Post by Mike Bucca on Apr 16, 2008 17:21:41 GMT -1
I noticed we are picking on little ol Goose alot with the type of questions he asks (me included) and it's all in fun.
We all have to start somewhere when we start out at this sport so I wanted to write a little something about analyzing a fishing report and what I look for so that it might help you.
Let me first start off to say that these are just my opinions and my opinions alone. You may disagree with this and you may agree with me and thats OK.
Lots of questions on color. To me color is the very last question I would ever ask someone. I personally just think color is way overated. Over the years I have my favorite colors and I have stuck with them. I also narrow my entire color selections down to 3 categories.
My 3 color categories are Natural, Dark and Neons.
Every color worm, swimbait, jerkbait, rattlebait, topwater ever offered falls under one of my 3 categories.
Blue and Brown is the same as black and falls under the dark category.
Chrome,Silver/gray, white or any bait that looks like forage type baits fall under natural category
Limetruse, pink, bubblegum, chartreuse colored baits fall under neon category.
So when I am fishing a condition I say I need to use a Dark color, natural color or neon color. I don't say I need a black jig with a blue trailer with red fleck. I just pick out a dark color jig and tie it on. In the grand scheme of things it's TOUGH to beat natural colors but do fish with what you have confidence in..
Lets face it you can't afford or own every color that Yamamoto or Zoom makes. Even further you can't fish them all to scientifically say that one is better than the other. Those of you that know me I like blue pearl senkos. If they don't hit blue pearl I'm SOL. I simply don't have time to try all the colors. I'd much rather cover more water and find more active fish that will hit my blue pearl senko or I will change baits all together. I order blue pearl senkos buy the case and it's the only color I have in my boat. Bottom line is I'll change baits LONG before I change to a different color.
But I will say that my favorite color is "confidence" and leave it at that.
If I am confined to the banks like Goose. I would work down the bank further until I couldn't fish any further ie ran out of water or the shoreline got to thick to fish from. Then I would jump in my car and go fish another area and repeat over and over. Just use the car as my boat and my legs as my trolling motor and cover water.
Having said that the most important question you can ask without being overly rude (questions like where are were fishing is a rude question) is what depth where you fishing. Depth is key on a lake like Allatoona because you can be fishing anywhere from 6 inches deep to 100ft +. But if a person says what bait he is throwing you can pretty much nail depth. For example topwater/buzzbaits well thats a dead giveaway LOL unless your into C rigging buzzbaits
. Pointer jerkbaits that puts you in the 4-6ft range. Staysee puts in the 7-8ft range. Crankbaits depending on what size you throw and if they list the type of crank that will also narrow down your depth range.
If your fishing Jig worms, jigs, Texas Rig, Carolina Rig your pretty much fishing on the bottom so the depth here is a little more variable. My point here is depth level can cut the lake down in size quite a bit.
Also it's a good bet to say that you fish deeper in the winter and summer than you do in Spring and Fall. Just something else to put in your mental computer.
Second thing I look for if given is possible structure type. wood, rocks, rip rap, gravel, chunk rock. bluffs etc etc. If you got depth, bait and you got structure type your pretty much all set its just a matter of running enough of them.
I also look alot at temperature posted. If I see someone post 65 degree water temps right now that person obviously isn't on the main lake and is fishing in the back of a creek somewhere. That also narrows down things pattern a bit and adds another piece to the puzzle for you to analyze.
Pictures are also a good source of information. Namely the background in the picture. I used to hunt alot so this comes a little more natural to me. Tree type in the background of a picture can give out ALOT of information and it could answer the rude question for you without you even asking ie where are you fishing LOL. If there are alot of pines and very little if any hardwoods in the background of the picture there are only a few places they can be. If there are mature oaks and hardwoods that expands things a bit. If there are boat docks or marina docks that narrows things significantly. But do keep in mind some folks don't take pics where they caught the fish. You'd be surprised how good some of the guys are in pegging down your background even if you have just a little bit of it showing.
I also pay attention to the numbers of fish being caught. If someone is catching 20+ fish and I'm struggling then I need to adjust what I am doing. On the flip side if everyone is saying it's tough and I'm ripping fish then I'm in the hotseat and need to stick with what I am doing. This just gives me an idea of how the lake is fishing overall and it might also signify that the fish are migrating from one migrational pattern to another and I might not have caught onto it yet. I keep a TON of notes that I take on my outings on the lake. I always try to look ahead in my notes so that I know what to anticipate. Sometimes those patterns come sooner than you think and sometimes they come later. Patterning fish is nothing but a cycle in process. They repeat these patterns year after year and sometimes almost like clockwork. You just need to be observant enough to know what you are seeing and why (again seasonal migrations)
Reading reports are like patterning fish. The best sense you could ever have in fishing is "being extremely observant". Notice the little things as much as the big things that you observe. Being observant is by far the best thing that could help your fishing.
In closing take reports with a grain of salt. Not because they are lying but because I have always found it hard to try to catch someone elses fish. Fishing styles vary greatly between anglers and so do the areas that they choose. I usually go fishing like I normally do and just keep the information that I gather from reports in the back of my mind as a general reference.
