tip o' the week

[madscientist]

Since its come up in another thread, I thought I'd offer my little tips for how to fish with a crowd or even poach a spot without looking like it. It's all about figuring the drift. Once you see the guy/crowd who's spot you wish to fish, or who is on your spot, simply paddle 100yds updrift of them and begin fishing. This way you do not intrude upon anothers space, but in a couple of minutes you will have drifted over the exact spots they were on.

The same goes when someone hooks up. Unless I'm playing photobeyatch, I immediately paddle AWAY from the lucky angler, preferably up drift. On crowded days, it often looks like little kids playing soccer, all racing to the ball, but the better move is to again head up drift a couple hundred yards of where you see the bendo. This way you are well clear in case you hook up and won't have to make a panicked move or emergency reel in if the angler's fish tows him at you. In my experience, YT are not like dorado or other fish that hang with the hooked one, though I don't think they are particularly spooked either.

As I learned from among others, the best fishing is often well away from the pack. If the herd is hooking up in 95ft, then you probably have as good a shot in 95ft 300 yards away as you would in the middle of the crowd. And often there are fish to be caught in completely different spots or in a larger radius. I remember last year during the WFO WSB bite the herd actually drifted a good quarter mile or more while catching fish, so even though it looked like we were on a "spot" we were actually just drifting as a group and the fish were all over the place. The only way you develop fishing instincts it to start going with your own gut, knowing that even the best guys zig when they should have zagged as often as not.

Finally, just because someone is sitting on a spot or frantically paddling out to deeper water doesn't mean they know what they are doing or are headed to a hot number. They might be chatting on the phone, eating a sandwich, lighting the grill, or desperately trying to find some privacy so they can take the explosive crap that has made their morning a living hell (right shortfin?). Personally, if I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't be putting in more than 40hrs OTW per fish this year.