Fishing, Finding, and Catching

 So I never really thought about it before, but there's a huge difference between "fishing," "finding," and "catching".  

Take the last few weeks, for instance.  We had that nasty cold spell that killed a bunch of fish here.  And ever since, we haven't done very good.

We've gone "fishing" multiple times.  We see others coming back with lots of nice fish, and lots of posts about people getting lots of nice fish...but we haven't been getting anything, often not even getting a bite!

People tell us "we limited out here" or "they were killing it there"...but when we go "here" or "there," do we come home with any fish?  Not a one.  It gets pretty frustrating sometimes...

But just being out on the water "fishing" outweighs the lack of "catching".  (Although, catching is definitely more fun than just fishing.)  

Like last week...we were told about a spot where we had never fished before, where the person who told us about it and his friend had limited out on large Black Drum 2 days in a row.  We scoped out the area on Google Earth, and picked out our areas to go.  It was about an hours' drive to the launch, so we got up before daybreak and headed out.  We launched the boat, got to the area, and started fishing.  It was a great day, although it was kind of windy.  We fished all of the guts (that's what they call dug-out channels here).  No bites.  We fished deep...down to 10 feet deep...No bites.  We fished shallow...about 1 foot of water...No bites.  We fished every depth in between...No bites.  But when we got back to the marina there was a guide taking pictures of his 3 clients and their 12 nice Black Drum!  I asked them how deep they were fishing when they caught their fish, and they told me they were caught in 7 feet of water...we had fished all over that depth, and deeper, and shallower...oh, well...it was a good day "fishing".

I've realized that "finding" is a big part of "fishing" because if you can't find them to fish for them, you can't "catch" them!  And I am becoming convinced that "finding" is the hardest part of fishing.  You have to know a lot about the fish that you want to catch...behavior, feeding habits, general physiology...there's a lot that goes into it.  

Now, the guides know how to find the fish...they know where they'll be on a given day at a given time.  They consider the tides, temperature, wind, location...lots of stuff...and it's because they do this every day.  It's their livelihood...it's how they feed their families...they have to find the fish.

We've had guides tell us exactly where to go, exactly when to be there, and exactly what to use to catch the fish....and we went there, and did what we were told, and didn't get a single bite!  We were even where others were catching fish right next to us!

Maybe you're thinking about now that I'm whining about not "catching" lots of big fish...but I'm not really.  Fishing is fun! (unless you're in the middle of Diamond Lake during a massive Midge hatch, but that's a nightmare for another time)  Even when we're not catching the big ones...although catching the big ones is REALLY fun!

So after reading a bunch of posts on a local fishing page, we decided to go out this last Tuesday for a while.  We were betting that since it's still been cool, the fish we wanted would be kind of deep.  We headed down the ICW to a gut only a few hundred yards away from the marina.  We tossed in our lines and BAM! we started catching fish!  I caught a couple of small Redfish, and Dale caught a keeper Black Drum!  This was our first Black Drum!  We were excited!  He caught another small drum and a small redfish...and just as fast as it started, it ended...we didn't catch any more fish...

I watch tons of videos from pros and great fisher-people, and one consistent theme is that if you are in a spot for over 20 minutes and not getting bites, you need to move to a new spot.  So we moved to a new spot...and...nothing...we moved around a couple more times...and...nothing...But at least we were catching some fish again!

We've also been told that "catching" here during the colder months can be difficult...so I don't feel bad at all...I've talked to people here who have "fished" here all their lives and still don't "catch" much.  I know we'll do better when we come back in October for next winter season...the boat is all set up, we know more techniques, we know more about the behavior of our target fish...

All I can say is...our next season is going to be epic!!

Here's a pic of Dale with his Black Drum...it looks really small in the picture, but it's almost 16"...