I think it’s so exciting to “see” a location in a bit of a different way to how you had before

It happened to me right at the end of 2020 with one single decent bass that I caught from an area of coastline which I reckon I know okay, but that one bass changed the way I looked at this area because of exactly what part of the mark I caught the fish on together with when in the tide cycle I caught it. By hook or by crook I was doing something a bit different and it went and worked - and stuff like that sends my brain into overdrive…………

And the same thing happened to me the other day when Mark caught a nice bass right at the end of January from a spot we both know and have fished together on numerous occasions. You could target this spot in any number of different ways and I am sure that there are a few other anglers fishing it when I wouldn’t be down there because I prefer certain stages of the tide and specific conditions and so on. But Mark went and landed that one bass the other day and it very suddenly got me thinking about the location all over again. I guess I now “see” the spot with a different set of eyes - I know a certain amount about catching bass from there, but with where and precisely when Mark caught that bass it has really got me thinking about how much more there could well be to the area - and how little I do actually know about it.

So I did get very excited about what that bass I landed on Boxing Day 2020 did for how I looked at a particular area, but for all my planning and dreaming and hoping, the fishing gods conspired against me and for most of last year I was completely weeded out every single time I tried fishing there. I have no idea whether this area where we fished the other day when Mark landed his end of January bass will end up being as increasingly interesting as I hope it might be, but surely that is one of the things about fishing we all so love? The chance to do something a bit different and find out if it works.

One thing I do know that I am going to do my utmost to get better at is concentrating on fishing to and around specific features a lot more. It’s so easy to whack a long-range lure on and cover heaps of ground, and we all know how well this can work a lot of the time, but as I reach the ripe old age of 49 today I like to think that in fishing I can identify my strengths and weaknesses. Ask my wife how good I am at admitting when I am wrong (!!), but in fishing I do like to think that I am very open and honest with myself - I know that I can often be a bit swift to resort to a bit of the old whack and crank when in reality I should spend more time working the features and structure which are often so obvious if you carefully look around and “read” the water. Better still, how about taking the dog out for a walk on a big spring low and really mapping things out for future efforts? Google Earth and all that is amazing, but to me it still doesn’t replace real eyes on the ground.

I guess what I am really trying to say here is that I think fishing is so eternally absorbing and fun and enriching because if we want to get better at it we have no choice but to keep on learning. Never in my wildest dreams did I have any idea that there could be so much to concentrating mainly on one species of fish. From a sort of day one of my bass fishing “journey” I thought that chasing bass with lures was about fishing over shallow reefs with a few hard lures which I kept losing because I didn’t know any better, but look at things now……………….