What We Should Have Done

How many times on the way home from a fishing trip — whether it be just for fun, a guide trip, or a tournament — have you told yourself we should have done such and such? I know I do this a lot. I think part of it for me is laziness and the difficulty in trying new areas and techniques.

On the way home from Truman all I could think about was the ledges outside of the creek mouth that were full of timber and completely loaded with Shad. It would have taken some time to figure out how to go about catching crappie in that large of an area, and finding the right depth would have been a chore.

So we felt comfortable fishing the stake beds inside the creek and doing what we are used to. The teams that win tournaments have the ability to step out of comfort zone and change things up in order to win or fail miserably. When you try new things there is a chance that you will strike out and that is very much OK.

Big fish will tend to follow bait and not just hang out in cover, I knew that and chose to keep on doing the safe thing. Don’t get me wrong — we did catch good fish, but I believe the numbers of monsters were chasing bait on channel ledges.

How many of you can remember doing the wrong thing all day and afraid to try something different that may be difficult or take time to nail down?

Life is about trying, failing and moving forward. Catching crappie is the same; you have to step out of comfort zone and try that new area of lake or new way of fishing. Next time you’re on the lake, try that new way of fishing that you will talk about on the way home. And remember, try out our top-of-the-line crappie fishing rods if you’re looking for a new tool. Thank you and remember to take those kids fishing.