Goals for the up-coming fishing season….

Each year I try to go into a season with the intent to really work hard at becoming skilled with a broad technique that I feel I’m a little weak on. I try and unearth as many applications for that technique as possible while at the same time figuring out situations and times in the season that this particular presentation really shines… and of course knowing the opposite, when it WON’T work, is just as important.

In past seasons I’ve focused on adding trolling techniques to my arsenal, casting cranks in a variety of situations… rip rap, wingdams, ect., and it wasn’t that long ago that I literally forced myself to embrace artificials for an entire season after I repeatedly caught myself going back to the minnow bucket after some half-hearted attempts at learning to go without livebait. No livebait PERIOD for 12 months?! Boy was that a learning experience I won’t soon forget, but I’m sure glad I did it as I now feel there’s so many situation when livebait is definitely not the ‘go-to’ presentation. I would never have aquired the faith I have in artificials if I had never accepted that personal challenge to go “bait-free” for a year. To be honest, its probably one of the best moves I ever made in my on-going education as angler.

So this season I look to add spinners and bait & spinners and artificials to the list of techniques I really explored for an entire season. Sure, I fish spinners now but I hope to expand what I do and add some new wrinkles to the tool box of tricks. Like split-shotting small spinners, spinners behind boards with both livebait and fake crawlers, spinners on wingdams, small indiana blade spinners pegged above livebait rigs and stickbaits on 3-ways, spinners and snap wieghts (Brett’s weight system has me MAJORLY intrigued!)…. the list is endless.

So, for those of you out there eagerly awaiting the up-coming season, what new technique do you hope to add to you aresenal? There always seems to be an ever growing list of techniques that have merit in at least a few applications so I’m sure there’s at least one that jumps to mind as a “must try” in 2002 for all of us. Its so darn easy to fall into those predictable and comfortable patterns that are the death-sentence to well-rounded anglers.

I’d love to hear about your goals for the new season as well as maybe some stories about your efforts in the past to learn some new tricks to put more fish in the boat.

I agree with the idea of setting goals for ourselves. This year I want to fish bass jigs more and I want to learn how to fish wingdams for bass. I also want to do well and learn alot in my first year of tournament bass fishing.

Wow James, 12 months without live bait?!?! That HAD to take a lot of discipline. My hat is off to you, I don’t think I could do it. Maybe for one season. Maybe I’ll give that a try.

I like your approach to learning new twists. I am still fairly new to ‘eye fishing. Really just got into it the last 2 1/2 years, but I really got the bug bad early last summer casting cranks at wings, rip rap, and other structure. I am hooked for life now! That was my “needs improvement” area for last year. Never really gave casting cranks a shot before then. With the help of some friends, lots of them here, I have a great deal more confidence in the approach than I had a year ago. It has become my definite favorite technique when appropriate!

I plan to experiment much more with trolling applications this year. I am trying to make up for lost time and will be working a lot with 3 ways and cranks, spinner rigged worms and leeches, and have to buckle down and do some real learning on lead core fishing. Lots to bring to the table in one year. Maybe I will have to leave my jig box at home for a while. I have a tendency to fall into that trap you mentioned. With me it is jigging.

I have found that small colorodo spinners in front of a live bait on a straight line work very well on wings. If I need some time to take a break, to re-rig rods, or just to relax with my daughter, we will stop at one of our favorite wings and toss out a couple of rods with in line spinners and live bait behind a barrell sinker. Usually just let them set in the current, moving them closer to the boat every few minutes. Brings me back to my old catfishing days, but sometimes the action is so fast that I don’t ever get my other rods re-rigged! That was my first try at “something new” besides jig fishing a couple years ago, and it has become a favorite for lazy day fishing as well as a go to technique on tough, windy, or slow days. It works!

Sorry so long winded. Let’s here some goals and past experiences from others on the board!

Rooster

Rooster

Honest to gosh, it was an entire season. And the experiment had a very painful beginning, believe me. At first it was miserable…. I couldn’t catch a cold. Then small successes lead to further commitment and experimentation….. which lead to a few more bright moments. My problem was I was struggling with casting jigs to the shallows and I really wasn’t giving cranks a decent chance to work for me. I’d cast shallow for 10-15 minutes and get zeeked and pull the plug on that program and go back to jig/minnows for saugers. I just wasn’t getting any better during those first couple seasons. I learned lead-core inside and out that year during the warmer months and plastics, or at least a good basic working knowledge of how to use plastics, in the cooler months, as well as bladebaits and count down raps. Its to the point now that I have no faith what so ever in minnows in the winter for larger walleye. I hate them! I’ll use them as a last resort if time is short….

