LEARN TO CATCH FISH—GUARANTEED!
This book will teach you how to catch fish—guaranteed! This is true even if you’ve never fished before. Or, if you have some fishing experience, this book will help you increase your success. It will help you whether you fish from the bank or from a boat. It will help you if you’re male or female, young or old, physically able, or disabled. It doesn’t matter. If you apply the instructions presented in the following chapters, and you do so persistently, you will catch more fish and bigger fish. You will land more bass, bluegills, walleyes, crappies, catfish, trout, etc. Again—guaranteed!
How can I make this promise? I can do so because fishing is an undertaking of skill rather than luck. If you increase and sharpen your skills, you will be more successful. Sure, luck sometimes plays a big role in fishing, but nobody’s lucky all the time. But if you learn about fish and their habits, if you know where to find fish, if you know how to pick the right tackle and baits, and if you learn how to present these baits so they look natural and inviting to the fish, then your odds of success go way up. When skill starts replacing luck in your fishing outings, your catch rate will certainly begin to rise.
%
Fishing is a fun, healthy activity that anybody can enjoy. Learning to catch fish consistently will bring satisfaction to young and old anglers alike.
Fishing is enjoyed by more than forty-seven million Americans each year, mostly on quiet, out-of-the-way waters, either alone or in small groups. Fishing might lack the “high profile” of team sports, but it is one of the most popular recreational activities in America.
Thus, I can make this guarantee with complete confidence that—once again—if you follow the instructions in this book, your fishing trips will be more productive.
There is an old saying in fishing that 10 percent of the anglers catch 90 percent of the fish. The reverse of this is that 90 percent of the anglers combine to catch only 10 percent of all fish taken on hook and line. The number of experts is small, while the number of beginners and mid-level fishermen is very large. Chances are, if you’re reading this book, you are in the 90 percent group, and will profit from the following basic fishing instruction.
Even if you’re an accomplished fisherman, it never hurts to go back and review the fundamentals. Sometimes the simplest oversight can cause an otherwise sound fishing plan to fail. Coaches in all sports start with the basics and they build successful programs on this foundation.
That’s the game plan for The Scouting Guide to Basic Fishing. We’ll start with the basics: the nature and habits of fish, where to find fish, selecting tackle and fishing accessories, tying rigs, and choosing baits. Then we’ll progress to simple techniques for catching fish from ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers. Finally, we’ll go beyond the basics and cover such subjects as playing and handling fish, boats and motors, what to do when fish don’t bite, how to build on your fishing skills, and fishing safety.
By the end of this book, providing you put the instructions into practice, you will have advanced to a mid-level degree of proficiency and you’ll be able to take advantage of other, more advanced instructional material.
WHY GET INTO FISHING?
However, before getting started, why get into fishing? What will you gain by taking up this sport? There are many answers to these questions, because fishing offers different benefits to different people.
For most, it’s a healthy, fresh-air activity that can be enjoyed by anybody. Fishing is no discriminator of age, gender, or physical skills. Anyone who makes the effort can find a place and a way to catch fish, and experience the pleasures therein!
Successful fishermen depend on skill instead of luck. The Scouting Guide to Basic Fishing will teach you the basics you need to make catches like this beautiful smallmouth bass.
Fishing provides a perfect setting for fun and togetherness with family and friends. It’s amazing how fishing removes barriers between people and allows them to understand and enjoy each other. Fishing is an especially good way for parents to build a strong relationship with children.
Fishing is also a good way to make friends. Anglers share a bond and speak a universal language. When two anglers meet for the first time they have something in common to talk about.
Fishing is a good way to get back to nature. On the water, the pressures of modern life seem to drift away on the breeze. It’s a great way to relax, to tune into the soul-soothing rhythms of the wind and waves.
Fishing offers suspense and excitement. There’s great drama in watching a bobber disappear underwater, setting the hook, then battling the fish up to the bank or boat. When you catch a fish you feel the excitement of a job well done. Fishing provides feelings of accomplishment and self-esteem as you learn the tricks of the sport and how to apply them successfully.
Fishing teaches patience. It teaches perseverance and how to work toward goals. Ponds, lakes, and streams can be natural classrooms for some very important lessons in life.
And last, fishing can be a source of nutritious, delicious food. There are few banquets as pleasing as fresh fish that you’ve caught, cleaned, and cooked.
However, there is a warning that should be given regarding this sport! With all its benefits, fishing also carries certain liabilities. It’ll “hook” you just like you plan to hook the fish. It’ll cause you to crawl out of bed well before sunrise, travel long distances, burn enormous amounts of energy, and even spend large sums of money—all for the chance to trick a fish into biting a bait. For many, fishing is truly addictive.
Understand, though, that you don’t have to go to these extremes to catch fish. You can make this sport what you want it to be. It’s not all hardship, effort, and expense. If you so choose, it can be laid back and inexpensive, close to home and unsophisticated. This is one of the beauties of fishing. You certainly don’t need a fancy boat, expensive tackle and baits, and the intelligence of a rocket scientist to catch fish. You can keep this sport simple, or challenging. You decide!
