Lazy Basser, after reading some recent posts on the Ultimate Bass forum, I started thinking about why I don’t seem to catch the quantity or quality of fish as some of my cyber friends do. For the most part, my arsenal of fishing tackle represents the correct items that should get the task of catching fish completed with ease.
While I do catch fish, I just don’t have continuous success. This situation reminds me of the saying, “Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn”. Well, I guess this is true, but it still does not reveal the real problem. The real problem seems to suggest another problem. I am not stupid; I am just lazy.
For many years, I fell into the trap of fishing from the memory of previous successes. This resulted in many hours of casting into waters without fish being present. Just because the area looks fishy or I caught a fish on that spot in the past does not mean there are more to be caught on the exact spot. For the past five years, most of my fishing has been at Santee Cooper Reservoir. Since Santee is primarily a shallow water fishery, electronics are mostly worthless. About the only information you can get is the depth, the temperature and GPS coordinates. The visual representations are very limited and what can be seen is a small area just under the boat. A twenty-degree sonar cone just does not show a lot when you are in four feet of water. Now fishing on the river with some deeper water and some very interesting contours and structure visible on the sonar, the tool will be much more valuable.
Lazy Basser Observation Skills
It seems, as a lazy basser, I had lost my skills of observation and really did not look for forage clues. Unless it was very obvious, I tended just to plod along casting and winding. This certainly is not a formula for success. Sure enough, I did spend a lot of time with plastics on cypress trees and skipping the few docks. I would even frog in the grass but did not explore the other presentation styles that just might do the trick. It is embarrassing to admit the countless hours spent throwing unproductive bait combinations because I was just too lazy to try different things.
There are other things impacting my ability to find and catch fish. It is a sorry fact that I will stay on a spot for hours with no success because relocating to another spot seems like too much trouble, again a lazy basser. When fishing some treetops or weed beds, I don’t pick them apart, I just continue to sling and wind. I know better, yet sadly this is what is happening. Then there is the positioning of the boat. Why is it I seem happy just to go with the drift and even cast on the opposite direction of the drift? This is just another example of being too lazy to do it the correct way. Then there is the classic maneuver where one avoids the wind and chooses to fish where it is calm. The reality is wind can be your friend and I avoid it most of the time just to stay comfortable and not spend time on the trolling motor. Yes, just another example of doing the wrong thing because of being lazy.
Fishing for me is just fun. I don’t compete in many events, but this deal of getting skunked on a regular basis tends to blur the line where fun and frustration meets. I don’t like to fish alone so a day on the water with the wife or with my friends is just about as good as it gets. The only thing that would make it better is putting some fish in the boat. Thank goodness for the Guntersville and Lake Norman events for at least allowing me to catch a few fish. It has helped not only my mental state but taught me some things about what it takes to catch fish. Even though I know these things, it seems I have lost my way over the years. The new year promises to be a better year and hopefully the boat can stay in an operational condition that will allow me to correct my past sins of being lazy.
Bud Kennedy
FISH ON !
