Northwest Fishing Reports

I am new to this site but not to fishing and I am picking up on a theme that may be counter productive when asking another angler a question in hopes of making your next outing more productive. I'm not talking about the stuff you ask your fishing partners but rather the questions you ask a perfect stranger on a board such as this. Inevitably one of the first comments I read below a report with a nice fish pictured is this, "where did you catch that and what bait did it eat ?" To a serious fisherman that question is usually received in the same way your wife would recive the question, " how did you get so fat this winter?" It's almost offensive even though you had no intention of offending the person.

Think about what you are asking that person and ask yourself this question. If I just caught an 8 lb. large mouth and somone asks me where and on what, am I going to tell him anything and if I do am I really going to tell him the truth? I would argue more than half the time if you ask that question of a stranger you are going to get a bs answer at best and most of the time it will be no answer at all. Again, I am only referring to strangers and not your buddies. Where the guy caught it and what he caught it on are going to be of little to no help to you anyway. There are no magic baits and very few magic spots. There may be magical places at certain times of year but there isn't a place you can go and always get em. I spent a lot of time fishing the wrong spots at the wrong times with the wrong baits simply due to the fact that I had wacked em there before and they will be there again, right. WRONG!

More productive questions would be questions pertaining to the type of water or the type of bait. For example, were they eating reaction baits? Were they shallow all day or did you start deep and follow them up? Did you find one type of structure to be more productive than another. These are the types of questions that are non-threatening and will lead you to the beginning of a possible pattern. A pattern is what you are ultimately after. Even if a "spot" is great what do you do after you are done with that "spot". A pattern can lead you to multiple spots. Have you ever noticed that the same guys are always on them. It doesn't matter if you are talking about your group of buddies or a tournament trail. Most of the time 10% of the guys are catching 90% of the fish. Even in the pros. These guys don't have better baits than the other guys nor do they have better spots. They put the peices together one at a time and figure it out. Some of them were able to start that process by asking the right questions. The right questions will lead you to the right answers. If you are reading this and thinking to yourself, I'm that guy asking the where and what question. I'm not picking on you just trying to help.

Well put. It's a thought and reasoning process. It's part of the reason I do it...it's a constant challenge, and it all changes so quickly and very seldom the same results on any given day. It's timing as well and you're right...there are no magic baits. Versatility is the key, as well as confidence.

Desert Creek,

This is the best post I have ever read on this website, by a country mile. Your advice couldn't be more spot on. Conditions are constantly changing and the anglers who adapt and make the proper adjustments are the 10% catching 90% of the fish.

I agree with tag this is a killer thread that opens up the can of "IM NOT TELLING , NOW WHAT" ..LOL personaly I try my best to be as open and detailed as possible when posting reports during the tourney "off season" as for march through october i dont post many reports at all . Im More concerned with the guys that are non members that cruize this site looking for tips on water that they dont spend much time on . Well its a double edge sword , because this site is suppose to be about providing helpful tips and lake info right?

I will say that i dont mind letting guys know how deep is was fishing and atleast a few of the baits i used . But if my tourney is within a week away , i will just stay silent about it . So listen here, all "LAZYBOY FISHERMAN" stop waiting on the guys that put in the time effort and money to tell ya how to make your day easy . Instead out in some work out there and let us know what you came across , if your off a little i promise we will help ya !


BBD

What I am finding in my somewhat new "Passion-4-Bassin" {3 yrs} is that there is no replacement and no better teacher than "Time-On-The-Water",..whether you're catching or just fishing,..yes we all have those we go 2 in time of need and I must admit my "Go-2" guys are all members of this site,..but like Dez said,..we have 2 put the time on the water,..there is no getting around it,..one dosen't start at the top of the ranking system and keep moving up,..we start at the bottom,..humble as it may be,..then we progress up the ladder,..when we come across a road block,..we seek help from those we trust,..not a total stranger for a quick fix but from those that we know will not steer us wrong and not give us the whole remedy but parts of it so that we can work on the end result within our own time and in our own way,..this is how we grow,..this not only pertains 2 Bassin but 2 LIFE as well! JMHO

BB

Excellent thread DC...and great feedback from some of this forums best! I always felt that if someone asks such general questions....then they'll probably get a generalized answer. Of course usally if I see someone having a difficult time, then I have no problem attempting to help if possible. :bounce: Especially if there are kids involved! It's really as simple as that for me!
Welcome to the site too!

if somebody tells me they caught some hogs on a black and blue jig, it just gives me that much more info on what they were doing at that time, doesnt mean i will put it on and expect to catch fish, but i do think its one piece of the puzzle found. i dont think of it as just putting together the puzzle, we are finding the pieces as well. just cause fish were caught on a jig, now its how and where, when and what are they doing now.i get lucky and sometimes stumble on the pattern only to lose it when they change, thats what im working on.