MASTER PLAN FOR FISHING
My guess is that you fall into one of two categories: (1) you’ve never tried fishing before, and you want to learn; or (2) you go fishing occasionally, and you’d like to improve your success. In either case, this book will guide you step-by-step toward achieving your goal.
First, I will explain the master plan we’ll follow as you learn to fish. It’s important to be methodical and to keep this process in the right order. We’ll start with the basics – learning about fish, where to fish, tackle, rigs, baits, and simple fishing techniques. Then we’ll progress beyond these basics to round out your education. My goal is to take you from “point zero” to where you have a real ability to find and catch fish.
However, before going too far, let’s take a brief look at the world of fishing and the people who participate in it.
A LOOK AT THE WORLD OF FISHING
According to a recent joint survey conducted by the Outdoor Foundation and the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation, in 2016 more than forty-seven million Americans age six and older went fishing at least once, and many of them went numerous times. Altogether, these people went on a collective 885 million fishing outings, averaging 18.8 per participant that year. The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2016 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation reports that they spent a combined $46.1 billion, which collectively would rank them high on the Fortune 500 list.
Anybody can be successful at fishing: female or male, young or old, athletic or infirm. The key is to learn basic skills and to apply them in waters where fish are both plentiful and available.
Additionally, more than a million Americans manufacture and sell fishing equipment, or otherwise are employed in various capacities by the dozens of companies in the fishing industry. That’s not counting all the people in charge of managing the nation’s fisheries. Several million more Americans fish than play golf. If assembled together, outdoors sportsmen (anglers and hunters) could fill every NFL and Major League Baseball stadium six times over. In a year, sportsmen generate more than six times more revenue than Hollywood’s top forty movies of all time. Truly, fishing and hunting are high-profile sports.
However, fishing doesn’t get the exposure of the big team sports. Most fishermen participate alone or in small groups, without scores and cheerleaders, on out-of-the-way waters scattered across the continent. On any weekend, North America’s ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers are dotted with bank and boat anglers who quietly seek their own pleasures. True, big-time tournaments are a growing phenomenon in fishing, but the number of tournament anglers remains small in comparison to anglers who fish for fun or food.
There are two reasons for the large number of fishermen: There are more people and more fishing possibilities than ever before. In recent decades, scores of reservoirs have been built throughout the US and Canada. At the same time, fisheries biologists have learned more about managing fish and stocking species into waters where they weren’t previously found. Water quality laws supported vigorously by fishermen have transformed previously polluted waters into thriving, productive fisheries. Quite literally, new fishing opportunities have been created from east to west.
Fishing bridges the gap between people of all educational and economic levels. Several US presidents have been avid fishermen, including Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Hoover once described fishing as “a discipline in the equality of man, for all men are equal before fish.” Grandparents, parents, and children are peers in this sport. Recent research shows large increases in the number of senior citizens and single parents who have taken up fishing.
%
Learning to fish is a matter of figuring out where the fish are, what they’re doing, and what bait they’ll hit. Then you offer a logical bait in the most efficient and appealing manner possible. The rest is up to the fish.
Each year the fishing tackle industry turns out increasingly better rods, reels, line, lures, and accessories. Today anglers can purchase electronic accessories that do everything from taking water temperature to giving a satellite “fix” on location. Researchers are learning more about fish—where they live, what they eat, and how they react to different stimuli in their watery world.
Some fishermen feel these gadgets and research findings take some of the mystery away from the sport. They decry the substitution of technology for plain old fishing know-how. I disagree with this, however, for one reason: We still don’t have a way to make fish bite when they don’t want to, and until we do, fishing will retain its elements of uncertainty and chance. But I also agree with a friend who says, “I hope we never learn all there is to know about fish.” As long as we don’t, the mystery and anticipation in fishing will remain. That’s what makes it fun.
Meanwhile, all the information and new gear will make it easier for you to learn to fish. They will reduce the amount of time it will take you to gain proficiency. You don’t have to learn old trial-and-error lessons on the water. There are many shortcuts available to help in your fishing apprenticeship, and I recommend that you take them.
In its most basic sense, learning to fish is a matter of stacking the odds in your favor—figuring out where the fish are, what they’re doing, and what bait they’ll take. Then you offer a bait in the most efficient and appealing manner possible. You do everything you can to make it easy for fish to bite and from that point, it’s up to the fish.
Sometimes they cooperate, sometimes they don’t. But they will cooperate a lot more often if you build your fishing around skill instead of luck. As I said, luck plays a big role in this sport, but good fishermen will almost always catch more fish than “lucky” fishermen.
