Never Stop Learning

Last year I got an idea: I needed to learn how to catch largemouth bass! I didn’t know anything about catching largemouths. When I was a kid I had caught one with a worm but that was the only thing I knew about catching largemouth bass. That’s when I decided that I was going to learn to catch largemouths! I began my research. I researched types of bait and tackle. I researched types of waterways where I could find them. I researched their senses and what they were attracted to. I drove around and looked for places that had what my research was talking about. I looked for water with little or no movement. I looked for mossy ponds and canals, I looked for logs and objects in the water where they could hide. I searched for weeds and lily pads where they could hunt. I was a man obsessed with bucket mouths! 

One day on a random detour when a road that I frequent was under construction, I found what I believed to be a bass fishing hole. I would never be sure until I tried it out so I went. I rigged up my line with a Cotton Cordell fancy shad pattern crankbait and I took to the water. Cast after cast made me doubt my research until finally I felt weight at the end of the line. That was when I caught my first intentional bass. in fact, it was a smallmouth bass and I wondered the difference between  a largemouth and a smallmouth when all of a sudden, snap! I hooked into a largemouth!

That turned into an addiction to catching Largemouth bass and now, well, I catch Lunkers like this one!

 Lol But I haven’t arrived at a point of satisfaction yet. If after my first Largemouth or my first lunker or my first full stringer I would have just stopped learning then I would have limited myself to just a few bass, instead my intention is not only to learn one method but many methods, and not only to learn to catch one type of bass but all kinds. So heres the jist folks: NEVER STOP LEARNING! Never stop being a student. Never stop researching or asking others about their methods. Never become an expert and THAT is what will make you a great fisherman! 

This year my goal is to learn to catch me some Salmon! And catch them I will! Any tips on catching salmon?