I was reflecting the other day about how many times I have heard that when the fishing gets tough, downsize your lures in order to more effectively attract stubborn bass. This just sticks with me every time I hear it.
This week has been incredibly tough. Winter, muddy water, ample supply of shad due to unseasonably warm weather. And every indicator says that I should downsize for better results.
But something about this approach bothers me because I always feel like its a double hit to my confidence. First I have to deal with the fact that the fish are not biting, and now I have to deal with the fact that as I downsize, I bring both this uncertainty and the specter of the throw back catch because of downsizing.
Upon later reflection, I have often noted that this state of affairs led to me fishing indifferently, which I consider to be a critical issue and to be avoided. There is nothing more damaging to potential success than fishing discouraged. Now as I discuss in many posts, I don’t like fishing a pattern or location for longer than a few minutes. This is all connected to the Anti-pattern approach which is discussed in other articles. My reasons for rapidly changing styles and locations is to remain open to ideas, search out the most effective approach on a particular day, and to prevent becoming discouraged. For some reason, I guess maybe it is the way I am wired, I can fish and fail while maintaining hope as long as I am cycling through one strategy after another. But if I get locked into a cycle of failing inside a singular strategy, I do not fare well in terms of attitude.
This is an important aspect to understand about oneself. Every fisherman has various things that impact them negatively during a fishing session. I knew a fisherman once who couldn’t fish in the wind, the sound just bothered him so much he would always look for a quiet place to fish no matter the weather. Needless to say he didn’t buy a lot of spinners or jerk baits. But it is what it is.
These are the realities of people. No one is free from hangups when it comes to pursuing bass. I myself cannot stand my trolling motor making any noise, a squeak or thump of any kind causes me to completely unravel.
Issues are issues.
How they are developed is not important, whether you can get by them, or learn to operate inside of them certainly is. For me, its very mental and connected to whether I believe it is possible to catch fish inside of a particular approach. If I believe, I fish like a champion, if I don’t, I quickly get discouraged. Which leads to an interesting story that I believe is very relevant.
Professional vs. Amateur Mindset
When I first began fishing actively and began to consider becoming a professional, I very quickly ran into a very serious issue that affected my performance so dramatically that I considered not fishing professionally at all.
Two things were happening at the same time, the first was that I was developing a concept about how I wanted to fish on unfamiliar waters in a time sensitive situation. The second was I was beginning to feel the pressure of what it takes to fish actively in terms of boats, traveling, equipment, etc. Fishing for me was drifting away from a pastime and into a very serious pursuit and I was developing a highly centralized concept of who I wanted to be on the front of the boat.
For the first time, I had to face the fact that there is an entire fishing community whose ideas behind how one should fish might not precisely correlate to my own. You see I was shifting from a follower of fishing convention to an individual trying to develop his own style. For the first time, I began to concretely disagree with certain things that are considered commonplace. But this is a scenario which causes a great deal of confusion because when things go right, you are vindicated. When they go wrong, you were wasting your time going against the maxims that everyone knows.
It was at that time when I reached the conclusion that I was beginning to think like a pro, but still fishing with the sensibility of an amateur. Now this statement requires a great deal of clarity. I am only referring to me as a pro, and me as an amateur. All of this was about personal perception, and makes no suggestions regarding other fisherman. In my mind, the difference between me as a pro, and me as an amateur comes down to 2 things.
The first is a clear understanding of the general concepts of the sport. Do I understand the equipment, bass, the water, and myself. The second is can I apply this understanding without reservation, even when things get tough.
Answering yes for me is about fishing independence, and for me it is the mark of a professional mindset. I absolutely believe that fishing success at the professional level is about mental fortitude.
I now know what state of my own mind will result in greatly deteriorated performance. I also know how to avoid that state of mind. Avoiding that state of mind is the most important thing, more important than the water, the weather, the equipment, everything. It all begins with how I perceive the situation. Therefore, everything on the boat should be conducted in regard to maintaining the essential positive belief that my approach is consistent with maintaining hope of the highest performance.
You see, it all comes together in the end, my fishing ‘kryptonite’, if you will, comes down to avoiding negative energy. What’s interesting is that we all know when the fishing will be tough. Still days with bluebird skies, cold fronts, muddy water, the list goes on.
Avoiding the ‘Kryptonite’ is essentially turning the table on fishing styles in order to make what is potentially negative into something probably positive. The answer is not to downsize, but rather to begin small and upsize. This for me is the difference between the amateur and professional approach. If I believe even for a second that the bite will be tough for whatever reason, I immediately shift to high probability strategies with minimal lure sizes for immediate benefit.
This removes the fail, downsize, and potential fail…spiral. And converts it to success, upsize, further success. I know this is a subtle shift in perception, but that might be the very thing that matters most when things get tough.
I don’t know if this will work for you, but it has definitely worked for me. Give it a try if you want, let me know how it works out.
