Top 5 Suggestions For Novice Fishermen (To Make Them Good Fishermen)

[*T*]

Let me start with a few thoughts of my own, but please chime in:

1) Be aware of seasonal patterns/movements of species you are after on the waters you are fishing, as well as their food sources.

2) Understand baits commonly used successfully on those waters and how they are used there.

3) Have decent, appropriate equipment and develop familiarity with it.

4) Recognize what is happening on the end of you line at all times. (Can't emphasize this enough. Don't miss out on bites when you get them.)

5) Stay after them. All fishermen struggle at times but persistence seperates the average from the good from the very good.

Uhhh.........hard to stop at 5.

6) Fish with and learn from an experienced person or a skilled guide.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Run. It's an expensive habit forming sport.

[duckydoty]

Run. It's an expensive habit forming sport.

A disease to which there is no cure……only therapy

[jolicious]

6(A): As information is learned from more experienced anglers, make sure to ask what information you can pass along, and what was taught in confidence. Many times over the years I've been taught presentations or locations that aren't widely known. But, as I stayed true to my word of not telling others, I was awarded with more and more info / instruction. I think it's perfectly OK to tell another buddy "I was shown how to catch these particular fish by a buddy that asked that I keep the info confidential."

[Jerry Rapp]

I have never lied about how I caught fish. Even in two day tournaments, or before a one day tournament, I have always told the truth. Number 1, most fishermen won't believe you, and number 2 it is very difficult for a fisherman to duplicate presentation and location if they didn't figure it on their own.

[Feathers and Fins]

1. Understand why a bait works not just its the location or a friend showed it to me but WHY it works.

2. Spend time watching the people keeping fish and immolate to the best of your ability what they do.

3. Understand the prey of the species your after

4. Spend time getting to know the lake this may mean many days of not fishing but running the lake getting to know it

5. Learn to use your electronics to maximize there true ability

And Finally, As one of my mentors once told me. "Pass on the information openly and freely with others because so long as that information is being used and passed on when I'm old and gone I will live on in the knowledge I passed on."

[Old plug]

You got a point there Jerry.i would not lie either but I sure will be vague and not pin point. I might say something like " got some around the docks" but I will be darn if I will tell you what dock especially on here since it like publishing it in in the newspaper. It really surprises me the amount of detail Bill gives up in here.

[Jerry Rapp]

many times OP, even when I won a boat at Truman around 2000, I have told friends exactly where and how I was catching them and the specific bait. Still to this day, some don't believe me. I have been beaten more times than not, and lied to more times than not. I have always tried to live by the "do unto others as they would do unto you". But the best advice to any fisherman, is to spend more time on the water.

[fishinwrench]

1. Eat your vegetables.

2. Don't get married.

3. If you don't already live close to a river or lake, Move.

4. Talk less.

5. Listen more.

[Champ188]

1. Pick three techniques -- one for shallow water, one for deep water and one for suspended fish -- and learn them well. Don't be a jack of all trades and master of none.

2. Determine early on if it's the fishing that interests you most or the catching. If it's the latter, save yourself a bunch of time and money and find another sport. I don't care how good you become, you're gonna spend more time fishing than catching.

3. Spend as much or more time learning about the fish as techniques. It matters not what you're throwing or how skillfully you can throw it if you can't get yourself around the fish. Guides like Babler and Beck prove every day that just about anyone can catch em. It's the finding 'em that's hard.

4. Find yourself a source or two of dependable info (such as this forum) and keep your ears open and piehole shut, except to ask an intelligent question now and then.

5. Keep it simple. When you can't seem to get bit on anything else, get "finessey" with it and go to a little green pumpkin worm on a shaky head or a finesse jig with a small crawfish trailer.

That's my 2-cents worth. Good luck out there.