What are your expectations when you go fishing?
When I go fishing, I always try to learn something new every trip. I am always looking for another piece of the puzzle that will help me catch more fish.
Yesterday, I had a great day of fishing rainbows on Dragon Lake (YouTube video to follow soon), compared to the day before. Why could this be?
There are a few variables that are always out of our control when we go fishing. Weather, feeding times (to an extent) and fish density levels in certain areas of the lake are some variables to consider. How we adjust or learn about these variables can help us become better anglers over time. If we are always looking for the “story” and willing to adjust and focus on the current conditions, we stand a chance at catching more fish than the day, week, month or year before.
This weekend was a great example of how a willingness to learn and improve on current practices, methods and assumptions helped me catch more fish.
To start, the first day we observed trout following our lures into the boat only to turn away at the last second. The water was like glass most of the time and we had a blue bird day with not a cloud in sight. While we managed to catch a few fish, we noticed they were not biting like they normally did. I normally do not fish rainbows this late into the fall, so I was intrigued and had to figure out what was happening. We also noticed more fish were feeding over 16 to 20ft of water. This was different than the previous weeks where fish were being caught in as little as 4ft of water.
The second day proved to be where some of the pieces came together. I focused more effort fishing in 20ft of water. I also noticed (you couldn’t miss it) that the fog was providing a comfortable feeding environment when combined with a slight breeze across the surface. The lack of anglers on the water also helped encourage wary fish that would normally be put off the bite.
My expectations were met this weekend after learning where the higher percentage of rainbows were feeding. Unfortunately, I am still not sure why they were hanging out over 20ft of water when I originally thought they would be feeding heavily in the reeds. However, I was excited to find out what worked at this time of the year and was able to fine tune my fall rainbow tactics.