Back to the Basics

[ttb31183]

I made a solo trip to Newman Lake yesterday and while I didn't light them up, it was a fun experience. I am in between boats right now and my cousin is away to college, so I have use of his aluminum boat. It's a much different vessel than the bass boat I had and it really made me go back to the basics and how I started out fishing without the modern technologies I am so reliant on now.

Instead of having two 12" Lowrance units with Navionics cards, I had one small unit to look at. It reads the depth and temperature and I actually only turned it on when I started...just to see if it worked. Instead of watching my graphs all day, I just went fishing and had fun. It was an interesting change from how I normally fish.

Another big difference was the size of the engine. I went from a 225hp to a 40hp and I also lost about 60lb thrust in the trolling motor. But, you know what? I still caught fish.



I never caught a "picture worthy" bass, but had quite a few one to two pound fish on a variety of baits. I caught them on Ned Rigs, crankbaits, a ChatterBait, and a football jig. My best success was by pitching a jig to big, long community docks with several slips on them. Like the one shown. I still had my Navionics app handy just to look. I couldn't completely check out on technology.

[Scott Robertson]

when I get stressed I only look at the unit for depth and go back to finding fish the way we used to.
a lot to be said for gut feeling versus new electronics
good luck.
scott