Fine-tuning Your Approach

In recent years, I have been blessed to learn and fish against some of the best kayak fishermen in the nation. From smaller local tournaments to the biggest stage of kayak fishing, the KBF National Championship. From these experiences, I have learned one valuable lesson that all the great fishermen have in common, they have the ability fine-tune their approach. Simply fine-tuning the approach whether it be changing baits or angles of cast can be the difference from a decent day to an amazing day.

Small changes could simply be changing baits that are better suited for the conditions. In a recent trip to a local river, noticed that there was a small chop on top of the water and that time my dad was tossing a spook style bait and I was tossing a smaller popper. He had one blow up but missed the bait completely, and I had two fish barely hooked on the popper. I decided simply to switch the pencil popper style of bait, this is a combination of both the spook and popper. The Lucky Craft Gunfish was the exact lure, and literally the second cast I caught the largest fish of the day. From that one fish, I clued into the cadence needed to catch these fish and noticed they absolutely destroyed the bait. Every time I hooked into a fish, the bait was hooked across the face showing me they truly wanted the bait not just them swiping at the lure.

This is one of the many moments of simply fine-tuning an approach to catch more fish. Sometimes don’t over think it, just listen and read the signs the fish are giving you the next time you are on the water.