Nice thing about fishing - there's always something new to learn

I fished with someone today I'd rather not fish with again and it all comes down to boater consideration for his partner while fishing. I told him once before the only way I was fishing from his boat is if I run the trolling motor and I'm able to choose different areas of the lake I know that have potential this time of year. Early in May we caught close to 200 fish in areas I knew had good potential for many fish species.

Granted, today we caught over 84 fish between us in less than 3 hours, but I was bored early on catching mostly dink crappie, anchored in 6'. I was forced to go to a heavier jig weight because he was fishing areas in front of the boat I couldn't reach with 1/24 oz. jig
My rule of thumb: once I find fish in one direction, I make sure the boat is broadside to those fish so both of us have shots. Plus, I move the boat closer to where fish were caught and then anchor so I don't have to make long casts.

He promised before we went out that he would try north and south ends and at different depth less than 6'. He reneged. He never watches the sonar and doesn't have a clue what's beneath the boat (baitfish, humps, game fish.) We stayed in the northwest near emerging pads. (Early on I got a 6" swimbait cut off by a large pickerel and lost a large bass on a tandem-blade spinnerbait.) Blindly casting is not my thing and both of those fish were in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say, I won't fish with him again or share info such as where I caught fish and other details on this particular lake.

I was forced to relearn that a 1/16 oz jig & plastic lure does better for covering water on long casts and in water over 6' attached to a Ribbon Tail (c.t.)grub that did well. I was reminded that he tires easily in the warm sun and wanted off the lake by 11 am. I would have stayed until 4pm and those numbers would have been much higher.

Can make for some tough times.

One reason I like bank fishing .

So you are saying the guy you fish with and might be your friend has less knowledge than you and you wanna be captain on his boat. He didn’t listen and made you suffered now you are here ranting about your unfortunate? Getting more catching 84 dinks?

First off, he's not a friend. 2nd, much of what he knows, I taught him. We differ in many ways when it comes to finding fish - especially a variety of sizes and species. Last time I took a true friend fishing this lake, we caught 148 fish that included better size crappie, yellow and white perch, bass, pickerel and sunfish - many schooled up.

This guy knows that once I find fish, I anchor until the bite stops then repeat as many times as needed. Covering more territory in a 50 yd. area for a variety of fish in a variety of structure types, is something he can't appreciate though I've tried. Soon he will have more days where finding fish will be much harder on this 20'-deep, mostly flat bottom, 5 mi. long, 2 mi. wide lowland lake.

If he didn't promise beforehand to fish my way, he knew I was going to fish another lake by myself today. He's done this before and it's not going to happen a third time. Should be interesting to see how soon he pumps me for information in June after seeing my truck and trailer parked. He took another angler fishing and did well last weekend - most likely catching dinks and not giving a crap about patterns.
Pattern fishing is my bread & butter and a challenge finding in any water I fish. His hit-or-miss locations are fine if they exist from one week to the next, which he counted on today. But patterns change and pounding areas that don't contain fish (like working the same areas today) amounts to casting practice and little else. I use a variety of lures on the surface to the bottom, not just panfish lures on light jigs, and do well much of the time. He hasn't learned those yet and doubtful he will showing no curiousity of what I used to catch today's monsters.

BTW, bank fishing is out for this lake seeing as the entire east shore has homes as does half the southwest shore; the north and south ends are wetlands with large flats with pads that come out a ways.

It's 3:30 pm and hot with little wind. I would have left earlier for sure. Give me a cloudy day any day!

Just a heads up, keep it calm, non-divisive and friendly. If this gets out of hand I will shut it down. Thank you

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Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie

Just a heads up, keep it calm, non-divisive and friendly. If this gets out of hand I will shut it down. Thank you

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You probably ought to shut it down. What I and a few others would like to say is probably why you gave the warning.

The 78 y.o. gent I fished with yesterday and I caught 73 fish from 11:30 am - 3 pm under a bright sun. He and I fished before and it is always memorable. He knows I go out of my way to give him room to cast to areas I sense hold fish and sure enough he caught fish that revealed good areas in the pads. Granted, most were sunnies, yellow and white perch, a few bass and crappie caught in 4' or less, but the fights were strong on our light action rods!

The wind was less than 15 mph and boat position corrections kept me busy keeping exactly in spots that had high potential for both of us. Once fish were found - I ANCHORED. I must have anchored 40 times and my arm and shoulder ached from pulling that 15 lb anchor into the boat! The comparison with the other dude's handling of the boat is obvious and where anchoring was rare. My suggestions were ignored and he may just as well have been fishing by himself.

Fishing-as-team goes back decades when I fished bass club tournaments. Granted, we were in competition for year-end total weight, but all partners - boater and nonboater - worked to find patterns which included calling out depths seen on the sonar and the presence of fish. This way the partner who couldn't see the screen knew what to use and where to cast it (depth).

The other nice thing was that my partner yesterday was willing to try different suggestions that most of the time proved fish catchers.
example: he has a hard time tying a uni-knot so I attached a clip/swivel to his line. No problem catching fish even using 1/32 oz jigheads.

example: we both lost lures to pickerel so I gave him a thin wire leader attached to the clip - and again - no problem catching fish.

example: he had forgotten the small tackle box I given him that held my homemade lures that did so well the last time we fished. I always keep more than on board - enough to give to my partner when I'm catching fish and he isn't. Plus, that always helps me take note of all of the lure designs that do well and that I will always want to keep supplied on board. In fact, at timesI would swap rods with him after catching more fish and he would then catch as many if not more than me. Confidence in what you're casting is as important as what you're throwing.

The above is about fishing ettiquette, mutual cooperation towards the goal of catching fish AS ONE UNIT, experiementing so BOTH of us can learn and discover new things and be able to congratulate the other when nice size fish and good totals are caught.

Food for thought.