Do you rely on Intuition?

[Bazoo]

Title says it... do you rely on j tuition when fishing and if so, in what areas?

 

I heard some pros say they do, though I can only remember Jimmy Houston as being one of them.

[papajoe222]

Seeing as bass rarely do what I feel they should be doing, I try not to. Needless to say, I fail at not trying. 

[king fisher]

I rely on hope and luck.

[BigAngus752]

Intuition isn't some kind of magic or psychic power.  It's important to embrace that statement.  Intuition is your unconscious processing what you are seeing based on any number of past experiences you've had, patterns that your brain has recognized, even emotional responses.  If you are having "intuition" about a spot or technique then take time to stop and analyze WHY you are getting this gut feeling.  The more you can define concretely what your unconscious is recognizing the more you will be able to apply your experiential knowledge to finding and catching fish.  

 

If you get a gut feeling just stop and figure out what's triggering that gut feeling.  Then fish your gut feeling and your results (success or failure) will become another tool in your toolbox the next time you are on the water because it will no longer be a gut feeling, it will be a conscious application of your experience as a fisherman.  

[WRB]

Yes!

Few years back we discussed this topic of intuitive thought helping to make decisions. Trusting your gut has been a big part of my bass fishing. 
To do this you need to be focused on your environment and distracted by activity unrelated to bass behavior. 
Visualizing where the bass located and trusting your intuition to lead there is being in the zone.

I often got if my vehicle while waiting in line for the lake to open looking at the lake trying to get in touch with the ecosystem.

Wind direction, birds anything that helped to decide where to start.
Some days nothing jumped out other times  a clear intuitive thought came to me.

Follow your intuition.

Tom

[Texas Flood]

Even though it looks like a pot belly, I now always trust my gut. I’ve made enough mistakes ignoring  it. 

[Bazoo]

Thanks everyone. I have good intuition about everything, and I often do follow my gut on colors, technique, and location. Of course, I also read extensively about bass fishing to learn the habits of my quarry.

 

Just today, I went with a color of fluke that I wouldn't normally, and in a heavily pressured spot that I rarely have any success, and was able to get 1 (small) bass.

 

I don't particularly like fishing that spot, but my son wanted to go there because he rides his scooter in the parking lot, so I made the best of it.

[Mobasser]

I use my intuition often. You'll be fishing, and get a gut feeling about something. It could be something small, but often is correct. I think my intuition is built from past experiences that were good.

[throttleplate]

That and watch what my wife is doing.

[fishhugger]

not in fishing. i'm not nearly good enough, not by a long shot.  i'll have spots where i think bass or fish may be, but that's not intuition. that is a combination of guessing and logic.

intuition is different. i think it's when you do something you just know it's right, but you can't really explain it.  yeah, it's your gut instinct, etc.  it just feels right, and u no it.  you're in the zone.

 

[Mike L]

Call it an intuition, gut feeling, sub conscious reasoning, or a little bird sitting on your shoulder, we all do it every day. 
 

When my kids had a hard decision to make I always told them to

“Pay attention and listen to your heart first, your head and your a—s will follow”

It’s the same thing. 

 

I’m not as smart and analytical as some to weigh all options, and balance all possible outcomes of every decision, but more times than not I’ll listen to me first. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[islandbass]

I call it my gut feeling but it is intuition. I use it in fishing and it worked for me today. My gut told me that even with 20 minutes of sunlight left, I just had to get to the lake. Not only that, but my gut said jig and pig. My gut said to use the jig with an alternating white and black pattern to it and to go with a dark craw trailer. 
 

Most of you might know that the skirted jig and trailer combo has been the most elusive lure to catch a bass with and after nearly 20 years, I finally caught my first bass with it just this year. My gut said #2 was coming this evening. And it did.

 

Although it was a rock bass, a bass is a bass. 
 

Go with your gut, even if you are experiencing indigestion, 😂

 

 

[Pat Brown]

The problem with following your intuition and having a bad case of ADHD is that oftentimes your intuition is saying six different things at once and you know you just need to focus on the cast you just made!

