Milking It for All It's Worth

That's the concept bass pro and 2017 Bassmaster Classic champion Jordan Lee (at left) applies to each and every one of his fishing outings. Rather than just concentrate on how bad an outing may have been, he works on learning something from it that he didn't know the day before.

"For example, I've fished Florida's Kissimmee chain of lakes in three different tournaments," he said. "In two of those tournaments, I finished in the bottom 100. I never really felt I was fishing in the right areas to catch bass. So, I learned all the things I'd done wrong in those two bad tournaments. In the third tournament, I'd learned how to break down the water better to identify the areas I needed to fish. I searched for cleaner water than I'd fished in the two previous tournaments, and I finished much higher in the third tournament than in the previous two... ."

According to Lee, the secret to consistently catching bass everywhere at different times of the year is to take what you've learned from a bad fishing trip and store it in your memory bank. "The next time you fish the same body of water, you'll be better prepared to find and catch the bass there," he explained.

He contends everyone should gain experience fishing all types of waters under all kinds of water and weather conditions. Doing so will help you solve the problems more quickly and easily the next time you're not catching bass.

Like a lot of other anglers, Lee believes in that saying, "There are no substitutes for spending time on the water to become a better bass fisherman."