Really great points! I too have been a member on the site for a while, but only recently started posting reports, and frankly it's been tough to know how much/how little information to include in them. Part of what makes Bass fishing so awesome is that you can take 10 different guys and potentially come up with 100 (easily) different ways to catch bass, and without a doubt what works for one guy may not work for another guy, based on nothing more than one guy having confidence in a lure and presentation and another guy just picking up a bait that supposedly works but not really beleiving he can catch something with it. I'm a tournament guy, but I'm also a guide, so while I don't really want to give everything away its in my nature to try to teach as much as I can. I posted some information about how I did pre-fishing for an upcoming tournament, and I'm sure there are alot of tourney guys lurking who at least used that to help narrow down how they wanted to fish, and i'm fine with that, or I wouldn't have posted it. But at the end of the day as DC so rightly put it, even if you use a great bait at a great time, unless you really have an idea of why those fish were there, what triggered that bite, and can duplicate it somewhere else, it's just a spot that happened to have a fish on it, and at least in tournaments, that's rarely going to help you much. I'm posting my next report "after" our tournament.

DesertCreek, looking forward to more posts from you !

I am going to be brutally honest with you guys. I have been a lurker of this and other sites for quite a while. I am new to this whole bass fishing deal but I admittedly have OCD ( that's obsessive compulsive disoreder) for those of you that don't know. I just don't consider myself as having a disorder. I am just absolutely obsessed with tournament bass fishing. I grew up a fly fisherman and have worked some as a fly fishing guide. I fished my first tournament in 2006 as a one time deal to a friend who needed a partner. I was so lame I fished the thing with 2 fly rods. That was the end of my old life and the beginning of this new life. I didn't bass fish again that year but but by the spring of 2007 I had a boat and dove head first into the tournament deal. I was and still am in way over my head. I have been fortunate to have been in the back seat with a couple of great fishermen and I learned as much from those guys in the 5 days I have been with those guys as I have in the rest of my time by myself. I am also fortunate to have a supportive wife and a flexible schedule that allows me an obscene number of days on the water. I am trying to climb this massive mountain of a learning curve behind tournament anglers that have 10-15 years of experience over me. I have felt a tremendous amount of frustration and at one point I thought the whole thing was just voodoo and I would never have a chance. I was fortunate enough to have some success last year and had a handful of guys who took pitty on me and gave me some clues. The reason I made the post I did today was to share some of that help I received. What I have learned is that any idiot can catch fish if they are around fish. My partner told me one day in a huge tournament last year that we were going to spend the middle part of the day flipping. Great...I have never caught a fish flipping. We are 20 yards into a 150 yard stretch of reeds and I put a 7 1/2 pound LM in the boat . During a huge tournament I had no business being in. I am referring to myself here in case somone took offense to that idiot remark. Catching them is the easy part I proved that by ctaching some donkeys behind a good fisherman. Putting yourself around fish is the hard part and I don't have all of the answers to that and I probably wouldn't share all of them anyway. Looking back at all of the information I received the best stuff I ever got and was able to use was the least specific. It's a little bit of a chicken and egg thing and I don't know which comes first but when somone tells me they were gettin em on jigs. I could care less what kind or color but I do know right away what type of water they were fishing. That was my point about the type of question and asking questions that are less threatening.
If the guy told me he was fishing shallow that would be way more help than telling me he was fishing a pumpkin seed jig with a 176 craw trailer and he is probably willing to hand out that type of data. He may have been right on with the kind of water he was fishing and totally missed the boat on the right kind of bait anyway. I might be able to fish shallow and load the boat with 4 pounders on a buzz bait. This is the process that worked for me. It might not work for everyone but if some of you guys gain enough confidence to try the tournament thing someday that can only be good for all of us. It will definitely make the pots bigger or just make the fish porn (pictures) on the site more entertainig. By the way whether you fish tournaments or not says nothing about your ability so don't take that the wrong way. There are plenty of tournament anglers that couldn't catch water if they fell out of a boat.

Desertcreek wrote: These guys don't have better baits than the other guys nor do they have better spots.

Agree. Some folks may have better spots though. BUT, I'm a huge advocate of getting the patterns and presentations right rather than finding the perfect bait or lure. Find the fish and get your gear in front of them in the correct manner.

See, I'll play devil's advocate because in a way, I don't agree with the type of people who crop the background out of their pictures so people don't figure out which dock was holding their fish.

