How will you fish different in 2010?

[cassidyta]

I know that we had a thread on our resolutions, but this one is meant to be solely based on fishing. With the New Year here, I have been doing a lot of thought of how I want to improve my tournament results.
I have come up with three plans that I am hopeful will change the outcome this season. I am not putting these out there to suggest that they will work for me, let alone anyone else, but it is still a plan.
1) Accept my position on the boat.
Since I am a back seater I know that I will seldom get the first cast at the prime spots. Last season I did not alter my fishing to account for this. More than once I found myself tossing the same bait into an area that the front seater had just worked. This season I want to work secondary areas and use different baits than the front seater.
2) Quit being stubborn.
Twice last year I insisted on throwing baits that did not make sense for the conditions. I got too caught up in the "it worked last time" mentality. For me this is probably my biggest deficiency. Fishing off of memories and not conditions.
3) Take less with me.
I know that this one is the most counter-intuitive and sounds as though in is a conflict of number 2, but I really think it will help me. I find that I take so many baits that I am spending more time selecting and changing baits than actually working an area. This is the one item that will likely come back to bite me, but I do feel that that the risk will be outweighed by the reward.
So, what do you all plan to change in how you approach fishing in 2010?

[Captmikestarrett]

No deposit no fishing..

Capt Mike

[BassinID]

Fish more, just fish more.

[WaffleJaw]

I really dont have a different plan on my fishing technique,but a small goal I want to achieve is to hit alot of new waters...Take little weekend camping trips to different lakes around TX....My main goal is to catch a smallie.

[BassinID]

Originally Posted by WaffleJaw

I really dont have a different plan on my fishing technique,but a small goal I want to achieve is to hit alot of new waters...Take little weekend camping trips to different lakes around TX....My main goal is to catch a smallie.

Try throwing natural colored shaky heads and tubes around transitions in rock banks.

[MallenManson]

Originally Posted by BassinID

Fish more, just fish more.

Don't know if it'd be possible for me to fish more than last year, depends on how much work we have. If the work's not there, though, I'll give it my best shot!
Wanna add a few more lakes to my inventory, learn to use a baitcaster and to drop shot.

[WaffleJaw]

Originally Posted by BassinID

Try throwing natural colored shaky heads and tubes around transitions in rock banks.

ahhhhh but you see the lakes must contain the smallies first
The nearest lake to me that contains smallies is 2 hrs away.
Hence the camping trips
But I do appreciate the advice!

[Bender]

Go largemouth fishing on Champlain. Last year I only went a few times and only targeted smallies. And one that is the same every year, power fish more. I did a lot more this year but not enough and not always at the right times. Need to learn when to do it too, i.e. recognize when bass are actively feeding and when they are not.

[bamabassman]

Cass......you have just described the same things i plan on doing as well. Except for the back seat thing. I don't tourny fish, but the other items are almost dead on with me. Of course i "plan" on fishing more this year. I just hope that all goes well enough for me to go more this year, the way the economy is going there may be fewer trips due to lack of funds. We'll just have to see.

[MallenManson]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

Cass......you have just described the same things i plan on doing as well. Except for the back seat thing. I don't tourny fish, but the other items are almost dead on with me. Of course i "plan" on fishing more this year. I just hope that all goes well enough for me to go more this year, the way the economy is going there may be fewer trips due to lack of funds. We'll just have to see.

With me, the worse the economy is, the more time I can fish.
By the way, I forgot to add something to my list. Go fishin' with bama and push him out of the boat when he's holdin' his cell phone....

[Bubba_Bruiser]

I am going to concentrate more on cranking and pitching and flipping. I feel like I had a good year with my goal of fishing bigger waters and catching fish. I only had 1 scratch trip. And with the help of Waffle, I plan on completing my first rod build soon.

[TN_Bassin]

I find it better not to have expectations because I will most likely not adhere to them. But if I was going to try something different it would be not fish more, not catch more fish, not break 1500 fish at the end of the year.

[Abbeysdad]

- fish more, work less.
- catch more fish.

and then I woke up

[brushhog]

I need to vary my presentations, and try the things I usually stay away from because I'm not good at them...

I would also like to change up my locations and fish some different spots.

[keysd13]

I want to become better at cranking deep structure.

[danielbasspro]

I'm gonna focus on throwing spoons and working on my flippin and pitchin technique

[woody]

I plan on finding and targeting more offshore structure this year.


-Mark

[BassinID]

Originally Posted by WaffleJaw

ahhhhh but you see the lakes must contain the smallies first
The nearest lake to me that contains smallies is 2 hrs away.
Hence the camping trips
But I do appreciate the advice!

The nearest lake to me is 2hrs away, but alas, I still fish it, the gas just costs a fortune.

[nofearengineer]

I will fish with a partner a LOT more.

I finally reconnected with an old buddy, and found out he likes fishing as much as I do. He's divorced, so he likes to stay out 14 hours at a time too.

[MallenManson]

Originally Posted by BassinID

The nearest lake to me is 2hrs away, but alas, I still fish it, the gas just costs a fortune.

That stinks. There's a great smallie lake about 15 minutes from me.

[BigBassin144]

After my first jig fish in 2009, I'm definately going to work on jig fishing. And I'd also like to get better at the dropshot.

Other than that, I'd like to fish more often, try some new places, and fish with some new people.

BB

[BassinID]

Originally Posted by BigBassin144

After my first jig fish in 2009, I'm definately going to work on jig fishing. And I'd also like to get better at the dropshot.

Other than that, I'd like to fish more often, try some new places, and fish with some new people.

BB

What really took my jig fishing to a proficient level was getting my jig to fall vertically. In shallow water (ie less than your rod length) just feed the rod tip to the bait at the rate of fall, in deep water use an open bail and feel it down with your thumb. doing this took me from maby a fish a day on this technique to killing them when conditions were right. Now my pb is on a jig