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Pro Staff Question - How Can I Increase My Bass Fishing Skill Level To Become A Pro
Charles "The Bass Doctor" Stuart's Answer
Hi Brett,
At 16 you have a long way to go before thinking about making professional bass fishing your life's ambition.
Very few anglers can do it (less than 1% of those who fish do so for a living) and those that do, have either a very understanding family or no personal life whatsoever!
The success of most pros on tour is an education in either Marine Biology or Fisheries Management.
So education should be your priority for the next couple of years.
Now that is not to say that you should stop fishing at a competitive level as you certainly seem to have the desire to win!
Focus On The Following Improvements To Increase Your Bass Fishing Skills
If you can afford the boat buy it, as the time on the water is invaluable to you.
Remember you must learn boat maintenance, boat positioning, trolling motor and time management along with learning all the disciplines of bass fishing, which include but are not limited too:
Carolina and Texas rigging, Shaky Worm, Drop Shot, Float and Fly, Pitching, Flipping and many other techniques.
You will also need to read and understand maps, water conditions, weather patterns, solar charts and breeding habits of the fish you target.
I suggest you take a boating course with a certificate, which will give you either a captain's license or allow you to market yourself as a fishing guide.
You will also need to learn Basic First Aid and CPR.
These certifications will boost your income when you are not fishing competitively and reduce your insurance costs on the boat!
What you need to do now, in order to learn the competitive side of the sport is to join a club.
With or without a boat you will learn from the membership and those lessons will stay with you for the rest of your fishing life.
Tight Lines!
Charles "The Bass Doctor" Stuart
BassonHook Pro Staff
Dennis "The Fishin Professor" Bryant's Answer
Brett,
Thanks for your inquiry!
Brett for your age, you sound like a pretty well grounded young man!
At you age (I'm sorry to have to keep mentioning that, but because of it you're going to be tremendously disadvantaged for a short while) the best thing for you to do right now is to continue fishing every chance you get!
Having your own boat is always a plus ~ BUT ~ trust me you'll learn a lot more, a lot faster, by fishing from the back seat of an experienced anglers' boat!
My Best Advice To Improve Your Bass Fishing Skills: LOOK, LISTEN, LEARN!
LEARN how to effectively use EVERY TYPE of lure you have at your disposal!
That may sound like an oversimplification but it becomes an absolute necessity when you begin fishing competitively!
LEARN when & where & why!
Bass "hang-out" in different areas of a body of water, during different times of the year.
Knowing why, where and when will increase your chances of continuing to bring in more & larger fish, regularly!
There are a lot of ways you can learn this information.
READING "trade magazines" (BassMaster, In-Fisherman, Bass Angler, etc), browse bass fishing forums, reading bass fishing articles on websites such as Bass on Hook, listen to podcasts and so much more.
LISTENING to the "old-timers" from the area (they're always willing to help out a young angler) and spending a lot of time on the water yourself!
LEARN one new fishing technique from every single person that you fish with.
Everyone has a single "go-to lure" that they're expert at using and that they prefer using when the fishing is tough ~ by watching them closely and picking up on their individual fishing techniques you're sure to advance your abilities!
DON'T just run off on your own and expect to know everything that there is to know about Bass-fishing!
It just doesn't happen that way in the Real World!
You can learn an awful lot by just keeping your eyes & ears open and your mouth shut!
Even a person that doesn't seem to have enough common sense to blow his own nose can show you how to fish one way, at one time, with one lure and catch fish!
NOW is the very best time in your life to learn ~ the time when your mind is still open to learning new things ~ just BEFORE you become set in your ways!
A Successful Bass Angler's Best Kept Secret
Let me make one more suggestion to you: Begin keeping a small (loose-leaf) note-book, on what lure & technique did what, when, & where!
Divide the notebook by lake fished, time of year, date(s) fished), water-temps and weather conditions.
No one can remember exactly what worked when & where ~ without a little something to remind them!
That "silly" little notebook can one day mean the difference between a first-place tournament finish and a last-place "also ran"!
Don't ever discard a single page ~ even the ones showing a bad fishing day!
You'll find that even THAT information will be valuable to you at some time in the future!
Does it work?
Well, in the last fifty years I've filled a total of eighteen notebooks that cover the 26 lakes and 10 states that I used to fish competitively in!
You know, I'll bet that I could still use them today and pull a decent limit on each & every lake in them.
Try it!
It only takes about five minutes at the end of the fishing day to log-in all the pertinent information from that day's fishing!
In time, you'll begin to see the fishing patterns on that particular lake!
Good Fishin'!
Dennis Bryant
The Fishin' Professor!
