Is it me or does fishing seem more complicated these days?
When I was a kid my Grandfather would take me fishing every summer.
It was just the two of us, a tin boat with a tiny outboard, a tacklebox, and a coffee can full of worms. We would motor around the lake casting out bobbers and reeling in fish.
Simple.
I haven’t fished seriously now for decades.
That is, until my son developed a keen interest in the sport. His enthusiasm pumped me up and the next thing you know he is signed up for his high school Bass fishing team – with yours truly as the Captain.
Starting over and having to get up to speed quickly I did the natural thing; began searching the internet for useful tips and videos.
And immediately fell into a deep pool of information overload!
It’s not just the specialized gear, of which there is plenty. Forward facing sonar (!!), paid apps, spinning rods, bait casters, plastics – not to mention the gamut of deep water tech that I’ve been fortunate to see firsthand a time or two.
It’s not the knots and rigs, from Texas to the Carolinas and all ports in between. And it’s not that we are now fishing on the gulf coast, up against multigenerational sportsmen who grew up with a rod in one hand and a rifle in the other.
It’s that the noise makes it hard to figure out which handful of tried and tested techniques are worth our time, and it’s because we are going in blind to new-to-us bodies of water every single trip out.
Lots of questions and not a lot of time to figure it out.
Oh yeah, did I mention that our first tournament is in a few weeks?
We don’t even have a boat yet…
The best way I know to learn something new is to:
- Do it
- Write about it
That’s what I’m doing here.
I’ll be documenting the journey here with my son from total beginners to (hopefully) qualified rookies by the end of the hyper-competitive Texas tournament season. All while (hopefully) not embarrassing us on the lake or at the boat launch!
Welcome aboard.