How do you become a better fisherman?

[baitstealer]

I hope you don't think this is a stuped question, guys. I have been fishing about once a week for a few years, mostly clam and bunker, and I have caught some striped bass and bluefish, but nothing really big like that 56lb striper. I also throw plugs, like poppers and bombers, and metal, and read and try to imitate what guys who are catching are doing.

I know you need to learn to read the water, and stuff like that, and pay attention to the bait. I am trying but the skunk follows me home a lot.

Wondering if any of you guys out there who have experience catching fish would be willing to share some of what has made you a better angler.

I have gotten a lot of helpful info here before, and appreciate all the advice, even if I haven't personally thanked all those guys who helped me. So I'm thanking you agan, in advance, for any advice you can give to point me in the right direction.

[wish4fish]

put in yur time dude there are days when none of us can catch fish, u also have to fish when their feeding and that to me means night and before the sun comes up.

[cowherder]

Hi baitstealer I learned a lot from the guys on this site too. What I learned is to pay attention to the guys who you see catching fish. What are they doing differently that you aren't?

Also sometimes it's the little things, like a little difference in technique or retrieve. A teaser can be very important when there is small bait around.

One of the guys here who seems to always use a teaser is Monty, and I believe he catches more fish with them. PM him if you have priveleges, he gave me some great advice that helped. Finchaser knows a lot too, and his advice has helped me to make less mistakes.

There are a lot of guys here, including Darkskies, Surfstix1963, Finchaser, Clamchucker, and others, who will help if you ask them. But you have to be willing to put your time in too like Wish4fish said. You can't learn it all on the internet, you have to get out and do it. Good luck, and keep trying different things.

[SharkHart]

if you REALLY want to catch fish, one of the top things, although it sounds simple is you have to a refuse to lose attitude. This often means you have to cover some ground.

They say a good baseball manager puts players in favorable situations, a right pitcher against a right batter, pinch hit a guy who hits well against certain guys, fishing has some similarity to this, you have to put yourself in favorable match ups.

I and many surf fisherman do a thing ive read that guys fly fishing upstate trout streams do the same thing, it usually involves moving around looking for signs and or fish (bait, birds, hook ups), and often when moving you arent even casting, this puzzles some people. I ve seen bait guys often mock guys who do this thinking they just show up look and leave but on a good day, not always, you eventually find what your looking for and you hit them hard and fast. (if properly prepared!)

The other part of putting yourself in favorable matchup is the conditions, South winds, showing up at 9am arent good strategies. I like hard NW winds as a lure guy. A pre NE storm is also effective but PRE is the key word. I also believe in camping out on bait if you find it because the predators usually will find it soon enough. Sand eel bites can be fast and furious right after sunup then can quickly go quiet, so you have to be out the ready once it gets light.

The other thing is when you do find large concentrations of fish you have to be aggressive, speed kills. Ive seen guys screwing around taking their time you never know how long fish are going to be in front of you. The faster you work the more you can catch. Another thing im always shocked to see is the amount of guys at the street end, you go left or right and the amount of guys thins out FAST. I wont stay staionary if the fish dont but many guys do, stay with the birds when in doubt.

cuts and holes although important arent nearly as important as some make it sound online, if you can find bass chasing bait they can be caught inside the trough, on the bar over the bar wont matter as much. But just make sure you arent fishing on a shallow spot, light color. Last year the Manasquan town beach had like one hole and major long shallow sand spots to the left and right. It was very visable from the walkway or the beach itself. This was a key hole but only at higher tides. I knew this would funnel every fish right there if they were in the area. One night me and another guy out there shared the hole for over 20 fish each.

[storminsteve]

The other part of putting yourself in favorable matchup is the conditions, South winds, showing up at 9am arent good strategies. I like hard NW winds as a lure guy. A pre NE storm is also effective but PRE is the key word. I also believe in camping out on bait if you find it because the predators usually will find it soon enough. Sand eel bites can be fast and furious right after sunup then can quickly go quiet, so you have to be out the ready once it gets light.

Well said, you sound like you have a lot of years experience. A lot of guys will say I fished all day 9-3 and I didn't get any bass. Those are the hours you should be with your family, and then sneak out in the night, sunrise, or afternoon.

You can't whine about nopt being a good baseball player if you don't practice and work on your weaknesses, Same for fishing, I think your advice was spot on.

ALL I would add is try to time it when the fish are less wary. You can't always find a blitz, and you can't fish every night all night wthout getting divorced. Choose your trip timing well, and you will increase your odds.

[Monty]

Great advice above (great thread), I basically fish like you 1x per week. What I try to do is get familiar with a few areas, find areas where there is current/structure, bait. As cowherder said, I use teasers 95% of the time. Another thing for me is to have confidence in what I am fishing . That one time per week is 1:30 am to 7:00 or 8:00 am almost every time (Rip-Plugger got me into fishing those hours). And its a constant learning experience, always listening to others on this site, buddies advice, reading articles or books. I filter it out and use what fits how I enjoy fishing.