Bass Boy,

Tournaments are an awesome learning experience since nearly all of us have a healthy pride and we don’t like to see ourselves beat by anyone! That type of pressure to perform is a good thing as long as a guy remembers to have fun while doing it.

I suppose that every year there’s some de-facto technique that I’m working on more than any other, whether purposefully or not.

Two years ago it would have been plastic wormin’ for bass. Last year there was a pretty good mix between casting spinnerbaits and cranks. I would have to agree that after about 10 or 15 minutes without fish, it’s all too easy to switch back to something you have more confidence in.

Since most of my fishing (of artificials) is for bass, that usually means jig-n-plastic or plastic worm. As far as the walleyes and slimers go, I still need work on reliably finding the fish and making contact – regardless of method.

I would have to say to spend more time on the wingdams as well. I would also like to get better at flippin. Dodge boy said he would give me a hand with that, as long as we are catching minnesota bass as opposed to those wisconny bass, (I call those things bullheads) LOL.

12 months without live bait!!! No sweat, except for ice fishing, but even that can be done.

This year I’m not looking to concentrate on technique as much as I want to explore new areas…..mainly fishing sloughs. I get sick of all the cabin cruisers on the summer days, so I’m getting off the beaten path and looking for fish in areas that I’ve never fished before.

Gonna take along a push-pole, grab my charts and go. Had some great days the past few years fishing sloughs and catching walleyes out of “bass” waters. Even caught some nice eyes pitchin’ spider grubs to laydowns in sloughs with decent current. Looking to expand on that this year.

Beav

I’ve got one major goal for the upcoming season to improve my wingdam fishing. I’m going to try to learn to work the dams better and more efficiently.

A secondary goal is to work on casting cranks, a method I love to use, but have only sporadic success with. Of course, goal #2 fits in with goal #1. How convenient.

Last summer my goal was to use lead and mono for trolling cranks. It worked great. This fall I wanted to use ring worms and that too worked well. This summer I plan to give three ways a big effort, both with cranks and spinners. Using more than one method sure has helped my fishing.

I want to learn every Cat-Fishin hole on pool 2 next summer. Plan on getting down there at least once a week. Now that I have an olive drab, flat bottom jon boat, I’ll actually look like a cat-fisherman!!

J.

Goal-charter with James Holst and learn his three way techniques on the River.

Great topic James. I don’t know where to start on this one. There are so many things I would like accomplish and refine a guy can never be to good ya know! The first time you tell yourself you have learned enough your going to be better off storing the boat for the rest of your angling career.

Early last fall I spent about 2 months basically fishing shallow 6′ of water or less with hair and plastic, no bait. I never really stopped because the fish kept snappin which in return helped make me a better jig fisherman in the shallows. It was a great learning process for me. It gave me a great deal of time to figure out the details per say of what triggers bigger fish in certain depths and water clarity. On most days one of the biggest keys was the size factor, a bait one inch smaller or bigger made all the difference in my results.

This year I am going to try and pattern and tweak my presentations to put a better averge size fish in the boat regardless of presentation. One thing I learned a great deal about pitching the shallows for eye’s last fall was the bait I was using. One bait would catch only 15″ to 20″ fish consistantly and another would get ignored more often than not but when you did hook up it would be a better than average size fish. The same rule applies when 3-way rigging or trolling cranks. There is no majic big fish spot! The bigger fish are right along with the rest of the pack most of the time and a little tweaking and refinement is just what is needed to get them to snap at your offering!

I guess my number one goal for this next year is to catch at least 2- 6lb to 8 lb eye’s on each outing…LOL!!

Do some more cat fishing, that is my goal. I know I’m on the water almost everyday, bass’n, eye’n, and every thing else. By the end of the season Haywood will be a pro at pitchin and flippin, cuz ya know I love doin that.