 

I try to be deliberate and methodical and sometimes I let my monkey brain play around when the fish aren't biting where I think they should be and it pays off but I find it's best to be 'selectively methodical' (sort of systematically trying top/middle/bottom/fast/slow/steady/erratic/big/small) or something to that effect - but if the little voice screams 'CAST AT THAT BUSH!' you better probably do it.

 

 

[Catt]

Intuition: the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.

 

Sounds like muscle memory.

 

The ability to reproduce a particular movement without conscious thought, acquired as a result of frequent repetition of that movement.

[GRiver]

“Use the force Luke, use the force.” 
I do listen to “myself” most of the time, ya need to fish this or that spot a little longer. Maybe even change colors, or change from worms to lures. 

[Tennessee Boy]

If you’re familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality assessment you know that one of the four dichotomies is Thinking vs Feeling.   Where you land on this spectrum probably determines how much you rely on intuition when fishing.  Everyone thinks and everyone feels but we all vary in how much we rely on each.   I scored very high on the thinking side.  I’m logical to a fault.  I tend to reject intuition and examine the facts as I know them.  Another of the Myers-Briggs dichotomies is Sensing vs Intuition.  Sensing means you focus on the known facts when making decisions.  Intuition means you focus more on the big picture.  I scored slightly on the intuition since on this one.

 

That said, if intuition is important to you check out the YouTube channel Intuitively Angling with Randy Blaukat.  😆

[A-Jay]

I think intuition and situational awareness go hand in hand.

Seems hard for me to have any of one without at least that much of the other.

Been fortune in that living with a small pack of high prey drive dogs, has helped me belive in them and myself.  Regardless of whether I actually "see" something or not.  There's s a feeling that always needs to at the very least, be investigated.

Hard to explain but it's definitely part of my existence. 

I also believe age can help a person get better at this.

Finally, If you don't think 'women's Intuition' is real, you're only fooling yourself.

A-Jay

 

[Dwight Hottle]

Yes it's my first line of defense.

[TnRiver46]

Yep

[scaleface]

 Not just in fishing but all the time. I dont believe its supernatural ,its just reacting because of past experience.  Its kept me out of trouble.

[Zcoker]

I think it’s easy to confuse intuition with being in the right place at the right time. In general, I rely more on common sense. 

[Bankc]

Definitely.  But in fishing, my intuition is usually pretty quiet.  Every once in a while, I'll get a feeling about a certain spot, and I won't know exactly why it looks good to me.  But often times I cast towards it and be rewarded with a bite.  I don't get those feelings often.  But I listen to them when I do. 

[GaryH]

I believe over the years of fishing we have all had intuitions on where and what to fish. If you have intuitions that pay off you’ll probably be more likely to follow them. If you have them that usually results in failure you probably won’t. With the knowledge that is on this forum I would bet that following their intuitions would be a good idea. I know there’s members here that I would trust there intuitions more than my electronics.

[Team9nine]

I've never been a big fan of "gut feeling." I blame a childhood watching Star Trek (Spock) for that - lol. Yet my personal favorite professional angler has always been Rick Clunn, and he was the first (or one of) to push the idea of intuitive based decision making in the bass world. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time studying both aspects of decision making over the years. 

 

If you follow the research, especially in the area of AI and computers, then you know there has been a lot of studies which support "intuition-based" decision making as equal to or even better than traditional logic based decision making. However, we have also seen the rise of "big data," which is beginning to swing decision making power back into the hands of 'logic.' In the past, you’ve seen this with computers like 'Watson' and 'Deep Blue,' and newer, more powerful AI based machine learning is in the news almost daily.

 

So in short, both approaches have their moments. I have used past experiences to help drive most on the water decisions over the years, but have gotten further away from that recently thanks to FFS. I don't have any great stories about "gut feelings" to share....except for one tourney I won, winning a fully rigged bass boat as top prize 😎 

[Skunkmaster-k]

I’m more of a Captain Kirk. My inclinations can sometimes confuse logic , but casting out in some random direction pays off pretty often.