3 minutes ago, Columbia Craw said:

Always know I’m next to you whispering sweet nothings in your ear so you will think it’s the next new lure, rod AND reel that will make it great AND that IS true.  

I fixed your errors. My corrections are bold above. 

I am far from an expert but have 50+ years of experience.  I would simply say : 1. Spend time on the water.  2. Fish with as many different people as you can.  Watch what they do right, and what they do wrong.  You will learn something every trip.  Good luck and have fun. If your not having fun it will not last!  

Experience.  And time on the water equals experience.   Fish in a variety of conditions and pay attention to results, positive and negative…fishing is an activity that you can be both student and teacher.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions, but don’t treat all answers as gospel.  Some will pan out, a lot won’t.  And realize that despite what you might read or hear, no single brand of anything has a monopoly on catching fish. Keep it fun!!

This day and age becoming good at any sport including bass fishing you lots of information available and mentors to help not learning bad habits.
It’s like a golfer can spend years practicing bad habits and never become a good golfer. A few days with a good golf instructor at the beginning saves a life time of making mistakes.

Learn to cast properly and practice casting. Glenn our BR owner has lots of good instructional video’s to avoid bad habits.

Understand bass behavior where you live and plan to fish.

I consider myself a good bass angler and had a mentor to teach me how to cast properly and a few lures to start with where I fished. Looking back that early time period built a solid foundation to become a good bass angler.

Start off with quality tackle, not necessarily expensive rod and reel but reliable within your budget, we can help you with making this decision.

I am an advocate of hiring a good teaching guide when you are ready to sharpen your skills.

Tom

 

Time on the water.  And lots of casting. 

12 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

 

Nature speaks to us. Some listen. Some don't.

 

Agree. There's a lot happening on the water whenever I launch. Paying attention is half the equation.

 

To answer Cael's question, I would add that catching a LOT of bass is the other half of the equation. I'm not being a smart Aleck here. I think detecting a hit is one of the hardest challenges for an angler. Sure, some hits are obvious, but hits are as different as the many breeds of dogs. You learn what's a hit by catching a LOT of bass. 

Know the fish you are targeting. By that, I mean know what drives it, when and how it moves, how it's environment affects it, both positively and negatively from an anglers perspective, where to find it, what it's main forage is for the lake you'll be fishing and then learn about that forage, too.

Learn to cast accurately, tie more than one good knot, more than one presentation, how to interpret what you see on your electronics.

Lastlly, know that your wallet will be empty the majority of the time for the rest of your life, unless you are independently wealthy, in which case it may take you a season or to before the empty wallet shows up. 
Oh yea, what them other people said too.

Lots of good advice. I think that being good would consist of being able to read the conditions, the water and weather, and make the best choices of lures and beginning presentation.

 

If that doesn't result in catching fish, then determining why is the next step. Is it because someone just came before you and fished the spot, is it because of constant local pressure, is it because the fish just don't want to bite that day, or perhaps you made a mistake with your choices, or is it that the bass just aren't there?

 

Being able to adapt is important, thinking outside the box, and not giving up are important. Learning is important. But the most important thing I think is confidence.

 

One thing to remember, something that's helped me with confidence, is that you won't get skunked if you fish long enough.

 

That is to say, if you go for 2 hours and get skunked, remind yourself, you'd likely have caught one in 4 hours. Rarely will someone go 8 hours and get skunked.

 

I have no doubt that I would never get skunked if I fished from sunup to sundown. But going for an hour or two, sure, I get skunked all the time.

A lot of the Bass Resource anglers have already mentioned accurate casting, but it's soooooo important. As @WRB-2.0* suggested, practice casting on land. When I try to hit a one foot wide notch in a shoreline and miss it, I have to paddle to where my lure is caught and spend a couple minutes freeing it, both ruining the spot and cutting into my fishing time. I fish places like this:

 

 

What the photo doesn't show is how many weeds are in the water, which requires one to both read the water and hit the open slot in the weeds. Yeah, it's hard, but this is where the bass on my pond live.

 

The number one best spot on my pond is under those woody bushes that grow on the edges of the wetland. So, that's where I'm casting. Last night, I tangled my line four times in wood. When my lure hits a limb, it immediately wraps around it. It's a pain and I could cast to open water and never tangle, but then I wouldn't get to dance with bass like this:

 

 

Look behind the bass and see the bushes. See the wee shade beneath the bushes? That's where the bass lurk. Then, when they hit, they want to tangle you in the bushes too, but that's another story.

 

*Tom (@WRB-2.0) has caught 17, 18, and 19-pound bass. He's the only one of us who has caught bass that big and likely the only one of us who ever will. So, when Tom talks, I listen. He also hooked the likely world record...twice. Yeah, listen...to Tom...and the water.

 

16 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

What I need to do to get better at catching bass in my area may not work for you.