Yup, refinement of presentation and technique is the difference between 2 fish and 20 fish boated in a given day. Little things…. the increase or decrease in jig weight…. sometimes in increments as small as 1/16 ounce make a huge swing in productivity. Line diameter, color, depth fished….. but I have to say, and this is my opinion and I’d like to hear what others think, the investment in time and effort that eventually pays off the most in both fish caught, size of fish caught, and of course, over-all enjoyment on the water…. is BOAT CONTROL. Being able to stay put when you need to stay put. Controlled drifting. Accurate contour trolling. Speed & depth control. My focus is on those aspects of my presentation FIRST before I change baits or locations.

The old saying “the right lure, fished incorrectly, catches nothing. The wrong lure, fished in the right place, in the correct manner, will catch a fish or two” really rings true.

One of my other goals is to teach Dustin how to take pictures so he doesn’t cut my head off when I’ve just caught a nice fish! That one might take TWO seasons!

I don’t think I will ever get good at pics James. It is hard to give my prize fish to other anglers to get a pic! I am going to keep going the same route I have been. I will keep catching those pigs so know one else in the boat has to let me take their pic….LOL!!!

I guess I should have added the picture thing to my list of goals, but again it comes down to practice. I am going to practice letting other anglers in my boat get the big uns so I can get a little time behind the camera.

All kidding aside, James is right. Boat control is very critical in your presentation. I see a lot of people on the water using a very successfull presentation. The problem is they have no idea how to control the boat and make the potential of the presentation shine through.

The thing that I was most interested in was James talking about using jumbo sized plastics for walleyes in the fall. I have to try this, maybe not just in the fall, but year round and see if and when this works for me. And also I don’t think anyone can know to much about wingdam fishing, there is always something to learn, it seems every wingdam is different.

I think goals are good… but Ive never been much of a planner….. though always have been a good learner… and for me the best teacher is time on the water… I have this great board to give me ideas of things to try…. and all I need is time on the water to check things out…. last year I had precious little time on the water… but I worked on things I learned here….. there are many things I need to work on…. but time on the water will just naturally give me the experience I need to develop my skills……

My ultimate goal is to enjoy myself and have fun…. and everytime Im on the water I achieve that….

in addition to that I want to learn to find fish in areas not being utilized by the masses, and learn tricks and techniques that allow me to catch fish when they are not being caught by most others….. pretty simple goals… but very tough to complete…. a lifetime will not see me satisfied… and this is why I love the challenge of fishing…… its not an easy thing to master….. Ive never met anyone who hung it up because they had nothing left to learn and they had become jaded….

I have gotten several new ideas from this board. My goal for this year will be to try and implement some of them. The two major areas of study will be leadcore on Pepin and 3-ways in the river. Hope to see ya on the water…..B

Good post James. The thing I really want to do this year is just to get out and fish. Sounds simple but, as a parent of two kids growing up and being active, my time on the water is limited. How many of us realize the same thing? I feel like I have given up the last 5 years going to their activities. That is a strong statement but don’t get me wrong, please…it has been terrific. But it gets to a point where you want some time to return to the basics and for me that is fishing. Sounds like I need a psychologist at this point right? Ten years from now my goal will probably be sitting in the boat and wishing that I had a basketball game to go to!!! LOL.

P.S. It would be great to learn how to fish ringworms for walleyes as some of you terrific fisherman do! Beaver.. are you listening?

• Find more fish on the home water (pools 7 and 8). This has been a real challenge the last couple of years for me. Although Ive naturally progressed as an anlger Ive been really frustrated with the home turf results in terms of consistency.
  
• Fish other pools of the Mississippi more often. I think alot can be learned when you get out of your normal surrounding and force yourself to get on a different pool and find fish after all, its still the river just a different location. Plus its exciting to fish where everyone else on this board is from!
  
• Get on some lakes for a change!
  
• Force myself to become more mutli-species oriented. I think the complete angler is the one who understands as much as possible about multiple fish species.
  
• Fish more tournaments than last year.
  
• Fish with other anglers more often. Going out alone is nice and peaceful but you cannot learn near as much unless you have a partner with. And everyone fishes differently and nobody knows it all in spite of whether they think they do or not.
  
• Continue learning not to rely soley on any tactic or location and learn to refine what works and make it better and try to avoid dying on the vine with a presentation, location or technique. Always fine tuning.

My goal is to put up a 100lb plus flathead by august or at least break the existing minnesota and wisconsin flathead records. The fish is out there. Its just a matter of time.

My first goal is to learn to drive the bassboat I just bought!!

I want to learn to find and catch fish in more “non-traditional” spots I guess. For example, last year I started finding bass on sand points and rolling sand flats with no other cover present. I want to find more spots like these that are often overlooked.

