When you look at what are considered the best anglers, they seem to constantly be on fish regardless of the weather pattern, time of year, or other conditions at play. Much of this is time on the water, but along with that is the understanding of how fish are going to react to certain situations.
Part One: Patterning the Unpatternable – Mapping Fish on the Missouri River
I’m fortunate to spend a lot of time on the water, and that’s given me the opportunity to really build and expand on the patterns I find year in and year out. There are several days that I head out on the water and frankly have no idea if I’m going to catch fish, but I’m going to try a certain area, technique, or idea I have in my head and see if it produces. Personally, I really enjoy this whether I catch fish or not. This is because I know I’m going to learn something that will help me catch more fish in the future.
When I was in high school and college, my notes were all compiled in composition notebooks. I made entries/logs of every day/outing I had on the water that included the time fished, weather conditions, water conditions, number of fish I caught by species and size of fish I was targeting. I would then tabulate this in a table by waterbody that included my number of outings, hours fished, total walleye caught, total keeper walleye caught, and total “overs” caught as well as my biggest fish.
This helped me identify my best waterbodies, where I spent the bulk of my time, and also gave me an idea of the type of fisheries each waterbody was. In addition to this, I also would make special tables based on the size, type, and color of crankbait . This allowed me to maximize my shopping, and focus my efforts based on water and weather conditions to ensure I always had the best bait for the situation tied on and ready to go.
Now in the interest of transparency, I wasn’t exactly the best student. This is because while it looked like I was taking notes in class ….well I was…but it was on the outing I had the night before or that morning. For any of my professors at South Dakota State University that may be reading this, I apologize, but if it helps it was mostly in my general classes I did this!
After college, and even more so recently, my notes have become more open source. My weekly fishing reports, tactical articles, and YouTube videos have replaced the composition notebook logs and tables.
One great example of this would be Blue Vs Purple, Does Color Matter for Trolling Crankbaits? My goal was not to catch as many fish as possible, but see if any trends emerged. I’d never put together a true “study” on this, normally just a log of what baits caught what fish throughout the season, which was often heavily biased because if I was catching fish I wasn’t taking a bait off!
Another example would be Locating and Patterning Lake Oahe Summer Walleye. Lake Oahe is both a structure angler’s dream and nightmare, with so much good looking structure to fish where does one begin? Well, I normally find myself fishing the same areas and points year in and year out if they’re at all productive. This was a way to push myself and try new areas, which resulted in me gaining both confidence in my abilities to dissect structure and find new confidence areas.
The more you challenge yourself like this, the more you are going to learn. You’re going to find patterns that emerge, these may be consistent year in and year out or they may be a unique pattern for that particular season you can enjoy.
One example of this would be Fishing the Notebook for Post-Spawn Walleye. In 2023, I had an unreal two week stretch that saw me catch two 27 inch walleyes, a 24 incher, and several between 17-20 inches. I found that post-spawn female walleyes were suspended in 10-15 feet of water over 25-30 feet and they were keying on larger minnow-style baits.
Each year since I have tried to emulate this pattern and failed. Whether this was a cohort of larger fish that have since left the population, a unique circumstance with forage that had fish in this position, or some other environmental factor I have yet to piece together I haven’t been able to put these puzzle pieces together again. That said, each year I give it a try, because I know if I can emulate the pattern the reward is going to be incredible!
Other times it’s hard for me to break my routine, and it takes an outside source to challenge me. A great example of this would be Lake Erie Meets Lake Sharpe: Mixing It Up for Mid-Summer Walleye, when Tom Sieburg shared how he uses torpedoes and spoons to target fish in the stilling basin on Lake Sharpe. These were both baits and a technique I never would have considered trying, nor been able to implement myself if I did.
When it comes to finding success fishing, especially consistent success, there is no substitute for time on the water. Again, I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time on the water, but throughout this time I’ve learned that we have to be willing to challenge ourselves on the water too.
Fishing the same areas with the same baits over and over again will likely help you catch fish. There is no substitute for confidence on the water, but even greater confidence comes when you’re confident enough to fail. Learn where the fish are, where they aren’t, what baits work in what situations, what baits don’t, and put the pattern together from there.
You’re going to find that when you catch fish in a new area or on a new bait, or when you stumble upon a pattern you never thought may work, the reward will be that much greater. At least it is for me.
