanly possible to get better as an angler. To get better as an angler you have to be like a shark. Most sharks have to continually move water through their gills to be able to breathe and stay alive. Always keep learning to stay relevant, proficient, and successful as an angler.
#1. Let’s imagine for a minute that you only fish one body of water. Depending on its size, this may or may not apply equally to everyone and the “one” place you are thinking of right now. Humor me for a minute though. If you are only fishing in one lake, a stretch of river, pond, or ditch and never go anywhere else, you are doing yourself a disservice. I understand that not all people have the option to fish in many different places depending on where you live. You may not have any other access that is fine. You can still take a fishing vacation! What do you do when your spot goes dry? Maybe your favorite spot gets hammered by fishing pressure, fish kills due to unhealthy conditions, or it gets plain stupid hard to fish. Your spot just doesn’t scratch that itch anymore or sucks right now. Most of us would be done or out of commission for a while. However, if you had other places to fish in theory you’d be fine.
#2. Another reason why you need to try to fish as many places as you can is to expand your fishing toolkit with knowledge of different lures and techniques. You might only be fishing a few certain lures or techniques in your one little honey-hole because that “is what works, has always worked, and if it’s not broke don’t fix it”. Sound familiar? Cool beans, you figured your one spot out. Yay you! Can you prove you are capable anywhere else? This one hits the competitive guys or gals in the gut. You say you are so great at fishing, now PROVE IT! Another reason why you shouldn’t be a one-trick pony is that as soon as Joe Smoe figures your gig out or watches how you do it while hiding in the bushes, you’re done. He will cause issue #1 I mentioned above to exist. Crap, now what. Go find a few new places and prove yourself again. Keep moving, keep relevant, and keep the passion alive.
#3. Boredom. Need I say more? Well, I will anyway. We must remain challenged as anglers. I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, “If fishing was easy, everybody would do it”. For some, it has become pretty easy. You’ve fished the same place(s) for 40 years and it is effortless for you because you know where every brush pile is and which docks are the most productive, etc…Maybe you fish fully stocked farm ponds or private golf course ponds. Granted, some people get bored a lot quicker than others. Some people, especially beginners, can burn out by doing the same thing time and time again. I’m pretty passionate and I get excited every time I feel a tug on the line, no matter the size or species.
Those are probably some of the top reasons why people get frustrated with fishing and stop, besides rising costs. Right, Randy? Here are some reasons why I like to have multiple places to fish. I have three main places near me that I usually fish at most often. I know all of them pretty well and they are all different and each brings unique challenges and rewards. At one, I know I will most likely catch something; it’ll probably a non-keeper size though. It’s like a cereal bowl and has a mostly sandy bottom with some sparse rock and a few overhanging bushes and a few blowdowns. The water depth goes to about 20 feet and is mostly clear to lightly stained 9 times out of 10. I like to fish this one when I just want to build confidence or just fun fish. Another location can be extremely difficult at times, but I’ll usually catch some decent quality fish. This body of water has a lot more shape to it and has points, ridges, humps, saddles, etc… The water is also usually more stained and the max depth is about 12 feet. There are a lot more bushes and blowdowns to fish as well along with a lot of cattails. The last place is feast or famine. It is full of submerged grass, weeds, floating duckweed, lily pads and is frog heaven. It also has a more diverse shape than the first location and has more channel action present. It has a fair amount of bushes, overhanging trees, and blowdowns, and tons of cattails as well. The water clarity ranges from mostly clear to plain nasty dark and tannic. The depth is maybe 5 to 7 ft. at the deepest spot. At times it can produce several bass over 5 lbs. within the same trip. However, sometimes I could go for three weeks with nothing.
Okay, so now you have a quick lay down of all three, you could check the weather, seasonal patterns, history of what has worked at each, and probably narrow down which one would be best for a certain day. Wow, that sentence was probably way too long. I apologize for that. Anyway, what I’m saying is, I can keep it fresh and challenge myself more or less depending on how I’m feeling at the time or the conditions that are presented to me. Either way, I have options and more options equals fewer chances for me to become bored.
Don’t worry if you only have one place to fish regularly. It’s ok, but if you have a chance to try a new place, please don’t pass it up! It might not be easy to figure out, but you’ll be glad to enjoy some different scenery for a change.
Originally published at http://l2fish.home.blog on August 26, 2020.
