Lessons from Memorial Day weekend:
-Be nice to yourself when fishing with me. You will hook trees, stumps, rocks, logs, weeds, etc. If we are not getting stuck we most likely will not be catching consistent fish.
-Practice casting at home prior to our trip. The better you cast the more fish you will catch.
-With topwater fishing it is easy to freeze when a fish crashes your popper. If you pop with your rod tip down you will get a stronger hook set going from down to up, rather than up to pulling back.
-Remember-After setting the hook continue to reel. I’ve seen many a fish come off from forgetting to reel after setting the hook.
-Keeping the tip up will allow the rod to fight the fish for you!
-Try and remember to stop reeling about 5’ from the boat. I’ve seen a few people try, unsuccessfully, to reel a Smallmouth through the eyelet of their rod!
-When casting top water be ready to set the hook prior to your first pop as sometimes Smalmouth will slurp your lure down right as it hits the water.
-Always let your popper sit for a second(some say wait until the rings go away but I think that is a little much)
-The First pop is important. Reel in the slack out of your line, (without moving the popper) and then do one small pop. Let is sit, small pop, let is sit, small pop. As the season and water heats up you can increase your retrieval speed and pop size.
-Catch and Release works. How fun is it to know if you cast fairly well you can boat over 20 fish a trip. Heck, I paid 700.00 in Florida and didn’t catch a thing. Heck, we only even saw 3 fish to cast to all day. I’m not making any promises but I will tell you I fish enough to know where the likely holding spots are.
-Steady weather equals consistent fishing. Weather was sunny and 90 all weekend and fishing was just as hot.