As far as techniques, last year I set my sights on using Carolina Rigs and found them to be very useful in some situations, and I learned to catch fish on them. This year I want to learn to use the Drop-shot rig and find river applications for it.

I also want to get to a few inland lakes and give them a try!!

Walk many a “new mile” of stream and river in SE MN! FInd new streams and rivers to explore. Create while continuing to harbor good landowner/fisherman relations. Continue to fish with as many different people as I can!

Add a new lake under my belt. Take someone to some of my favorite spots, who are less apt to get out fishing.

Learn, learn, learn, learn! Share, share, share!!

It would be nice to catch that mongo brown trout I know is waiting or catch and release a 6 pound Root River(system) smallmouth!

Jim W

James, I totally agree with your comment about boat control being a most critical factor. You put on a boat control clinic for my brother and I (and some tournament entrants) last fall and we plan on giving you that opportunity again this year.

I fish the Zumbro and Root rivers quite a bit either by walking or using a canoe, and controlling the canoe and positioning yourself correctly on a stream is a huge factor there as well.

My goal is to slow troll upstream, pulling various 3-way rigs, from the head of the lake to the pool 4 dam at Red Wing. The main channel is about 12 miles long and the back channel is another 8 miles. If I do both sides of the channel that will be a total of about 40 miles. Going .5-1 mph it should take me 5-10 days. On top of that I want to cast jigs and cranks to the same shore lines while drifting down stream . That will take about another 5 days.

I would like to do this during the July-August-September time frame when I typically have a tough time catching fish. I believe I should find some new spots where fish are holding during these months. As I will probably be retiring this summer, it may actually be feasible to accomplish this year assuming the “honey do” list is manageable.

I plan to fish during the week days when the big boat wakes aren’t too bad. I do enjoy company, so anyone reading this is welcome to come along – just let me know when you can make it. My guide fee is $0 – no guarantee of catching anything – no pressure – just enjoying the outdoors and learning a bit more about the river.

Dave Gulczinski

[email protected]

great post guys, this year I would like to get out on the south end of lake pepin and punish some of the wingdams james has told me about.I’ll probably have to re-teach myself jigging again since my double shoulder surgery, but I’m always up to the challenge, I’m also going to force myself to do some crank’in on those wingdams as well.good lord will’in and the creeks don’t rise I’ll have some success!! hairjig

My goals will mainly be learn better boat controll and use of my new electronics.

I will be fishing the west division of the PWT as an amateur to learn as much as possible.

Excellent posts by all…and really got me thinking about it, and I came to the conclusion that I really don’t know squat. What I have learned is,( like James first post on fishing without bait)….. can really work, as Dustin and I spent most of our time on the water this fall throwing ringers and kalins ….Never thinking or even taking bait along with us. The fishing WAS outstanding…I will always feel confident fishing without bait ANYTIME!! As for this years goals …..With James “TYING up my best fishing partener EVER.. my goal is to get into “Another boat” And continue to learn, and expand on the technics Dustin Has taught me!!!! And maybe share some things I have been Taught.

The walleye bug has bit me, now I want…(NEED) to bite back

#1 Spend less ,catch more. Back to basics. For years I never use more than a hair jig,or a jig and twister tail, and actually I miss it.

#2 Get back on my shallow game. I just haven’t spent enough time in the last two years,(except on Winnebago chain, and wing dams), fishing shallow ,6 feet and less. I started again late in the year and it really paid off.It fits well With #1 . Lawrence

James–Watched the opening ceremonies of the winter Olympics tonight. Kind of got me in the mood to go for the gold. So here’s my top 10 list for goals and gold for 2002.Also my top one list for 2003.

10-More time on the water.

9–A lot more time on the water!

8–Figure out new nooks and cranies and out of the way spots on pools 3&4.

7–More time on the water!

6–Learning new presentations and perfecting old ones.

5–More time on the water with new friends from FTR.

4–Quallfy for the RCL Championship.

3–Make the 1st cut in the RCL Championship.

2–Make the 2nd cut in the RCL Championship.

1–Win the RCL!!!! and retire from tournament fishing.

Top One List For 2003

1– RELAX!!!!!!!!—–ON THE WATER OF COURSE!!!!

—-What the H-ll a guy can dream—right?

—Bigeyes are Pigeyes—-Pro V