Making The Most Of Hard Times

Hey guys, I'm new to the site but i've started blogging about my fishing experiences recently, and I thought it would be nice to share some of my material here. Also, let me know some of y'alls experience with the things i mention here.

            Sometimes as humans we fall into ruts, seemingly unable to pull ourselves over the steep walls, no matter which direction we climb. At these times it is easy to let a negative attitude dictate your actions and further entrench you in your problems. This same kind of thing happens to fishermen when we fall into a dry spell. In both situations we have the ability to make a choice; to decide how we are going to define the situations we find ourselves in, and what we are going to make of them.

           Here in Texas we are at the time of year when we are in the most brutal stages of summer, and the task of putting fish in the boat feels more like trying to engineer and construct an intergalactic rocket ship. The heat, boat traffic, low oxygen levels, crystal clear water, and the fact that the fish have seen most of the lures you present to them by this point of the year are all conditions that make it difficult for anglers to catch fish.

            On my latest trip to lake Dunlap in New Braunfels, Texas I was struggling to get bites throughout the day. Despite a low-pressure system bringing rain and overcast in the early morning, the fish remained unwilling to pursue baits that are commonly successful in this situation. Topwaters were left unscathed. Crankbaits of all sorts ignored. Soft plastic and jigs--not even a consolation nibble.

            It wasn’t until around 10am that I started figuring things out. I found a stretch of bank with a good amount of flooded timber and was able to elicit a few reaction strikes by bumping a Strike King Red Eye Shad along the cover. Most of the bites that came from this method were definite short strikes. Besides one fishcommitting to my bait, it was pretty obvious that the fish were in a wary mood. Nonetheless, I was able to establish that I could consistently locate fish in wood on this day. Additionally I was able to locate fish on a hump in deeper water, using the same Red Eye Shad to get a few bites.

            Those few bites aside, the fishing conditions were really not conducive for success. By mid-day the air and water temperature really began to climb, the air was dead still, and the water visibility was at least 9 feet. I was really working hard to get bites, but within a few hours of nothingness, the stagnation became quite discouraging. As I began contemplating packing up and calling it a day I decided to try one last thing. Remembering my earlier established flooded-timber pattern, I went back to the brush, but with a slightly different approach. Knowing that the clear water would call for a presentation that was realistic I tied on a Huddleston Weedless Shad. Bam! Immediate results. On my first cast to a laydown in about 9 feet of water I saw the unmistakable shadow of a 7+pound bass stalking my bait, although, the fish never fully committed. From that point on I was able to recreate the same reaction from big bass on similar pieces of cover at different locations. Throughout the day I probably had drawn out 15 or more trophy-sized bass from their wooded haunts using this technique.  Regrettably, almost all of these big fish never attacked my bait, but I did manage to boat four fish once I switched to fluorocarbon line. Despite not catching as many fish as I would have liked, I still managed to have fun simply watching these massive fish expose themselves! Not to mention, by discovering these fish I can now target them with more efficiency, with the confidence of knowing that I am in an area containing big fish.

            The moral here is to remember this: you never improve or gain anything by quitting. When you’re having trouble in a relationship, school, work, or even something leisurely like fishing it may feel easier to quit and formulate excuses to justify your submission, rather than taking accountability for your own success and putting in the work to be better. The truth is that there is always a way to be better, although, sometimes you have to challenge your own conventions in order find what works. If you can keep up your resolve, stay positive, and simply keep an open mind there’s very little that we can’t overcome.