 

So true. I believe I use underspins much more than most Bass Resource anglers and certainly more than the pros. I've tried hundreds of other lures, but the underspins work where I fish. The challenge for all of us is fishing the lures/approaches that work best with our local bass. 

 

One last thing: Read this thread more than once. There's gold in it. Mine it.

Finding the fish is paramount ... no doubt. But casting, excellent casting, is the difference between the average angler and excellent angler in catching more bass. My observation and IMO.

Good Fishing

On 7/17/2025 at 1:24 AM, Cael B said:

What are the key factors to becoming a strong bass angler in your opinion? 

There are lots of good responses here, but it really comes down to one thing - consistently finding the fish. That's it. If you can find the fish, more often than not you'll get them to bite.

 

And then it's a completely different level if you're tournament fishing and need to find quality fish.

 

A lot of people say that "time on the water" will give you that experience, but that's misleading. Really good anglers combine ALL of the data like seasonality, small temperature changes, wind speed and direction, time of day, water temperature at different depths, water clarity, structure, cover, lake levels, barometric pressure, creek flow rates, and a host of other data.

 

Their brain processes it and they know that at 6:20 am the fish are more likely to be on this point and not on that point.

 

Many also put time on the water graphing with side scan and marking locations. Some keep journals. They also study maps and Google Earth long before they hit the water.

 

Not many people are good at that. I'm not. I do some of that, but once I get on the water there's a good chance my plan will go to heck as I get distracted. 

14 minutes ago, Kayak Koz said:

Their brain processes it and they know that at 6:20 am the fish are more likely to be on this point and not on that point.

 

I reflect that when I take the kid fishing, he catches 20. When he goes fishing without me, he catches two. My point is that I think I'm pretty good at processing info and paddling to the best place to catch bass at that moment. I get a lot of hunches and I've learned to trust my hunches. I sometimes guess wrong, but when I do, I don't dawdle at a spot where there aren't bass and I don't repeat my mistake by fishing a similar spot that morning. 

Eat,sleep, bassfish and repeat!

you’ll get there.

1 hour ago, Kayak Koz said:

There are lots of good responses here, but it really comes down to one thing - consistently finding the fish. That's it. If you can find the fish, more often than not you'll get them to bite.

 

And then it's a completely different level if you're tournament fishing and need to find quality fish.

 

A lot of people say that "time on the water" will give you that experience, but that's misleading. Really good anglers combine ALL of the data like seasonality, small temperature changes, wind speed and direction, time of day, water temperature at different depths, water clarity, structure, cover, lake levels, barometric pressure, creek flow rates, and a host of other data.

 

Their brain processes it and they know that at 6:20 am the fish are more likely to be on this point and not on that point.

 

Many also put time on the water graphing with side scan and marking locations. Some keep journals. They also study maps and Google Earth long before they hit the water.

 

Not many people are good at that. I'm not. I do some of that, but once I get on the water there's a good chance my plan will go to heck as I get distracted. 

Don’t fret.  More time on the water and the experience it provides will improve your ability to synthesize that information and eliminate distractions.

Learn to cast decently. Not overhand casting, any fool can do that. Side csting , roll casting., low trajectory , accurate cast. 

I’m a mediocre fisherman , but I know some really great ones. There is a common denominator amongst them. They’re always on the water. 

Had no plans on fishing last night but after posting about TIME ON THE WATER I said what the heck I'm going fishing.

 

If you've ever fished in a kayak, you know it's not easy.

 

If you've ever fished at night, you know it's not easy.

 

If you've ever fished at night in a kayak, "you know it's not easy" is an understatement.

 

Learned a TON.

 

Good and bad.

As said before, time on the water. Also checking out conditions before launching. Time of day, time of year, has the water level risin or fell recently, water clarity, water and air temp, sky conditions, wind and wind direction, baitfish or any bass action by the ramp, ask others or look in their boat for baits tied on, etc. Any clues before you head out may improve your number of bites that day.

This should be helpful:

 

 

The membership's said it all.  

 

All I have to add is: WELCOME TO BASSRESOURCE.

On 7/18/2025 at 12:08 PM, HawkeyeSmallie said:

If you've ever fished in a kayak, you know it's not easy.

 

This is also a good point. How you're spending time on the water is a whole other vector of expertise. I should have mentioned that earlier.

 

I thought I was a very solid angler, bank angler with occasional boat outings when the stars aligned or I did a charter, but then I got a kayak this year. Man, what a humbling experience that has been. 

 

Some skills are transferable others are not. Just know it's a whole other world of skills development between bank, boat, kayak, or canoe. Each has it's own challenges and advantages. Don't get discouraged if you feel totally out of your element switching between them.

I wouldn’t spend a whole lot of time trying to figure out what makes someone good at something. Main thing is you gotta really like what you’re doing; gotta enjoy it for all of its challenges, rewards, and even letdowns.
Every facet has to move you forward in an exciting way because if you don’t have that drive, then you’re not gonna be good at anything. Just fish, be yourself, and enjoy it!