TEACHING CHILDREN TO FISH
As I mentioned earlier, fishing is an excellent way for parents and children to spend time together. If more parents took their kids fishing, family bonds would be stronger and interfamily problems would be fewer. Fishing gives kids something constructive to do, an activity to occupy their time. Fishing provides a common tie between parents and children. It gives them something to plan, to look forward to, and to enjoy together.
Parents should be careful how they introduce their children to fishing, however. Those first trips should be short and simple with a maximum opportunity for catching such “easy” fish as sunfish, perch, or bullheads. Don’t start out fishing more than an hour or two. Don’t get frustrated if your kids lose interest. Don’t criticize them if they have trouble with their tackle. Don’t nag them if they want to throw rocks in the water instead of sitting quietly and watching a bobber.
Remember, fishing should be fun! If you make those first trips enjoyable, your kids will keep coming back for more. Then, before you know it, they’ll get serious and you’ll have fishing partners for life.
THE CONCEPT OF STRUCTURE
As you undertake the following study course on fishing, one concept will appear over and over in regards to locating fish and catching them: the concept of STRUCTURE. I’ve capitalized this word for emphasis. This is the key to finding fish, which is the first step in getting them to bite.
Fishing provides a common bond between parents and children. It gives them something to plan, look forward to, and enjoy together.
Here’s the idea. Most fish don’t just meander randomly through their home water. Instead, they hang around specific, predictable spots most of the time. These are places that have some difference or feature that the fish prefer or use in their daily lives. In fishing, these differences or features are called “structure.”
Let’s use a simple example to explain this concept. Say there’s a man walking in a desert. If there’s nothing but sand, he’ll wander aimlessly. But if somebody erects a telephone pole in the middle of that desert, he’ll walk straight to it and probably hang around it. The telephone pole gives him a point of reference. Or, say somebody builds a fence across the desert, and the man encounters it. He’ll probably turn and follow it. Now he has something to give order to his movements. If the telephone pole I mentioned is somewhere along the fence, this is a likely spot for the man to stop, since this place is different, hence more attractive, compared to the rest of the desert.
Underwater structure affects fish the same way. If the bottom is flat and void of any special features, fish will swim around without any pattern. But there’s almost always some structure that will attract or guide their movements. Ditches, humps, drop-offs, sharp channel bends, and other features are like the telephone pole. They give fish something to orient to. A sunken creek or river channel, a submerged gully, or an inundated roadbed is like the fence. Fish will swim along it. A stump or rockpile on the edge of a sunken channel, or a brushpile, is a likely place for a fish to stop and rest as it swims along this structure.
As we proceed into succeeding chapters, remember that structure is anything different from the norm. This applies to ponds, natural lakes, manmade reservoirs, streams, and rivers—wherever fish live. Structure can be sunken channels, depressions, reefs, old roadbeds, or anything different from a clean, smooth bottom.
Also, structure might be more subtle, such as a spot where the current changes direction, or where there is a change in bottom makeup (for instance, where a mud bottom changes into gravel), or where muddy water gives way to clear; or even where shadows fall onto the water’s surface.
Combine any type of structure with cover such as stumps, brushpiles, weedbeds, docks, or mandmade debris to create fish magnets.
The point is, think changes or differences in the fish’s environment and you’ll be thinking structure. In Chapter 8, we’ll get into a more detailed discussion of how fish relate to structure and cover and how this affects specific fishing techniques.
THE SCOPE OF THE SCOUTING GUIDE TO BASIC FISHING
The Scouting Guide to Basic Fishing teaches methods for catching popular freshwater fish. It does not cover saltwater fish. While much of the information in the following chapters applies to saltwater fishing, this fishery is different in terms of species and techniques for catching them. Saltwater fishing would be a good subject for another book.
By learning and applying fishing’s basics, anybody can achieve success in the sport.
The sunfish is one of North America’s most available, most popular species. The Scouting Guide to Basic Fishing teaches simple techniques for catching this and other freshwater species.
Instead, The Scouting Guide to Basic Fishing confines itself to traditional North American fishing found in freshwater lakes, reservoirs, streams, and rivers. This book covers species that are the most likely targets of entry-level anglers, and it describes simple ways to catch them. Less popular species and more complicated fishing methods have been omitted. In math, you have to learn to add before you can do do algebra. In fishing, you have to master the basics before moving ahead to more difficult procedures. That is the focus of this book.
The following chapters contain these basics in an easy-to-follow sequence. Study them. Digest them. Then put them into practice. And remember that the more you fish, the better you’ll understand this sport, and the more success you’ll enjoy in it. If I were a “doctor of fishing” and you were my patient, I’d prescribe a concoction of water, fresh air, fishing tackle, and baits. Mix well and take on a regular basis. I guarantee, this is one medicine that will go down easy!
Tree stumps, their roots exposed by erosion, dot the shoreline of an impoundment. Most fish orient to “structure,” which can be a sunken creek channel, an underwater point, or a rock ledge. If there’s cover such as stumps or weeds on the structure, even better.
