Call It Laziness or Falling Into a Comfort Zone--Net Results Are the Same

Was reading an account online here recently that struck a nerve. It was about a fella who, for the past several years, has been fishing a shallow-water fishery. The problem was that he wasn't catching the quantity or quality of fish his friends were.

"While I do catch fish," he explained, "I just don't have continuous success...a situation that reminds me of the saying, 'Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.' Well, I guess this is true, but it still doesn't reveal the real problem. Instead, it seems to suggest something else: I'm not stupid...just lazy.

"As a lazy basser," he continued, "I've lost my skills of observation and really don't look for forage clues. Unless it's very obvious, I tend just to plod along, casting and winding. This certainly is not a formula for success.

"Sure enough, I spend a lot of time with plastics on cypress trees and skipping the few docks that are available. I frog in the grass but do not explore the other presentation styles that just might do the trick. It's embarrassing to admit the countless hours I spend throwing unproductive bait combinations because I am just too lazy to try different things."

As this fella went on to note, "I've fallen into the trap of fishing from the memory of previous successes, which resulted in many hours of casting into waters without fish being present."

In other words, he was fishing areas that looked fishy, or where he had caught fish in the past. The reality is, however, that just because you caught fish in an area or on a particular spot in the past doesn't mean there are more fish to be caught there now.

Earlier, I said this account "struck a nerve" with me. Why? Because that pretty well described me to a "T" before I started fishing with Wayne this past year.

Not that it provides any consolation, but be advised that even the likes of none other than Kevin VanDam has admitted to being troubled by this same problem.

"All of us, including me," he said, "have a tendency to fall into a comfort zone and continue to fish the same way and in the same places, even when we should know better. Fishing the same ways can be a terrific shortcut to success. However," he warns, "it also can absolutely kill your chances to be successful. It all depends on how intelligently you approach the situation.

"If you're having a tough day, or things are a little slower than you'd like," continued VanDam, "it's easy to go to that spot where you caught 'em last year or the year before. It's easy to make the same run, pick up the same bait, and make the same cast. But that doesn't mean it's the best move."

What's going to happen if the vegetation is different, the water's up or down, or maybe the water clarity has changed? In that case, preconceived ideas can get you into trouble.

Per VanDam, "It can be especially hard to avoid fishing history if you do most of your fishing on one or two bodies of water. You begin to know them very well...or think you do. You remember the time you whacked 'em five years before, and you start digging through your tackle boxes to find that same lure, even though that was in June, and this is April. The water level was down then, but it's up now. Those earlier fish were moving to a summertime pattern, but now they're just coming off the beds.

"Before you know it, you're just checking old spots, rather than trying to find a successful pattern and learn what the fish are doing. If conditions have changed since the last time you had success doing a particular thing, odds are good that you should be doing something different. It's important to have a good memory about what worked (and what didn't), but even better to fish the current conditions."

Avoid a lot of the pitfalls of fishing history by following the lead of VanDam, who urges you to study weather patterns for a week or two before your trip. Find out what the seasonal pattern is. Keep an eye on changing water levels. Check the water clarity.

"If you do these things and formulate your fishing plan around them--not history--you'll fish in the moment and be focused on what the bass are doing now. You'll also catch more fish," he said before adding, "It's great to remember past successes, whether they're your own or someone else's, but if you're tournament fishing, it's usually just the big-picture things that are important. Rather than a spot, focus on a pattern. Rather than a lure, focus on the right tool for the job. Focus on conditions, not history. And remember that it's all about the attitude."