Every time I fish with professional bass anglers, I always learn something new—a different tactic, a new knot, or what it’s like to sleep in your truck before the big event. Here are a handful of the most important things I’ve learned behind enemy lines in the bass boat world. And read on for a few lessons that bass pros could learn from us!
4 Fishing Lessons to Learn from Bass Pros
1 How to Find Fish
Don’t worry, I’m not saying kayak anglers can’t fish as well as bass pros. But there are still things we can learn. Watch a bass pro pick apart a map or a section of water and you’ll see how all that practice pays off. I’ve seen pro anglers blast past water that I would have spent hours combing through, because they knew that better water was up ahead.
It’s not so easy to blast around looking for the best spots in a paddle-powered kayak, but we can analyze a map just like the pros. Before pre-fishing your next tournament, pick up a topographic map for the fishery and highlight spots that you want to hit before you even look at the water. That way you can disregard large areas that are less likely to produce and focus on the more productive spots. Look for bigger drop-offs, tight topo lines converging onto a point, or spots where a smaller stream or current line are pouring into the main lake or river.
2 Sponsors are Not Religions
One of my biggest pet peeves in the kayak fishing industry is watching anglers treat someone badly because they belong to a different pro staff team or because they choose to paddle in a different boat. What’s the point of that? Watch a group of bass pros hanging out after a tournament and look at the sponsor logos on the back of their jerseys. Few of them belong to the same brand, but these pros get along as brothers and sisters, because they’re all part of the same sport.
I’ve seen so much trash talk between kayak anglers about who paddles which boat. I’ve talked to kayak pro staffers who are reluctant to fish with pros from other companies—not because they don’t want to, but because the other angler trashes their kayak and brand too much. That seems so unfortunate to me. No matter what your fellow anglers paddle, they’re still your peers and not the enemy.
3 Humility
It’s a lot of fun to travel the country full-time to fish different tournaments. You have a list of cool sponsors, a cool boat, sweet truck and all the other perks of being a celebrity in the bass fishing world. But most bass pros are down-to-earth and humble people who are just working hard to live out their dreams. For the most part, these professional anglers will insist that they’re not celebrities.
Most kayak anglers are the same way, but I’ve met enough outliers to sometimes make me wonder. Even if you’ve created a name for yourself or have multiple championships under your belt, you are still just fishing in a kayak. Too many anglers land a few sponsorships and their ego explodes, leading them to act like God’s greatest gift to the fishing world. No, I’m not talking about any specific angler, so save your emails. I just worry that kayak anglers are headed down the wrong path when it comes to creating a brand for ourselves.
4 Never Give Up
This is a lesson that applies to fishing, but also more broadly in terms of accomplishing your goals. At one of my first bass tournaments I watched Brandon Palahniuk take the win, an angler almost the same age as me. Seeing his success, you might not know that he spent his entire first tour season sleeping in his truck. Now, Palahniuk is on the Elite Series circuit and he is one of the biggest names in the sport.
Bass anglers also never give up on the water. I’ve seen anglers beat themselves silly in tough conditions just to come out in the top ten, not even to win, but just to stay alive in the tournament. I’ve also seen anglers fish all day long in a tournament, trying every tactic and lure in their boat before catching their limit in the last hour of the day.
No matter what your goals are—whether winning your local tournament, creating a name for yourself on the circuit, or just having fun—never stop trying until you’ve reached them.
2 Lessons Kayak Anglers Could Teach Bass Pros
1 Sharing Knowledge
Go to any kayak fishing tournament and you will see anglers gossiping like school children. They talk openly about where they were fishing during the day, what baits they were using and what techniques worked best. That’s because kayak fishing, in general, is one big community. Having been humbled by fishing in a little plastic boat, kayak anglers know that we have to stick together.
Bass pros, on the other hand, are so tight-lipped on their tournament tactics and spots that they are more likely to point you in the wrong direction. To be fair, that kind of specialized knowledge is their bread and butter, but the secretive attitude is still not as pleasant as a kayak fishing tournament.
2 PFD Safety
Watch any bass pro fishing—whether in practice, on their home waters, or in a tournament—and you’re unlikely to see them wearing a PFD. The only time I’ve seen pros wear their PFD is when they run from spot to spot during an event. That’s because tournaments often mandate PFDs must be worn when a boat is in motion.
Kayak anglers, on the other hand, are more commonly seen wearing their PFD. Fishing from a little plastic boat makes many kayak anglers more conscious of safety, so they come to the water prepared for emergencies day in and day out. The first step is to carry a marine VHF radio, a first aid kit and a properly fitting PFD.
You learn a few lessons (good and bad) when you spend enough time fishing with bass pros. | Feature photo: Ben Duchesney
Amen on the PFD issue! But too many novice kayak fishermen carry over the big boat attitude when they get on a kayak.
Also: A lot of photos posted suggest that many anglers of both persuasions aren’t handling fish well enough during their photo sessions to insure that the fish survive. Even if you’re going to keep the fish, the people who view your photos don’t know that and form an impression based on what they see and may act accordingly.
Finally, a segment of folks who are role models for both boat and kayak fishermen go out of their way to avoid nautical terminology, thinking that they are making it easier for folks new to the sport. Will the new boaters (fiberglass or plastic), when the time comes, be able to understand the NAVRULES if they have never heard of port & starboard?