Simpler Fishing
SIMPLER FISHING
by Bob Jensen
Different people go about their fishing in different ways. Some anglers, when they catch a fish, like to try to figure out why that fish was where it was and why it was willing to eat that particular bait. They put a considerable amount of thought into their fishing, and that’s good if that helps them enjoy their fishing experience more. Curious anglers often catch more fish, and they also often teach other people how to be more consistent fish-catchers.
Other anglers just want to go fishing. They’re not interested in figuring out why fish do what they do, they just want to catch some fish. And there’s nothing wrong with that either. However, if these folks were a little more interested in why they’re catching fish the way they’re catching them, they would probably catch more fish, but again, fishing is different things to different people.
Sometimes a simple approach to fishing is the most productive. I’ve been reminded of that many times over the years. I often think back to fishing trips that were memorable not just for the catching, but also how we caught them.
I recall a couple of years ago when we were on a large lake that had a very healthy walleye population. It was a lake like many lakes across walleye country. The walleyes were on rock humps in depths from six to ten feet. We employed a very simple rig. After anchoring just upwind of the hump, we tied a hook to our line and crimped a medium sized splitshot onto the line above the hook about eighteen inches. We added a leech, cast to the hump, and reeled back in slowly, giving the rig lots of stops along the way. Every five or ten minutes we’d catch a nice walleye. Pretty simple stuff. We did add one twist to the rig. The hook had to be a colored hook. Orange or chartreuse were the best colors. Color is a very big factor in much of our fishing.
There were other boats working similar humps close to us. They were backtrolling and front trolling with crankbaits and spinners and all sorts of other rigs. They didn’t appear to be catching much though. That’s because their baits were out of the fish zone much of the time. Our baits, due to our anchored position and slow presentation, were almost always in the fish zone. When your bait is in the fish zone, your chances for getting bit go way up. In this case, the walleyes wanted to get caught, they just didn’t want to work too hard to get caught. If we let the leech wiggle on the walleye’s nose for a few seconds, the leech was eaten. If it went by too fast, it didn’t get bit.
As in most of our fishing, we employed some technology on this trip. We relied on our sonar to find the best spots and the best “spot on the spot”. Without sonar, we wouldn’t have been nearly as successful. In fact, we probably wouldn’t have found the spots that we fished. The best spots were the smallest spots.
Then again, there are times when, if you want to catch more and bigger fish, you’ll need more than a hook and a splitshot. That’s the fun part of fishing: You can make it whatever you want it to be. Sometimes I like the simple stuff, sometimes I like the flashier stuff. What I really like is whatever’s working on that particular day on that particular body of water. The thing is, if you’re enjoying your time on the water, you’re fishing the right way.
PHOTO CAPTION----Mike Frisch with a big Midwest largemouth. This guy ate a very simple jig/Ocho Worm combination. Sometimes simple is best in fishing.