[bababooey]

What Shark and Monty said are golden. I would also add to find someone around you who fishes a lot, and pick their brains when they are not fishing. I did this when I was a teen. There was a guy who lived on our block who fished 5 days a week and was retired. Of course his home chores weren't always done, grass wasn't cut etc. I struck a deal with him, I would cut his grass every 2 weeks if he would take me fishing on his boat and teach me some things.

He did, and then when I got my boat, I knew what type to look for, how to read electronics, and find my way back to shore with only a compass. He became a good friend, and I think that's why he taught me what he did, not just because I was cutting his lawn.

He taught me to find the schools of feeding fish, and strategically figure out where they were headed and drift into them for hours of action instead of the 5 minutes of action some knuckleheads get today when they land right on top of the school with the motor still running.
Hope that helps.

[buckethead]

Pay attention to those around you. Look carefully at what they are using and how they are fishing it.

Spend time at low tide to search the best areas to fish. Look closely at the structure. The more you pay attention and learn from others the better fisherman you will become.

[rockhopper]

Fish one area, get to know it, maybe get some people to clue you in, but you have to pay your dues. learn exactly where to be at all stages at the tide, and where the pockets of structure are. Once you get to know that place and get good at it, take what you have learned and go to other beaches, and see if there are any similarities. Then you can build from there.

[Rip-Plugger]

Stealer,

the hardest thing you must overcome is the number of times you actually fish.
once a week is not enough but,if you have time for just 1 trip per week you will have to do it.

learn a technique and optimze it,don't let up on it,make a note in your head and make it a second nature thing.
you must be a chef to be a GOOD fisherman.mix up techniques,create your own,listen to others and do what they do.your 2 best friends in fishing are your ears and eyes.ask questions,observe and execute.

another VERY important thing is time,you MUST put your time in,thats law.time in is just like working overtime,you go in more,you get more money.

I cannot fathom how many hours of sleep I lost because I was out chasing bass.bluefish,I still do it now but,less often.
so,once you have ideas try them,if they don't work out,save it and crossbreed it with another style of fishing.

remember,time in is the real deal,being good at it comes after a while.so,put in as much as possible.

R-P

[fishinmission78]

Stealer,

the hardest thing you must overcome is the number of times you actually fish.
once a week is not enough but,if you have time for just 1 trip per week you will have to do it.

learn a technique and optimze it,don't let up on it,make a note in your head and make it a second nature thing.
you must be a chef to be a GOOD fisherman.mix up techniques,create your own,listen to others and do what they do.your 2 best friends in fishing are your ears and eyes.ask questions,observe and execute.

Sharkhart and Ripplugger said some spot-on stuff. I fish a lot, don't always report if I don't catch. I don't want to clutter up the report pages. But I do like to read when others are catching or not. I think Surfwalker may have said something on a post about making your own reports, and thats good advice too.

It doesn't happen overnight, to become good at surf fishing, you really do have to work at it. Try to learn one lplug, jig, bucktail, or metal presentation at a time. Learn how to fish that well. Get confidence by catching fish on it, and remember what you did for next time. Then move on to the next plug and learn that. And, like Ripplug said, you won't learn much if you only go to the beach once in a while. You have to be there a lot to learn the tides and when the fish feed at a particulr time. Read the beach, make notes of that too, and learn from it.

[bababooey]

1. Call finchaser
2. Phone is busy, have a beer and watch UFC on cable.
3. Call again, get directions to the fish, and stick some.
4. Come home, get the wife to clean them, aah life is good!

So what do I have to do to be put on the finchaser intel phone list? Will joining the effumall club get me any juice?

[jonthepain]

I grew up on LBI. My neighbor was a real old guy. He was an awesome fisherman. I noticed that he'd be coming home from the beach about when I was getting up, and then he was going out again after dinner. he always fished the same mile or so of beach.

So I started doing the same thing. I really got to know every inch of that beach, and could discern subtle changes in it as the days and years went by. There were 3 jetties, several holes and sloughs, and one clam bank. They would change and move and such, but because I was out there almost every day, just before dawn and just before dusk, I could tell.

One day old Bill saw me trying to "match the hatch." He was using an old beat up redfin. It was the only plug he had with him. I had a bunch of them in my bag - along with bucktails and squids and I don't know what all.

I tell you what, he could catch fish. He told me to pick one plug, and just bring that one plug with me. And learn it.

It was tough at first. Sometimes I would bring two with me. But when I finally got the discipline to learn that one plug, I sure got a lot of confidence in it.

And I started catching a whole hell of a lot more fish. I even started out-catching my "lucky" fishing partners, who were always high hook.

Bill Krastell. I think he won the LBI Tourney a couple of times, but I can't say for sure. He sure could have. He died years and years ago. I'm sure he never knew how much his example meant to me.

I did get to tell his wife Mae about that some 20 years ago. She was so touched she gave me his favorite plugging rod. I've still got it.

Mae died about 10 years ago. She had a painting over the fireplace, of a wave, and you can see Bill's favorite redfin in the curl, and way behind it, just barely noticeable, a keeper bass, giving that redfin the eye, and headed it's way.

Thanks, Bill.