It’s a cool, semi-foggy morning, your pulse quickens with anticipation as
you idle away from the dock through the no-wake
zone to the take-off buoy. A myriad of thoughts
speed through your mind. The adrenaline rush of
another day on the water is addictive! Then,
blast off! Throttle down, you shoot out of the
hole jetting to your first stop of the day.
You shut down and coast to a stop. Life jacket
slipped off and into the seat, you hop onto the
front deck, push the power button on the front
locator, and drop the trolling motor over the
bow. . . . all this time unsure of what the day
will bring. It is once again time to identify
and assemble the pieces of the puzzle to reveal
the clues to a successful pattern for catching
bass on the day. This challenge, above all
else, is what brings you back to the water time
and time again.
Knowing there is an arsenal of rods and reels in
the locker, you look down at the four choices
laying on the deck, to which you tied a variety
of baits the night before. You hope that one or
two of these baits are the keys to unlocking the
bass-catching pattern for the day. Your first
selection is made and you begin probing the
depths in search of the potentially elusive
black bass. The process you have worked through
a million times is in motion once again. Using a
calculated rotation of presentations, you
dissect cover and structure like a surgeon with
scalpel in hand.
Twenty minutes pass. “If I can just get that
first bite, that first clue.” You say to
yourself. Then out of nowhere, your casting rod
bows as a bass boils on and inhales the bait
near a grass clump. With a quick hookset, the
battle is on. In a minute or two, the bottom lip
of a chunky three pounder is firmly in your
grasp. You quickly remove the hook with a “pop”;
she swims away with the swish of her tail in
acknowledgement of a good battle and a pleasant
farewell.
You say aloud “OK, I’ve got it” as you look to
repeat the successful catch. Fifteen minutes
pass.
Thirty minutes pass. Then, fifty minutes have
gone by. You look down at the graph to check the
time. More than one hour and twenty minutes have
elapsed since that first bite. Not only did you
fish through the area where the first bite came
from thoroughly, two other very similar areas
were picked apart to be certain that first bite
was very repeatable and not a fluke. Much to
your chagrin, it was. Now what, you wonder. Was
there a patternable clue in that bite that was
overlooked, or are you just on a “wild goose
chase”, or “chasing the ghost fish”? While I am
very familiar with this scenario, until earlier
this year, I was unfamiliar with the phrase
“ghost fish”.
While watching some live tournament coverage
earlier this year, a professional angler used
this phrase when discussing situations in which
an angler gets the first bite of the day, or a
when an angler gets a single bite after a long
period of time without a fish catch. He
explained that after a single bite, an angler
often cannot tell if it is the beginning of a
pattern or a “ghost fish”. A ghost fish, as he
defined, is a bite or fish-catch that an angler
pursues for a period of time but is unable to
repeat it. This phantom pattern is often
distracting and can derail an angler for hours
or an entire day on the water. In a tournament,
time devoted to chasing the ghost fish often
translates into forgettable results.
So, how can an angler avoid “chasing the ghost
fish”, that bite that can quickly derail an
otherwise successful day of fishing catching?
Are there ways to identify that phantom bite and
avoid pursuing a pattern that does not exist?
As the pro angler explained that day, and an
opinion that I share, there is no way to really
know. There is no full-proof checklist to
reference, no tell-tale sign to look for.
Instead, each bite must be analyzed and pursued
to see if IT is the pattern for the day or the
first of a series of clues that quickly will
lead to a solid fish-catching pattern for the
day. There is no way to figure that out other
than spending some time trying to repeat THAT
bite. The key, however, is the amount of time an
angler invests chasing THAT bite. Is it ten
minutes? Is it thirty minutes? Is it more; is it
less? Does the correct amount of time vary by
situation?
During a recent day of chasing largemouth on
Crab Orchard Lake, I was faced with a potential
“ghost fish” scenario. After fishing for a
relatively short time, I got a bite in an area
in which I expected to find them. However, the
combination of factors that produced that
specific bite were unexpected and a bit unusual
based on previous experience. I was staring
straight into the face of the questions I posed
a few paragraphs previous. Fortunately, using
two complementary presentations to the bait that
produced that first bite, I was able to unlock
the way for me to catch ‘em that particular day.
The presentation that produced the first bite
was not the key detail. Instead, how the bass
was set up was the key. I chose other
presentations to more effectively fish how the
bass were set up and was rewarded. While I did
not put any giants in the boat, I had a solid
day of catching some nice fish. I listened to
myself, made the correct decisions and dedicated
the right amount of time to “figure it out”.
The intuition of knowing how long to spend, or
even whether to devote anytime at all, pursuing
a particular bite is what separates those in the
front of the check line from those on the
outside looking in. If you have ever wondered
why most anglers must spend every minute on the
water that life will allow, it is to gain the
foundation of on-the-water knowledge and
experience on which the strong intuition (gut
instinct) required to handle this situation is
built. An angler’s gut instinct is the resource
required to avoid chasing the ghost fish. When
encountered with this situation, listen to what
that little voice in your head is telling you.
Work that first bite for 10, 20, 30 minutes, or
however long YOU feel is right. If a pattern
does not materialize, move on when you feel it
is right to do so. Don’t look back. Don’t second
guess yourself. Trust yourself and be confident
doing it. If you do, your self-confidence in
decision-making will grow, strengthen, and
galvanize around you. Over time, often without
realizing it, your fishing will more
consistently be woven together with decisions
that yield positive results creating momentum
that fellow anglers will find difficult to
compete with. Over many of years of watching
professional anglers on TV and live coverage on
the web, as well as competing in local and
regional tournaments, there is one common trait
that all the most successful anglers
possess…self-confidence. They believe in their
ability and trust their decision-making.
Even the pros lose way more than they win.
Although building a strong, knowledge-based
angling intuition with which decisions are made
confidently is not a full-proof recipe for
success, those characteristics are vital to
creating a positive mental environment in which
successful on-the-water decisions become the
norm and far outnumber the fruitless ones.
Building and trusting your “angling gut” will
make you a ghost buster on the water. You will
uncover productive bass-catching patterns more
frequently and spend far less time chasing ghost
fish.
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