With more than 30 million active fishermen and fisherwomen out on the water, there is a lot of competition for fish. If you want to get better at fishing, it can be challenging without a little bit of guidance from a better fisher or an accurate guide. Fishing with friends is hard since better fishers will catch more fish, but if you take advantage of some savvy tips, you could catch fish in places no one would suspect.
Here are six tips to ensure that you catch more fish every time you go out onto the water.
1. Learn About The Fish
If you’re targeting a certain kind of fish, you need to learn about what you’re trying to catch. When you know about the fish you’re in search of, you can predict their movements, their behavior, and when they’ll be easiest to catch.
Every species has a different season when they’re going to be spawning and when they’re going to be migrating. Some will stay around a body of water for generations while others might only be around for a few months at a time. You need to know everything you can.
Learn the conditions that make them the most comfortable and where they’ll be looking for food. This way you can save time tracking them down. The more you know, the more easily you’ll be able to find them.
2. Learn Their Foraging Habits
Fish have daily habits just like the rest of us. While they don’t have an office to go to or a schedule to keep, they’ve learned when they can find the best food and the most comfortable circumstances.
Keep this in mind and schedule your fishing trip around them.
Get to know what they’re going to be looking for when they’re out looking for food. No matter what kind of fish you’re trying to catch, you can find a lure that matches what they’re looking for. Perhaps you can even make it more appealing than what they’d find on the river bed.
You can attract them better when you know what time they like to eat and offer up their favorite treats.
3. Devote More Time to The Water
While reading guides like this and watching video tutorials are great, the best way to become better at fishing is to get out onto the water. You’ll get more confident with your fishing and learn more about yourself as a fisher.
The more time that you spend in a region, the more you learn about the particularities of being on the water there. While common knowledge might dictate that fish will behave a certain way, you might find that they behave totally differently than anticipated.
Spend each trip to the water trying something new. Take a risk and see if you can bait fish in new ways. Try out things that you wouldn’t normally do and you might find that you can catch more fish that you would have anticipated.
4. Connect To The Environment
Most of the answers that you seek about fishing will be answered by the environment itself. Before you push your boat onto the water, you need to look around and see what’s going on.
Some of the most important things happening in an environment happen above the water. Changes to the environment like construction or tree clearing might have shaken things up. While you might not think what’s happening around a body of water will have an impact, nature is more sensitive than you’d think.
Make your way around the environment carefully and try to remain undetected. Take a look at the water before you go into it. You could see, from a distance, that fish are feeding in an area where you thought they didn’t go.
If you can inspect your fishing spot from a distance on a bright and clear day, bring your binoculars out long before you start fishing. You could learn a lot of new things.
5. Be A Maverick
While there might be lots of talk about where you can catch the most fish, if everyone is fishing there, you clearly won’t get the most fish there. Fish are afraid of crowds and will seek out places where they can be left alone. When you go out to a new region, you might find you have better luck.
When there are other anglers around, you’re not only competing with the vibrations made by their boats, but the quality of their lures. If they can afford expensive lures or are experts at fishing, you’re going to have to fight for fish.
When you remain stealth and seek out places on your own, you have more of an advantage. You might be able to outdo the best fishers in the region by being savvy about your fishing spots.
6. Keep a Diary
While it could be calm and relaxing to write about your feelings while you’re peacefully on the boat, you should also be writing facts about your fishing trip. Keeping a diary of when you hit the water, what the temperature was, and which baits worked best, you can learn more.
Take note of your fishing methods, if you felt you didn’t cast as well, or if you lost a fish that you thought you had hooked.
You’ll learn about your own fishing style and about your favorite fishing spot by writing down what happens when you’re on the water.
Fishermen and Fisherwomen Can’t Always Share Their Tricks
When you want to learn from the best fishermen and fisherwomen, you can’t always expect them to be able to teach you. The most important techniques in fishing entail personal styles and instincts, which are hard to describe. The best way to learn is to spend more time on the water.
If you’ve never gone deep sea fishing, check out our guide for a few reasons why you should consider it.
Keeping a journal makes a lot of sense, and it can guide you through your progress after each fishing trip, what a nice idea!