Thursday Tips: Observe

Read tournament reports about how the leaders caught their fish and one thing you'll read about again and again is that top finishers "noticed something" during practice or during a competition day that clued them into what they needed to do. And that's true whether you're talking about bass, crappie, redfish, walleyes or any other species.

Sometimes that "something" is a patterning understanding that is based on which bait or presentation triggered a strike. Often, though, it's an external condition or other observation. Other fish following a hooked fish; birds circling in an area; a water color change along a wind-beaten bank; a creek flowing hard; a landed fish spitting up a certain type of baitfish; a water temperature change in a particular cove...

The list of stuff you might notice could go on and on, and most don't come with a single obvious answer as to what to do about them. The key is to pay attention to EVERYTHING around you, to think about what effect that could have, and to note how conditions seem to correlate with the fish's behavior. Observe, experiment and repeat any experiment that seems to work, and the end result will be
catching more fish overall no matter what kind of fish you like to target.