There are many small differences that can make or break how successful your fishing trip may be. If you are like most of us, you have a very limited amount of time to fish between work, family and other obligations. Making the most of your time on the water takes planning and a little common sense.
The first step is to make sure you have a plan prior to leaving the dock. Getting in the boat and saying, “ok where should we go today” is probably not the best use of your time. Obviously this plan will need to have some flexibility built into it due to factors like weather, crowds and other things that may be beyond our control.
If you add up all of the time you spend riding and rigging you realize that you lose quite a bit of time you could be fishing. Keeping several rods rigged for what may come up during the day is a good practice. Many mornings in the fall we will start out top-water fishing and then switch to grubs or some other type of fishing when the top-water bite stops. Having a rod already rigged up with whatever we decide the next phase of fishing will be keeps us rolling especially when we are on good fish.
Everything on your boat should have a place. Spending time looking around for your net, pliers or gaff to boat a fish takes time away from fishing and can also be dangerous. Make sure everything is put back into its place when you are done boating a fish and you are ready for the next one. We keep pliers at the bow and stern area of our boat so that there is always a pair within reach.
There are man other things that I could list and many more I have not learned as of yet, but just keeping a mind set that you are going to be efficient will show you ideas of your own. I can tell you from fishing on charters over the years that you can learn plenty from a good Captain because their livelihood depends on happy customers spending their time fishing and catching.
Andy Pickett
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