Hey folks, Glenn May here with BassResource.com, and one of the questions we see on the forums quite often is, how do I get confidence in a new lure or a new technique? And it's funny because a lot of responses are essentially, "Well, just go out and fish it." So there's a lot more to it than that. Let me explain.
Let me give you a little analogy. When you're out, when you first learn how to drive, brand new, never driven a car before... If you're old enough, maybe your teenage son or daughter's getting ready to drive. The first time you go out, do you go out on a dark, rainy, stormy night out on the freeway? No, uh-uh, not at all. You start off easy, pick a Saturday afternoon, nice and sunny out, back residential street at, you know, a 25-mile-an-hour speed limit, no traffic, perfect conditions to start learning, to learn the characteristics of the car, how it behaves, how it handles, how it reacts to the gas pedal and the brake pedal, etc., right? Once you gain confidence in that and you learn to do all that, then you can start driving in more challenging situations.
So, as that relates to bass fishing, same concept with a brand new lure or a brand new technique. You want to fish it when the fish are biting. Now, before you call me Captain Obvious, let me explain.
If you're out there fishing, say, a crankbait, spinnerbait, and you're whacking them, you're catching a bunch of fish on it, I know this is gonna be hard for some of you guys to do, but you got to take the rod and reel and put it down. Lay it down, pick up that new bait, pick that new technique, Carolina rig, drop shot, whatever it is. This is the time to start fishing them, when the bass are biting, because you need to learn a couple things. First of all, how it casts. Every lure casts a little bit different, so how does it feel to get that down? What is it like when it goes through the water column, how that feels? And, of course, you want to feel what the bite is like. What it feels like, where it occurs. Is it right when it hits the water? Is it as it's dropping down through the water column? Is it when you're dragging it on the bottom? Does it happen while you're reeling back really fast? I mean, what is it like to feel that bite and when does that bait produce the best? That's what you need to learn in ideal conditions. Then, you can move on to more challenging conditions.
The last thing you want to do when you're learning something new is go out fishing, the bite isn't very good, you've tried a bunch of stuff, you're a bit discouraged now, the bite isn't very good and you're like, "Well, I got this new lure, let me try that. Maybe they want that." Nah, worst time ever to try it. Okay, you're not gonna be very successful at it, and then you're not gonna pick that lure up again. You're gonna say, "Hey, it sucks. This doesn't work," or, "This technique, I'm just not very good at it."
So go out and try it, like I said, best conditions. That's how you get confidence in it. That's how you get confidence in new techniques, and then you can use them in more adverse conditions.
Well, I hope that tip helps. For more tips and tricks like this, and for the answers to all your questions about bass fishing, visit BassResource.com.
