Simplifying

[Greasy B]

I guess I have been through a couple of simplification/complication cycles. Back when I read fishing magazines I was convinced more was better. I would rig up several rods with varying baits for different situations. These I would have splayed across my 17 canoes thwarts for lightning fast use. I replaced the old 17 footer with a solo canoe about the time jet boat traffic got so bad on the larger rivers I had to flee to the creeks. All those rods with the different baits just didnt make sense on a stream barely wider than the canoe was long. More times than not I would fish all day with just one or two baits so one spinning rod and one fly rod was all I rigged up and one small tackle bag carried everything. The solo canoe has long been worn out and now Im back to a tandem canoe and god forbid a jet boat of my own. Now that I have the room I have been going back to multiple rods, baits and more tackle boxes. Im not sure how this will play out but Im pretty sure my curiosity about new lures came from this forum and some of the good folks Ive met on it.

[Quillback]

I'm still in the "complicating" part of the cycle, so I'm no help with simplifying.

[Jack Jones]

When I head out onto the river, I have two spinning reels with me. I've got a few jigs, a few rebel wee craws or crickets, and some finesse worms, baby craws, both in pumpkinseed or green pumpkin. That's about it. If I can 't get them to hit on a shakyhead with a worm on it, I've never had luck in the spot with others. I've never done particularly well with spinnerbaits, although I'm still willing to give them a try from time to time.

[ozark trout fisher]

I think I take simplifying to an extreme, when spin-fishing.. On a smallie stream in the summer time, I usually have a whole bunch of rebel craws (often the only thing I'll use all day) some plastic worms, a couple spinners, and a few poppers/tiny torpedos/jitterbugs. To me, anything else is just clutter that there is a 99% chance I won't touch if I'm on the water for 3 straight days. And if I would feel the need to try anything else it's probably because the fishing is so terrible that it's not going to matter anyway. That's not too often. Let's be honest, summer bass fishing in the Ozarks isn't usually the most difficult thing in the world.

When fly fishing for trout, I have a bit more variety, but not all that much, honestly. I generally have Hare's Ear and Pheasant Tail nymphs, #14-18, woolly buggers in all sizes and colors, egg patterns, elk hair caddis, tiny griffith's and black gnats for midges/tricos,and adams/parachute adams in #12-22 that can be a rough imitation of most mayfly hatches . Plus a few hoppers and other terrestrials in late summer, and usually a few attractor dry flies that don't imitate much of anything but get "curiousity strikes" fairly often. That's usually it.

[Al Agnew]

The fact that some do simplify to a great degree and do well pretty much proves that simplifying doesn't adversely affect your fishing much, if at all. Fact is, I ENJOY using different lures. I have the room in the canoe or boat, I have a system that makes managing a variety of lures pretty much trouble-free, so what the heck?

And really, I do have a rather limited selection of lures when it comes to river bass fishing, but I have multiple sizes and colors of the relatively few lures I use, and I never want to be out with just one of anything, in case I lose it or break it.

When it comes to wading, it truly is simple. Weight and space are at more of a premium, and I mostly wade only in the summer on creeks where, 95% of the time, I could take one or two lures and catch all the fish I want. Instead, I usually take two topwaters, a couple of buzzbaits, a couple of my twin spins, and once in a while a handful of tubes with hooks and weights, although my favorite wading rod doesn't really handle setting the hook with tubes all that well, so I usually leave them home.

[Terrierman]

Here's as simple as it gets for me creek / smallmouth fishing. Always imitate crawfish. You can do that with plastics, crankbaits, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits.

[Old plug]

I have 2or 3 lures I will use year around and on occasion I will use something else. The three are a jig, trick worms including those like whacky and regular plastic worms. I have been using these for years and understand all the angles with them very well. At my age I tend to fish how and when I want. I rarely spend more than a few hours on the lake. If the fish do not bite I will just go home drink coffee on my deck or work in my garden. Fishing to me is for enjoyment. I am not into all the malarkey that goes on today.

[fishinwrench]

The reason Bass fishing is so popular is because of all the different ways (and places) they can be caught. On the surface, or from 10" of water on a jig to 40'+ on a spoon, and all things in between in ponds, lakes, creeks and rivers. And then once you've been there/done all that, you can start flyfishing for them.

It never has to get boring. But if you fish ALOT and narrow your choices down permanently to a basic few techniques.....you'll be buying golf clubs or building a monster truck soon.

[ozark trout fisher]

It never has to get boring. But if you fish ALOT and narrow your choices down permanently to a basic few techniques.....you'll be buying golf clubs or building a monster truck soon.

I don't know. I've been fishing a lot and with the same stuff for quite awhile, and it hasn't seemed to change my level of interest. I've just rarely been one to say, I'm catching a bunch of fish on this Rebel Craw, but let's see what else I could switch to and still catch fish. If it's working I'm not changing. And given how easy summertime smallmouth fishing is in Missouri 90% of the time, most of the things I use will usually be working.