Was watching a football game and one of the announcers calling the game (I don't remember what game it was or who the announcer was) said this after an exceptional play, whether it was a great run, or a great throw, or a great catch, or a great block.  It stuck in my mind and I got to thinking of an analogy to bass fishing.  I think what he was saying is that even a great play call is not so great without the skill and ability of the player executing it.

In other words, a great play is only mediocre with a mediocre player.  

So as bass anglers, if we are exceptional (in our choice of locations, choice of matching our lures to the conditions, skill with our equipment, etc.), will that result in more and bigger bass?  If we fish in a manner that is not exceptional will that result in a poor day on the water?

I realize that there are a lot of moving parts on the field or on the lake so maybe I've got more B.S. than a Kansas feedlot but what are your thoughts?

All the things you mention, when put together can help folks catch bass. Location, bait choice, timing, etc. Putting it all together takes some time, practice, and learning.

There is a third party involved and that is the fish !

It's the Indian, not the arrow.

Nothing beats time on the water.

@Reel is right….. there is always something that put a kink in the chain. If they aren’t biting……we’ll let’s just say it makes it tough to catch them.

I agree with @Lottabass too, our skills work for us, accuracy of casting plays a big part in the way I fish. Line, bait, color, rod type make my accuracy easier to achieve.

But as @Bankbeater “Nothing beats time on the water”

@GRiver "there is always something that put a kink in the chain. If they aren’t biting……we’ll let’s just say it makes it tough to catch them."

 

How many times have you caught a pile of fish and others on the same lake have caught little?

How many times have you caught little and others on the same lake caught a pile?

How many times has a tournament winner caught a big bag and others have caught little?

I contend there is always a way to catch fish.  That's where the "player" comes in!!!

I like the analogy.  

 

The opponent is the fish.  

 

What happens between your ears is play calling.  Where you fish and how you fish is situational depending on the fish you are facing on a given day.

 

The skill required when the rod is in your hands is akin to player skill.  Execution and the fundamentals are often underrated.  Time spent on the practice field is critical to success.

 

The rod and reel are like the football player's shoes.  They get a lot of attention.  Companies will pay big money to get a prominent player to wear their shoes.  The importance of the rod and reel has about as much to do with success as the brand of shoes the football player is wearing.  The shoes need to be the right size but a shoe has never made a touchdown.  

Very true @Lottabass…. I get your point. How many times have you not caught fish and the person on the other end of the boat is hauling them in.

I stand corrected 

I will take luck.  I have gotten by so far with it.

On 10/4/2025 at 7:21 AM, Mobasser said:

Location, bait choice, timing, etc. Putting it all together takes some time, practice, and learning.

 

Al sure does the above. He is soooo consistent.

 

20 hours ago, Lottabass said:

How many times have you caught a pile of fish and others on the same lake have caught little?

 

Many, many times. I've told stories of fishing big bodies of water where other anglers literally trolled around me or anchored around me, which is why I now avoid fishing water with lots of other anglers. I don't mind helping other anglers. Yesterday, I gave a white spinnerbait to an angler who was struggling because that was the lure I was using to catch bass and I explained how I counted to three when the spinnerbait landed and used a slow retrieve. I also shared where I was finding them. I just don't want other anglers parking next to me. I like the quiet.

 

20 hours ago, Lottabass said:

How many times have you caught little and others on the same lake caught a pile?

 

Few times, but if I'm being outfished, it's the first day of school and I'm sitting in the front row and raising my hand.

 

20 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Where you fish and how you fish is situational depending on the fish you are facing on a given day.

 

I continue to be amazed at how the fish are changing the rules nearly everyday. One day a spinnerbait is the hot bait. The next day it fizzles and a crawdad catches them. And on and on and on. Every night before launching, I rig six or seven rods with the lures I'm guessing might work and I use those six or seven lures each morning. Usually one or more work, but then I also have to find where they work and that keeps changing too. 

 

30 years ago I was at the top of my career working with state of the art products and developing state of the art parts and materials. 
Coincidently that same time period was also the height of my giant bass catching period. Why? Analytical thinking and problem solving carried over to catching bass few others were.
I could “see” the answers to the problems that needed solving and needed all my experience to the thoughts to practical use. At that time having spent decades on the local lakes I could “see” where the giant bass should be located just need to solve what those bass would eat that wasn’t live bait*.

