Brief Summary
This video explores ten common fishing mistakes that prevent anglers from catching more fish. The narrator emphasizes the importance of understanding the tools used for fishing, particularly focusing on floats as essential instruments rather than just bobbers. Each chapter provides insights related to common errors and technological solutions associated with fishing techniques, using historical examples, scientific explanations, and practical tips.
- Understanding the difference between a float and a bobber is crucial.
- Proper use of weights and maintaining the right depth can significantly improve fish detection.
The chapter introduces the concept of floats as instruments for reading fish activity, referencing two fishermen at the same pond who experience different outcomes due to their equipment choices. The first man fails to catch fish, attributing it to luck, while the second is successful because he uses a tool that reads signals from the fish below the surface.
In this segment, the narrator contrasts the experiences of two men fishing from the same bank. One comes home with a dry net, while the other catches several fish. The key difference lies in their equipment and their ability to read the signals from the water.
The scene is set on a gray morning at a familiar pond where both fishermen encounter similar conditions yet yield different results. The success of the second fisherman is attributed to his understanding of the equipment and the behavior of fish.
This chapter describes the bream swimming past lily pads, with one fisherman struggling to connect while the other continues to reel in fish, highlighting the need for an effective fishing strategy and the importance of equipment that can pick up subtle signals.
One fisherman leaves empty-handed, illustrating the failure to adapt and use the right tools for the fishing environment. His experience captures a typical frustration for many anglers who rely solely on luck.
The unsuccessful fisherman shares a story about how fish were simply "not biting," reflecting a common misconception among anglers that their lack of catch is out of their control.
Contrasting the first man’s experience, the other fisherman continues to catch fish due to his proficiency with the fishing tools.
The narrator details how the successful fisherman catches multiple fish while the other man struggles, underscoring that it isn't luck but rather skill and equipment that leads to success.
The chapter emphasizes the significance of detecting clean bites and how improper equipment can hinder this process. The narrator explains how understanding the signals fish send can adjust the angler's strategy.
The common belief in luck within fishing is discussed, challenging this notion by attributing success to knowledge and skill in recognizing fish behavior.
One skilled fisherman can read the faint signals from fish due to his choice of a suitable float that works effectively, unlike his counterpart who misreads the situation.
The focus shifts to the concept of signals traveling through the line from the fish to the angler, which is paramount in successful fishing. The discussion highlights the need for proper equipment to detect these subtle signals.
The chapter compares the signals from fish to faint fingerprints, underscoring their delicate nature and how careful fishing techniques allow anglers to detect these signals.
The responsible fisherman is equipped with the right gear to interpret the signals from fish. The difference in tools directly affects the outcome of their fishing experiences.
In contrast, the other man uses a basic bobber, which does not provide critical feedback from the fish, leading to missed opportunities.
The narrator shares his background in making fishing floats and emphasizes the artistry and precision required to craft tools that can effectively read the fishing signals.
He describes the materials used in crafting these tools, highlighting the importance of choosing the right components for effective float performance.
The method of testing the floats in water is discussed, illustrating how proper calibration is essential for functionality in the field.
The chapter explains how a well-constructed float should barely show above the water, which can enhance sensitivity to fish movements.
The narrator shares key insights gained from his experience, primarily focusing on the misconceptions surrounding fishing equipment.
He points out that commercial tackle manufacturers often fail to educate anglers about the true nature of floats and their significance in fishing.
In this chapter, the narrator clarifies the distinction between floats and bobbers, suggesting that floats are instruments vital for success in fishing.
This section solidifies the analogy of floats as instruments, which measure fish activity. Understanding this can enhance an angler's toolkit.
The conversation shifts to how a float is essentially reading signals from fish that are far beneath the surface, linking distance to fishing success.
The historical perspective discusses how the tackle industry has shifted focus away from effective tools to more simplistic options, diminishing the quality of fishing experiences.
The discussion centers on how the fishing industry has simplified gear and inadvertently removed essential fishing knowledge from everyday anglers.
The replacement of advanced fishing tools with simplistic bobbers is critiqued, noting the significant loss in efficacy for anglers.
The term "simple" reflects the oversimplification of fishing equipment that has led to decreased catch rates among anglers.
The narrator starkly calls out the simplification of fishing tools as detrimental to angling success, highlighting the loss of effective communication with the fish.
He promises to guide viewers through ten mistakes that lead to ineffective fishing practices, providing a comprehensive overview of each.
The narrator emphasizes that many fishing failures stem from anglers being unable to properly interpret the signs from fish due to poor technique or equipment.
This section indicates that each failure contributes to a greater inability to catch fish, underscoring the complexity of effective fishing practices.
The focus here is shifted onto the methods and tools used by the angler, asserting that understanding equipment is significantly more important than mere fishing skill.
Effective fishing is deeply connected to how well the equipment can transmit signs from the fish, emphasizing the need for device sensitivity.
The narrator begins outlining the specific mistakes anglers make when fishing, starting from the basic setup with floats.
He encourages viewers to examine any float they use, setting the stage for a breakdown of effective versus ineffective floats while emphasizing their critical role in readings.
