Tag Archives: mental approach to fishing

If you have been paying any attention at all to modern sportfishing, you know that forward-facing sonar is THE latest, greatest technology.  There are all kinds of debates ongoing about what this powerful technology means for the sport and for our fisheries.  I am still trying to decide exactly what I think about it. I will tell you that I have always believed that the most important tool any angler can have is the one between their ears.  The mental …

A week ago I blogged that nobody catches fish all the time, Fishing not Catching.  Good anglers know there is much to learn, even on those trips when no fish are caught.  Maybe especially on those trips? For many of us it is a life-long learning process.  I smile at this internet thingy.  Folks ask a question or three on the interwebs and think they know everything they need to about catching fish.  Sure, you can learn a lot from …

I am not done ice fishing, yet.  Oh sure, I know parts of Nebraska have open water now.  I also know that other parts of Nebraska still have plenty of ice.  As long as I can find ice, I am going to take advantage of it.  “Stay tuned”. But, yes, this is definitely “tweener” time, in many places the ice is too thin to walk on, but too thick to cast through.  What do I blog about at a time …

Fall has been “on” for several weeks now.  If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that means I have been fishing, hard.  I probably fish as hard or harder in the fall than I do any other time of year, especially any other time of open-water fishing. What does that mean?  Does it mean I am on the water sunrise to sunset, three, four, or five days a week?  I wish, but not hardly. Don’t …

I know many of you seize every opportunity to take someone fishing.  Most anglers like to find someone who has never fished before, or someone who has not fished in a while and take ’em!  It is almost as rewarding to watch someone like that catch fish as it is to catch them yourself.  In some cases, when someone catches their first fish, it is MORE rewarding. Unfortunately, we all know those guys who fish, maybe even fish a lot, …

You know what they say, “All fishermen are liars except you and me, and sometimes I wonder about you.” Yep, you have to ask the right questions, but even then we can be really vague with our answers: Seriously, the mental approach to fishing fascinates me.  I have found it very interesting that some of the best professional and tournament anglers intentionally avoid getting fishing reports from a body of water they intend to fish.  In fact some of the …

Throughout a year of fishing open water, I spend a lot of time casting and retrieving, over and over again.  Depending on the season, water, and species pursued, I know I may spend hours in between bites.  That does not bother me especially if those few bites result in big fish.  This fall I have been standing in the water doing a lot of that, and I have been thinking. . . . You hear a lot of athletes, especially …