For me, unless there is serious money on the line, I'll leave that attitude with the salmon/steelhead guys. For the most part, and the very largest most part, people release bass and use bass fishing as recreation. Its enjoyment. Since the fish will most likely go back in the water, what do I care if I share where, when, how, and with what I fish with? With catch and release, the fishery will remain strong. I certainly don't hear about dwindling largemouth runs in the Cowlitz. You catch my drift?

Now, if you ask me what I cure my eggs with.................

Meatloaf_Rocks wrote:See, I'll play devil's advocate because in a way, I don't agree with the type of people who crop the background out of their pictures so people don't figure out which dock was holding their fish.

For me, unless there is serious money on the line, I'll leave that attitude with the salmon/steelhead guys. For the most part, and the very largest most part, people release bass and use bass fishing as recreation. Its enjoyment. Since the fish will most likely go back in the water, what do I care if I share where, when, how, and with what I fish with? With catch and release, the fishery will remain strong. I certainly don't hear about dwindling largemouth runs in the Cowlitz. You catch my drift?

Now, if you ask me what I cure my eggs with.................

I am with you meat loaf if you don't want to share info with reports all you are doing is bragging:-"

Im with Fish and Meatloaf on this.You first mentioned you were a guide.That allready says it and that you immediately said you got into tournaments.Bottom line is you fish for the money.Dont want to share with others,dont do it.Why come on a forum like this?I'm just getting into bass fishing and love the info these members give me.Seeing we for the most part all do C&R were not depleting the fish population so why not share info.I dont fish to make a living.I fish for fun.

i agree im 14 and always trying to get more info from people on here so why not try too help the young gun and new people to bass fishing?????

If you think that DesertCreek is not sharing uber valuable info right now, then you are missing the flipping point (pun intended - heyo!). :dwarf:

THERE IS A GREAT FEATURE ON HERE CALLED "PM" .. this allows personal one on one emails . Keep in mind when dealing with tourney anglers , we dont mind sharing the info but what we are tring to advoid is letting the guys who we compete against know our pin point game plan that can come back to bite us during a tourney .. How did he find that spot ? how does he know about that bait ? But i will bet my bottom dollar and im living proof of it that if someone sends me a pm on here that been an active member i have shared my best baits and spots at a drop of a dime . I encourage anglers with experience to get on this site thats what we need more of .

I get tired sometime reading the same questions about the same lake and seeing the same answers ! guys like DC & David bring a new breath of fresh air and i welcome them both !!

Thanks to all on here that has made a difference in another anglers life !! I would like to here from some of the anglers that has improved there skill set just by being a member on this site , let these guys share how it's done (it's your turn to give back) :batman:

Drewp wrote:If you think that DesertCreek is not sharing uber valuable info right now, then you are missing the flipping point (pun intended - heyo!). :dwarf:

I think he is sharing some great info. I also feel that knowing the right questions to ask can lead to more useful information. I'm just not the kind that would get irritated if someone asked me directly about what I was using, where I was using it and how I was using it. With bass fishing, its not a big deal to me. I don't make my living fishing for bass, I don't need bass to eat and it doesn't get me any chicks, so there goes my motivation for keeping secrets.

Like I said before, ask me what I cure my eggs with or where I hunt........

Bigbass Dez wrote:THERE IS A GREAT FEATURE ON HERE CALLED "PM" .. this allows personal one on one emails . Keep in mind when dealing with tourney anglers , we dont mind sharing the info but what we are tring to advoid is letting the guys who we compete against know our pin point game plan that can come back to bite us during a tourney .. How did he find that spot ? how does he know about that bait ? But i will bet my bottom dollar and im living proof of it that if someone sends me a pm on here that been an active member i have shared my best baits and spots at a drop of a dime . I encourage anglers with experience to get on this site thats what we need more of .

I get tired sometime reading the same questions about the same lake and seeing the same answers ! guys like DC & David bring a new breath of fresh air and i welcome them both !!

Thanks to all on here that has made a difference in another anglers life !! I would like to here from some of the anglers that has improved there skill set just by being a member on this site , let these guys share how it's done (it's your turn to give back) :batman:

I agree to a certain extent, but on the other hand, what is a public forum for if we can't use it to converse and ask questions? I figured that an open forum was exactly that. Its an avenue for all of us to discuss a topic.

I can see how a competitive fisherman might be less open to a person because it might give away their secret. I've been lucky to take some nice deer and elk and I hate it when someone asks me where I hunt. If someone asked me what kinds of areas to look for when seaching for an animal, I'd be all for giving out information. I won't put you on the exact rock to sit on to get a deer though.

Good thread.