[Headhunter]

Tnarcher posted
"It would be super cool if you would videotape some of this action and your techniques, retrieves, ect, so us novice fisherman could pick up some tips.
I've got a lot to learn and you've got a lot you could teach. You could probably get rich on you tube, or heck, even big $ tournaments, by catching bass!!
Congrats on ANOTHER great day on the water and making it look and sound easy!"

First I am far from the best fisherman, I am not even a good one, but I can guarantee you one thing, I am one of the most persistent there is. It is the same way hunting to. I believe in failing til I get lucky, which how it goes for me most of the time.

I don't fish tournaments and I don't care to. Probably never will. No video either, not possible to hide where the fish are being caught, at least not on Priest. Also, the fish I catch "disappear" about 6 pm. I have (along with many of my friends who fish tournaments 2 or 3 nights a week) tried to figure out where they go after 6 pm or so and in 30 years we have no clue. The fish for sure pull a houdini and you go from catching a fish most every cast to absolutely nothing about 5:30 or 6. Occasionally they will hit til 7, but it is rare. And generally after the first week or so of August, they do something different and for me, catching them in schools just ends.

One school I first found about 1989 and I still catch to this day. Not the same fish or course, but a school still hangs out in the same area and I have never seen anyone fish for them other than me. In the early 90's I was on them and they were good fish. One friend had a tournament to fish and it started at 7 pm. I told him we could go, but it would be a waste of time. we went out at about 5 pm on a Thursday, the tournament was that Saturday. We caught 25-30 bass and had 6 that were 4 lbs and over and on one cast on a poe's I caught 2 at once that both were just over 3 lbs a piece. The fish quit biting just after 6. He was stoked, I told him we were wasting our money. He was and is a pretty good fisherman. We not only did not catch a bass, we tried our best to find that school, we never got a hit. I promise you, I have spent hundreds of hours trying to figure out what they do.

Tournaments have no interest for me. I could care less about making any money fishing, I enjoy fishing and have no need to prove anything to anyone. I know I could guide, and kind of do on occasion for certain people, but I spend way to much time to find the fish just to take someone, show them what I have learned and then when I want to go fish there is always someone sitting where I want to fish. I do my best to avoid that happening anymore.

It is going to happen, and even though I use a gps and love it, I hate them to an extent. So many people have no clue how to use depthfinder (or an anchor as a depthfinder which I have done many times) and how to triangulate to mark a spot. I know for a fact many fishermen today would be lost if you took their electronics away from them. I learned with a flasher and a paper map. It is not rocket science, but so many will NOT put in the time to find the fish. Also, you will hear people say so many things as to why you will not catch fish, it is windy, it is raining, it is cloudy, don't fish to shallow, don't fish to deep, etc. Go fish, about the only thing that will hurt this bite in June or July is the rare cold front. One of the best days, my dad and myself had, was a couple years ago, early June, last time before this year lake did not reach summer pool til July and we found a school in 6 feet of water and the temp was over 100 degrees and we caught so many bass my dad quit fishing and just watched. He said he had caught all he wanted for the year. It was funny. Sorry, all I can tell you is to spend time and it is truly not that difficult.