Every component of my tackle and boat positioning was thought out not random to achieve one goal, catch those giant bass.

Today I have lost that edge to focus, not challenged to solve questions I no longer have.

Arrow or Indian….it takes both and skill to hit the target.

Tom 

*I was against using live bait for pre spawn bass.

6 hours ago, WRB-2.0 said:

30 years ago I was at the top of my career working with state of the art products and developing state of the art parts and materials. 
Coincidently that same time period was also the height of my giant bass catching period. Why? Analytical thinking and problem solving carried over to catching bass few others were.
I could “see” the answers to the problems that needed solving and needed all my experience to the thoughts to practical use. At that time having spent decades on the local lakes I could “see” where the giant bass should be located just need to solve what those bass would eat that wasn’t live bait*.

Every component of my tackle and boat positioning was thought out not random to achieve one goal, catch those giant bass.

Today I have lost that edge to focus, not challenged to solve questions I no longer have.

Arrow or Indian….it takes both and skill to hit the target.

Tom 

*I was against using live bait for pre spawn bass.

 

Fascinating, Tom. I love your post. I feel my physical waning more than my mental waning. The arthritis in my thumbs stiffens them, but the far greater impediment is my waning energy. My beloved bogs are just down the road, but I don't have the energy to reach them anymore. You have to carry a canoe in the dark through the woods, requiring strength, fortitude, and energy. I'll be 70 next summer and strength, fortitude, and energy are all fading.

 

Thank goodness I have two ponds where I can keep canoes and I just acquired a third pond a couple days ago where there's a canoe waiting for me and it's only eight minutes away. I've yet to fish it, but soon. This morning I'm returning to my pond. After fishing my pal's pond for three mornings and catching three 19-inchers, I miss my pond even though the bass top out at 18-inches. The bass might be smaller, but the shoreline is undeveloped and that matters to me. 

Back in the day, a guide friend of my dad's told me "there's no such thing as luck. Only skill, wit, and determination." While I don't believe luck has nothing to do with it, I think the top anglers make their own luck more often than not. There's a reason you see a lot of the same names at the top of tournament leaderboards again and again. 

5 hours ago, JHoss said:

Back in the day, a guide friend of my dad's told me "there's no such thing as luck. Only skill, wit, and determination." While I don't believe luck has nothing to do with it, I think the top anglers make their own luck more often than not. There's a reason you see a lot of the same names at the top of tournament leaderboards again and again. 

 

The more you practice the "luckier" you get.

I am admittedly not the best decision maker on the water. I head to the lake with a plan but often get distracted from that plan.

 

But as I analyze the issue, a lot of it comes down to the limited speed of my kayak. On a boat, it’s easy to map out 10 or 20 waypoints and blast off to a new one if the one you’re at isn’t paying off.

 

At 3.5 mph on a kayak it might be a 30 or 40 minute jog to my next waypoint. With that, I might stop and fish a few lower percentage spots along the way. Or I might have to head back to the ramp, load up, and launch at another ramp.

 

Big, unfamiliar lakes are my nemesis. So I study maps, Google Earth, and use AI before hitting a new lake.

 

I can catch fish, but I need to get much better at eliminating water.

Looking back I have definitely been on incredible bite windows that I did well but didn't fully capitalize on. Either using the wrong gear or being stubborn and not making that final switch to the "right" bait for the conditions and being content with an okay day with the lure I was using. 

 

A couple examples:

 

Early in my bass fishing I was on an incredible summer bite in my kayak. Shallow pond usually choked with weeds just wasn't that year, only cover was isolated lily pad clumps and logs. You could basically call your shot fishing that stuff. Now I still caught 25 bass that day, but using a 4'6" ultralight ugly stick and a wacky rig on 15lb braid. You can imagine my abysmal hookup and land ratio. I think going back to that day I could easily double my output with a better rod and a jig, and land the bigger ones I broke off. 

 

The year the whopper plopper became a sensation I had a good day on a bigger lake. They were crushing the whopper plopper, but it was insanely windy and difficult to fish it in the waves. Got two 4lbers and a handful of other ones. I fished that thing all day. A spinnerbait mixed in was probably the better choice to cover water. I was also not using the right rod for he plopper (130 size). Many fish came unloaded. 

 

Bass fishing is hunting underwater.  It’s also a process.  That process is dynamic.  Being able to make the right choices will help your success.