Hope this helps!
Mike
We all have to start somewhere when we start out at this sport so I wanted to write a little something about analyzing a fishing report and what I look for so that it might help you.
Let me first start off to say that these are just my opinions and my opinions alone. You may disagree with this and you may agree with me and thats OK.
Lots of questions on color. To me color is the very last question I would ever ask someone. I personally just think color is way overated. Over the years I have my favorite colors and I have stuck with them. I also narrow my entire color selections down to 3 categories.
My 3 color categories are Natural, Dark and Neons.
Every color worm, swimbait, jerkbait, rattlebait, topwater ever offered falls under one of my 3 categories.
Blue and Brown is the same as black and falls under the dark category.
Chrome,Silver/gray, white or any bait that looks like forage type baits fall under natural category
Limetruse, pink, bubblegum, chartreuse colored baits fall under neon category.
So when I am fishing a condition I say I need to use a Dark color, natural color or neon color. I don't say I need a black jig with a blue trailer with red fleck. I just pick out a dark color jig and tie it on. In the grand scheme of things it's TOUGH to beat natural colors but do fish with what you have confidence in..
Lets face it you can't afford or own every color that Yamamoto or Zoom makes. Even further you can't fish them all to scientifically say that one is better than the other. Those of you that know me I like blue pearl senkos. If they don't hit blue pearl I'm SOL. I simply don't have time to try all the colors. I'd much rather cover more water and find more active fish that will hit my blue pearl senko or I will change baits all together. I order blue pearl senkos buy the case and it's the only color I have in my boat. Bottom line is I'll change baits LONG before I change to a different color.
But I will say that my favorite color is "confidence" and leave it at that.
If I am confined to the banks like Goose. I would work down the bank further until I couldn't fish any further ie ran out of water or the shoreline got to thick to fish from. Then I would jump in my car and go fish another area and repeat over and over. Just use the car as my boat and my legs as my trolling motor and cover water.
Having said that the most important question you can ask without being overly rude (questions like where are were fishing is a rude question) is what depth where you fishing. Depth is key on a lake like Allatoona because you can be fishing anywhere from 6 inches deep to 100ft +. But if a person says what bait he is throwing you can pretty much nail depth. For example topwater/buzzbaits well thats a dead giveaway LOL unless your into C rigging buzzbaits
. Pointer jerkbaits that puts you in the 4-6ft range. Staysee puts in the 7-8ft range. Crankbaits depending on what size you throw and if they list the type of crank that will also narrow down your depth range. If your fishing Jig worms, jigs, Texas Rig, Carolina Rig your pretty much fishing on the bottom so the depth here is a little more variable. My point here is depth level can cut the lake down in size quite a bit.
Also it's a good bet to say that you fish deeper in the winter and summer than you do in Spring and Fall. Just something else to put in your mental computer.
Second thing I look for if given is possible structure type. wood, rocks, rip rap, gravel, chunk rock. bluffs etc etc. If you got depth, bait and you got structure type your pretty much all set its just a matter of running enough of them.
I also look alot at temperature posted. If I see someone post 65 degree water temps right now that person obviously isn't on the main lake and is fishing in the back of a creek somewhere. That also narrows down things pattern a bit and adds another piece to the puzzle for you to analyze.
Pictures are also a good source of information. Namely the background in the picture. I used to hunt alot so this comes a little more natural to me. Tree type in the background of a picture can give out ALOT of information and it could answer the rude question for you without you even asking ie where are you fishing LOL. If there are alot of pines and very little if any hardwoods in the background of the picture there are only a few places they can be. If there are mature oaks and hardwoods that expands things a bit. If there are boat docks or marina docks that narrows things significantly. But do keep in mind some folks don't take pics where they caught the fish. You'd be surprised how good some of the guys are in pegging down your background even if you have just a little bit of it showing.
I also pay attention to the numbers of fish being caught. If someone is catching 20+ fish and I'm struggling then I need to adjust what I am doing. On the flip side if everyone is saying it's tough and I'm ripping fish then I'm in the hotseat and need to stick with what I am doing. This just gives me an idea of how the lake is fishing overall and it might also signify that the fish are migrating from one migrational pattern to another and I might not have caught onto it yet. I keep a TON of notes that I take on my outings on the lake. I always try to look ahead in my notes so that I know what to anticipate. Sometimes those patterns come sooner than you think and sometimes they come later. Patterning fish is nothing but a cycle in process. They repeat these patterns year after year and sometimes almost like clockwork. You just need to be observant enough to know what you are seeing and why (again seasonal migrations)
Reading reports are like patterning fish. The best sense you could ever have in fishing is "being extremely observant". Notice the little things as much as the big things that you observe. Being observant is by far the best thing that could help your fishing.
In closing take reports with a grain of salt. Not because they are lying but because I have always found it hard to try to catch someone elses fish. Fishing styles vary greatly between anglers and so do the areas that they choose. I usually go fishing like I normally do and just keep the information that I gather from reports in the back of my mind as a general reference.
Hope this helps!
Mike
