Before I even write this I’m going to preface it by saying this: YOUR PROBABLY NOT A BAD FISHERMAN! Certain habits are easy to fix but you just might not know that you’ve developed bad fishing habits. Below is a complete list of what exactly your doing wrong when fishing.
- You Use the Wrong Line (You Don’t Take Care of Your Line)
- You Outsmart Yourself
- You Don’t Fish to Your Strengths
- You’re Fishing Where There Aren’t Fish
- You Don’t Put Together Patterns with the Fish
- You’re Not Using the Right Fishing Knots
- You’re Setting the Hook Incorrectly
- You’re Fishing the Past
Although this is a brief list of why your “bad at fishing”, the complete solution to your fishing woes can be found in the article below.
1. You Use the Wrong Line (You Don’t Take Care of Your Line)
Using the right line is critical to your success when on the water. Let’s get down to the basics.
There are three main types of line: braid, monofilament, and fluorocarbon. Each has its own specific uses but braid and flourocarbon are the most commonly used. Monofilament is the best option for a tight budget.
Monofilament has lots of stretch and sinks but not doesn’t sink as fast as fluorocarbon. It’s fairly invisible under water but fish still may be able to see it when the water clarity is very high.
Braid floats but also has absolutely no stretch. This makes it ideal for fighting fish out of heavy cover or fighting land especially big fish.
Fluorocarbon stretches but not very much. Its invisibility under the water makes it a great option when fishing ultra-clear water. You may spook the fish if you try to use braid or monofilament in clear water.
A great way to get the best out of both the fluorocarbon world as well as the braid world is to spool your reel with mostly braid so you can get the benefit of no stretch, and then tie a 2 or 3 foot leader of fluorocarbon so you can have the added quality of invisibility under water.
Here’s a short video of how to tie a leader knot to attach braid and fluorocarbon.
2. You Outsmart Yourself
This may seem like an obvious one but it’s very easy to overthink fishing when out on the water. Fishing isn’t really all that complicated and chances are, you’re probably not a pro yet so just keep things simple out there.
Utilizing live bait is a great way to get started and a pretty certain way to score some bites and land a few fish. Obviously live bait is the real thing which greatly increases your chances at catching fish rather than trying to mimic bait using artificial lures.
Talking to locals and learning abo9ut specific techniques and tactics that seem to work best in the area your fishing is also a great way to get dialed in and get a good idea of how to get some quality bites if you’re having a hard time.
3. You Don’t Fish to Your Strenghts
If you’re anything like me then you probably have some preferred techniques that if you could catch fish any way for the rest of your life, that would be the way to do it.
This may come in the form of throwing topwater baits, trolling, casting soft plastics at the bank, or any other tactic that you’ve come to rely on as a good way to get bites.
Many times I’ll find myself straying away from whatever that technique is which makes me lose confidence which in turn affects the way I fish.
Sticking with tactics that you know well in the early on helps to maintain confidence in the baits your throwing and also puts you in the best position to catch more fish.
4. You’re Fishing Where There Aren’t Fish
Though this may seem simple, an easy solution to going from not catching fish to catching a whole bunch is simply moving to a different area.
Find out by word of mouth where most of the fish are caught in the specific body of water that you’re fishing and then go fish that area with live bait to give fish the most natural look possible.
An area may get a lot of fishing pressure which may cause you to not want to fish in community holes. Just remember, a community hole is a community hole for a reason…because there’s a consistent population of fish there!
5. You Don’t Put Together Patterns with the Fish
A lot of times, fish will tell you exactly what kind of bait presentation they want. This may sound weird but I’ll give you an example.
Imagine your getting done with a long day of fishing after catching only one fish. You’ve bee dragging a bait along the bottom hoping to entice some bottom hugging fish to bite. As your reeling your bait back to the boat to end your day, a big fish explodes on the bait as your lifting it out of the water into the boat.
This would be an example of when fish may want a topwater presentation but you just didn’t know it. The situation above actually happened to me one day and I ended up catching quite a few fish towards the end of the day by reeling my bait as a topwater since that’s the pattern that the fish were into that day.
6. You’re Not Using the Right Fishing Knots
Fishing knots are a source of confusion for many anglers but I use one knot for literally all of my fishing needs and I cannot tell you the last time I’ve broken a fish off (Seriously!).
The Palomar Knot is SUPER easy to tie and can be used in nearly all situations. I’ve used it when rigging livebait in saltwater, bass fishing, or even trolling.
Here’s a video of how to tie the Palomar Knot.
7. You’re Setting the Hook Incorrectly
Setting the hook properly is a crucial part of landing the fish once you hook them. You may find yourself losing fish after you’ve hooked them. this almost always has to do with the hookset.
It’s very rare that you’ll have to set the hook very hard into a fish. Most of the time, a soft, sweeping motion with the rod should do the trick.
Make sure you feel the bite and even watch your line slowly maneuver away just to be sure that the fish has swallowed the bait before you sweep the rod.
8. You’re Fishing in the Past
Fishing in the past is a problem that I face to this very day. Fish aren’t always going to repeat patterns or stay in the same areas.
It’s important to keep an open mind when out on the water and use baits and techniques based on the CONDITIONS rather than prior fishing success.
Trying new areas based on the season of the year can help enhance success. Fish have fins and they use them so your not always going to have a bunch of fish in one spot. They’ll probably move as the year goes on which is why it’s good to try new spots so you can have a good idea of where the fish are at any given time.
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you to realize what bad habits you may have developed with fishing. Like I said in the introduction, you’re probably not a bad fisherman. Fishing comes down to not over-complicating things and fishing the moment. That’s what truly separates the good fisherman from the bad.
