With a Fishing Rod in My Hand, I'm as Good as Any Surgeon...

There are some anglers who know that to be a true statement about themselves, but if they're REALLY that good, I would bet you won't hear them bragging out loud about it. Why? Because when you're that good, you're perfectly content letting your actions on the water demonstrate it.

Over the years, I've been in the boat with a lot of guys whom I considered to be "good sticks." And the common theme among all of them was that they never once broke their arms while patting themselves on the back.

On the other hand, those guys and gals (like me, for instance), who knows we're only "wannabe surgeons" with a rod in our hands, have no problem owning up to our lack of skills...and even making light of it.

Take the fella I read about online who said, "My precision casting is excellent. I can hit the only rock in 100 yards to test the durability of a new crankbait. I can catch a single limb 10 feet up a tree that even a bird would have a hard time landing on. I can hit the water next to a lily pad so hard that fish halfway across the lake can be attracted to the sound. I can work the land side of a shoreline better than most anglers can work the water side. I even have wrapped a lure in a power line. Now that's precision casting."

Another one admitted, "I was throwing a brand new lipless crankbait, and the thing flew across the lake and almost hit a lady sitting on a bench on the other side. I had to play it off and look around, acting like I had no idea where it came from."

Then there was this guy who said, "I was fishing our creek property a few weeks ago and kinda let a cast get away from me. Our neighbor has a bada** man cave in an old mill right on the creek. Yours truly managed to throw a spoon with a treble hook attached to it right in the window...or would have had there not been a screen to stop the lure. Being a Sunday, my neighbor had five or six guests that day, and I had to go over, apologize, and get permission to enter his place and unhook the spoon from his screen. At least I provided a few laughs for the party."

And finally, I came across a fella who remembered something that happened back in the mid-90s, when he first had moved down to South Carolina.

As he explained, "I was fishing a federation tournament on Lake Murray and was paired with a guy whom I never had met, which is usually the case. As a Yankee in Dixieland, I stood out very much back then, so I felt I had to show that it didn't matter where I was raised...I could fish with the best of 'em. One of the first things that guy said to me, though, was, 'You ain't from around here, are ya?' which was exactly what I had expected to hear.

"We started out fishing a grassy hump with spinnerbaits...me with a 5-foot 6-inch medium-action composite rod that I loved to use for spinnerbaits. It was paired up with a nice Daiwa baitcaster. After making only a few casts, I had lost a fish that hit short, and before I knew it, my end of the boat was drifting farther away from the sweet spot, while his end was nosing into it.

"Because I hate being front-ended, I decided to chunk my bait as far as possible to reach that sweet spot again. My rod had a pistol-grip handle on it, and when I let the lure fly, there also went my whole rod. I first was embarrassed by watching this happen in slow motion and then mad about seeing my rig sink like a rock. My boater got a good laugh from it, then added insult to injury by asking, 'Was that some Yankee trick?'

"The only good thing about what happened is that my rig landed right in the sweet spot...and spooked away all the fish that had been there. I could tell my boater was upset, but it didn't bother me. As I saw it, that was poetic justice for that front-ending a**hole."

Whether you fish a little or a lot, you soon recognize that the ability to drop a lure on a precise spot will mean more fish and strikes on a consistent basis. Nothing destroys confidence faster than the frustrating tendency to hang a lure in a bush or let it fall short of the target.

Precision can make all the difference in the world, especially when fish are finicky or in hard-to-reach areas.

In the words of bass legend Bill Dance (right), "Casting is a learned routine, and anyone can perfect his/her control and accuracy by doing one thing--practicing. The best time to improve your casting is when you're on dry land. If you wait until you're fishing, you'll end up feeling as though you're wasting and/or not enjoying your time on the water. It's much better to simply set aside a few minutes each day and practice in your yard or at a nearby park or ball field.

"When doing so, always select a target and try to put your lure on or close to the mark. Today's reels are amazing when it comes to smoother casting. Remember that baitcasting is (or should be) all wrist action.

"Here's to casts that make us all better at what we love to do--catch bass."

For a video that highlights the importance of accurate casting, click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYMWGiVSIQQ.