Cheat Code? Goat Sacrifice? Arrgh.
Another outing like today and I'm only fishing alone or making a bonfire of the gear. I fish with a buddy who's been at it longer than me. I sometimes land more than him, particularly when the conditions are variable - I'm more experimental than he, probably more than is good, so I've expanded our range with crayfish and swim patterns. Most of the time he's killing it, pulling out bigger fish on average. A few times it's down right humiliating; today for instance we wound up at this river location and he pulled out maybe ten bass. I'm casting and casting, getting a few hits and landing one small one while he throws and - boom!!! - fish, starting small and getting bigger ones progressively.
He has a better set than I do, for sure...but that much better? He does know plastic worms inside and out, better than me. Today we were fishing the venerable green pumpkin/black flake senkos, doing almost entirely the same thing from what I could tell, and I was totally flummoxed while he was getting tired from hauling them in. The total lopsided outcomes have happened a few times, always with plastic worms as I recall.
Any ideas? Is it the way he's playing it (he gets more bites in general), the way he sets, or some difference in gear I'm missing? Poor guy gets sheepish, trying to pull in the bass quiet somehow, like I'm not going to notice!!
Maybe 2morrow will be your day.
I have heard that sometimes fish don't know which set up to hit. Especially fish that aren't acquainted with these types of set up. Maybe give a signal or indicator letting you know it is abouttime.
Big dog
Loc: Bayshore, Long Island, New York
MassBaster wrote:
Another outing like today and I'm only fishing alone or making a bonfire of the gear. I fish with a buddy who's been at it longer than me. I sometimes land more than him, particularly when the conditions are variable - I'm more experimental than he, probably more than is good, so I've expanded our range with crayfish and swim patterns. Most of the time he's killing it, pulling out bigger fish on average. A few times it's down right humiliating; today for instance we wound up at this river location and he pulled out maybe ten bass. I'm casting and casting, getting a few hits and landing one small one while he throws and - boom!!! - fish, starting small and getting bigger ones progressively.
He has a better set than I do, for sure...but that much better? He does know plastic worms inside and out, better than me. Today we were fishing the venerable green pumpkin/black flake senkos, doing almost entirely the same thing from what I could tell, and I was totally flummoxed while he was getting tired from hauling them in. The total lopsided outcomes have happened a few times, always with plastic worms as I recall.
Any ideas? Is it the way he's playing it (he gets more bites in general), the way he sets, or some difference in gear I'm missing? Poor guy gets sheepish, trying to pull in the bass quiet somehow, like I'm not going to notice!!
Another outing like today and I'm only fishing alo... (
show quote)
Your buddy is cheating !
Oh sure you’re using the same baits and such, but he’s reading the water better and not letting you in on the secret. Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s all subconscious, but that’s what’s going on.
Is he feathering his cast so it lands quietly or making a big splash to get the fish excited ? Is he strumming his fingers on the rod, sending micro vibrations down the line ? Try playing air guitar on your rod, I do and catch Big.
Is he in front of the boat? That will make a very big difference! He can hit the holes first!! Or if your bank fishing you need to get ahead of him! If you’re fishing behind him he will always get the fish!
Who gets the choice spots to cast too first? Are you fishing in his back yard, I know most local hot spots and would let a guest get first shot! Example would be a dock ahead that holds bigger fish, who gets first shot?
I will try anything at this point... Never heard of strumming the rig, will do though.
We swap it up - he's totally cool about spots. One of the "bad times" we were at a favorite spot and he's catching like mad on my left. After a while when he sees my teeth grinding, he says let's switch. Ten minutes later he's pulling them out on my right and I'm skunking in his former hot spot. I do out catch him sometimes...got the first great fish of the year including the biggest chain pickerel I've ever seen, but over time he out performs, sometimes spectacularly.
We only went out in a canoe once - I've got boat building on my schedule this winter if I can find the time or buying if SWMBO can be convinced - I was in front and out fished him totally. I started to feel bad so let him lead casts, but that was one time he got skunked.
It could be a very small difference between what you are during as simple as line size. Yesterday was a prime example. I rode with a young guide to help him catch white perch for bait. I was catching bait 2 at a time and he could only catch one every once and a while. We would switch places and I could catch where he was at and he still couldn't catch where I was. It was a simple difference. He was using a sabiki rig tipped with a piece of night crawler and I had tied a rig just like a sabiki but only had gold hooks instead of the fly tipped with a piece of night crawler. Something that different made a huge difference. Yesterday afternoon we went to catch his bait for today and he changed to just the gold hooks like I had and caught just as many perch. He's a good guide just young and still learning the little things. Now instead of taking several hours to catch bait he can do it in a few minutes
Gotta be your cologne, fish can`t stand it?
I fished with a friend for over 20 yrs. and he would do that to me a lot but it was on Texas rigged worms. The more I learned the closer we got in catching. I picked the spinnerbait and got really good with it and he was weak at spinnerbaits so I would wear his ass out with it. Plastic worm fishing is the hardest bait to get good at due to he was a line watcher and I had to learn to be a line watcher due to sometimes there was not a hard thunk when they hit it. They would suck it in on the fall so there was no feeling. You need to go by yourself and learn to fish it and learn the different ways they take the bait.
I know the feeling of being skunked. My family would camp on a lake here in Oregon. There would be 5 of us fishing all week long using the same bait. (Grubs) then Grandma would show up for the weekend, and she would catch more fish in three days than all 5 of us did all week. Still using the same bait. I think it was her scent she worked in a bakery making breads of all kinds. I never could get her to bait my hook to see if my theory was right. At least I wasn't the only one being skunked. Lol
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