We have had Smoke on the Water for nearly 2 years now.
The United States have elected a black president.
Skinny jeans are still in; I am married.
Justin Bieber is a pop music icon; Men should not purchase anything Lu Lu Lemon for themselves. Ever.
Although some things change (which are for better and which are for worse is debatable), others remain the same (again some good, some bad). With the onset of a new year, we make resolutions to better ourselves by enforcing the good from the past year and changing the bad.
With a new year comes a new soft water fishing season. And, the same hold for the new fishing season. If one wishes to become a better angler, one must constantly evolve. I don't want to be Betamax; I want to be VHS! If I were an HD format, I would choose to be Blu-Ray. If I were one of the Jacksons, I would choose Michael... waitaminute...
All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.
I do not know who George Bernard Shaw is/was; in fact, I simply Googled, "famous evolutino quotes" and found a website full of them, and I happened to like this quote. And yes, I did actually spell "evolution" as "evolutino". But, I cannot say that I disagree with this statement, especially pertaining to fishing.
Sir would consider it heresy to not use the tried and true. To stray from the familiar is scary for him, and not something he does readily. And, I cannot blame him. "If it ain't broke, buy more of the same lures" is his philosophy, and it has worked. I, however, relish trying new things. This is due to the fact that I am a fishing information whore (as stated in a previous blog), and I am compelled to try all the new things I read about. I want to be able to adapt to the situation as necessary, and I am simply outfitting myself with the tools to do so.
Therefore, I have set the following goals for myself this upcoming fishing season (kind of like new year's resolutions for fishing):
This will be The Year of the Soft Plastic.
For countless anglers, soft plastics are their go-to lures. Often I read that anglers will throw soft plastics in 80-90% of fishing situations. I, on the other hand, use soft plastics perhaps 10% of the time. Why is this? Well, when Sir and I began fishing, we started with the tried and true holy trinity: hook, weight and live worms. And we caught fish. However, one summer, this would change when Sir caught his first big bass using one of our uncle's crankbaits. And the rest, is history.
We became addicted to chasing bigger fish with lures, not content to simply catch panfish on worm and hook. It would seem that moving into soft plastics would be a more logical progression from live bait, but we did a complete 180. Since then, we have had enough success on hard plastic lures and spinnerbaits to not even consider soft plastics for anything other than trailers.
But something inside of me has changed. I am not as concerned simply with catching fish. I know I can do that. I am not great at it; but I know I can do it with any of my confidence lures. I want to be able to cintinue to find and catch fish when the other lures don't work. I don't want to be movies pre-Avatar. I want to be needlessly made 3-dimensional.
So, in order to add additional tools to my tacklebox, I have decided to make this The Year of the Soft Plastic. How will I do that? Here's how; I will follow these rules when I fish this year:
- I will use soft plastics for at least 50% of a fishing outing provided that the soft plastics I have are appropriate for the targetted species. By this I mean that if I am fishing for pike before the bass season opens, I may not be able to throw soft plastics because most of my soft plastics are geared towards bass, which may not e in season (i.e. June). However, if I have soft bodied jerkbaits and swimbaits, Ican throw those as they can be used for targetting both pike and bass.
- I will start off each outing using soft plastics of some sort subject to the limitations identified in Rule /1.
- Bass jigs will fall into the soft plastic category for the purposes of this 2011 goal since I have used bass jigs as much as I have used soft plastics.
- Where a hard bait is working, I will attempt to find a soft plastic corollary.
Thou Shalt Keep a Fishing Log
One of the things that I have read about successful anglers is how they meticulously keep records of the fish they caught, the lures and presentation used, and the conditions used. The purpose of this log is, over time, to be able to develop patterns for fish that will help you in the future when you encounter various fishing conditions. By identifying the weather, the structure, the cover, the time of day, the presentation and lure, the angler creates a data point. Once additional points are collected, they can be entered into a database, analyzed, and a pattern can be observed. Then, when an angler is faced with specific conditions in the future, they can refer to the data points to provide some insight as to the best way to start and have a successful outing.
With that said, I will keep a log of my fishing outings this year on this blog. I will include various details that should allow me to be able to apply my experience to my future outings.
Don`t Gimme No Lip
Finally, lipless crankbaits. Two years ago, I bought a bunch of these lures and did not have much success with them and quickly resorted to my confidence lures. This year, I am planning on learning to fish these lures properly; to learn the various retrieves that will make these lures successful; and the conditions for which lipless crankbaits are ideal. I will crank without lip.
This year, when I reach for a crankbait, I don`t want no lip for my first crankbait out of the box.
I know this seems to run counter to The Year of the Soft Plastic, but it is not. In the other 50% of the time when I do not have to use soft plastics, I can use crankbaits, and I plan on making lipless crankbaits my first choice every time.
And there you have it, these are my goals for the 2011 season. If anyone is reading this, you will be witness to the evolution of PainInTheBass.
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