The visibility of a float above water is crucial for understanding how effectively it transmits signals from fish, recommending minimal tip exposure.
This chapter discusses how a float that rides too high results in a poor fishing experience, equating it to a fish trying to drag a heavy object underwater.
The feelings and experiences of fish when dealing with a poorly balanced float setup are analyzed, stressing the need for proper balance.
This vivid comparison illustrates how heavy floats deter fish from biting since they struggle against unmanageable weight.
This section highlights the mechanics of how fish interact with bait and the challenges they face when encountering an improperly set float.
The narrator asks viewers to visualize the ideal balance a float should maintain while in the water, reinforcing the need for sensitivity in fishing tools.
A properly balanced float serves as an effective indicator of fish activity and should hover just beneath the surface, allowing anglers to detect even the smallest bites.
The focus is on establishing an optimal float setup for better fish communication, emphasizing the balance necessary for effective fish tracking.
This section provides practical advice on adding small weights to ensure the float remains positioned correctly under the water.
The technique of adjusting weights is more elaborated upon to help the float integrate into the water, allowing for better sensitivity and communication with fish.
The ideal setup has only a small part of the float above the water, ensuring the angler can detect subtle movements and bites easily.
The last bit of the float that remains above the water offers the perfect balance for receiving signals from fish, enhancing fishing success.
With the right float position, even the smallest nibble will register, highlighting the importance of sensitivity in float setup.
Fishing success heavily relies on minimal resistance caused by a properly calibrated float setup.
When the setup is right, even the faintest tug from a fish is easily detectable, increasing the chances of hooking the fish.
The angler's ability to detect movement on the line is largely dependent on the float's sensitivity to shifts caused by fish pulling or nibbling.
An effective float acts as a communicator between the angler and the fish, enhancing the fishing experience by allowing for a better understanding of fish behavior.
Setting the float body too high complicates fishing, leading to missed catches since resistance makes fish easily escape.
When a float is set too high, fish become deterred by the resistance they experience, often rejecting the bait with little chance for a catch.
The frustration of missed opportunities is discussed, stressing how crucial the float setup is to register all potential catches.
The anticipation of catching a fish that turns into disappointment reveals the operational failures of floats when they're not adjusted correctly.
Here, the narrator reflects on how disheartening it can feel to assume fish are absent when the reality may simply be ineffective tools being used.
The chapter emphasizes that often fish do bite, but due to a poor float strategy, the angler never connects.
The limitations of a basic bobber instead of an effective float lead to miscommunication between fish behavior and the angler’s perception.
The first mistake, using a float that rides too high, creates a foundation for further inefficacies in fishing techniques.
This portion re-emphasizes the critical need for floats to sit submerged to effectively communicate with the fish beneath.
The importance of proper weight adjustment is reiterated, encouraging viewers to keep floats positioned suitably low.
This chapter identifies a common mistake with weight management and how improper placement can lead to fewer successful catches.
Anglers often lump weights too close to the hook, creating rigidity that prevents fish from effectively biting the bait.
Placing weights directly above the hook creates a physical deterrent for cautious fish, resulting in missed connections.
This chapter
Transcript
Full transcript of “Why Your Float Isn’t Triggering Bites: 10 Mistakes That Are Costing You Fish”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 Section 1 The Needle On The Gauge Two Men Fish The Same Bank Same Pond Same Gray Morning Same Bream Rolling Out Past The Lily Pads One Of Them Goes Home With A Dry Net And A Story About How The Fish Just Weren'T Having It The Other One Is Unhooking His Fifth Fish Before The First Man Gets A Single Clean Bite People Love To Call That Luck It Isn'T The Second Man Is Reading Something The First Man Cannot See There'S A Signal Coming Up That Line Faint As A Fingerprint Pressed On Glass And One Of These Men Is Holding A Tool That Reads It And The Other Is Holding A Painted Cork That Doesn'T
0:46 I Make Floats Have Done Most Of My Life I Shape Them Out Of Balsa And Goose Quill And Reed I Sink Them In A Glass Tube Of Water On My Bench Until Only A Thread Of The Tip Shows And Along The Way I Learned One Thing The Tackle Wall At Your Local Store Will Never Print On A Package A Float Is Not A Bobber A Float Is An Instrument It Is The Needle On A Gauge And The Gauge Is Reading The Mouth Of A Fish 40 Feet Away In The Dark Somewhere Back Down The Years The Tackle Trade Quietly Took That Instrument Out Of American Hands And Slid A Red And White Plastic Ball Across The Counter Instead They Called It Simple
1:32 What It Really Is Is Death And Over The Next 20 Minutes I'M Going To Walk You Through The 10 Ways That Deafness Bleeds Fish Off Your Hook One Dead Signal At A Time Because Almost None Of This Is About The Fish It'S About Whether The Thing On Your Line Can Still Hear Them Let'S Start Where The Signal Dies First Pick Up A Float Any Float Look At How Much Of It Stands Above The Water When It'S Working If You'Ve Got 2 Or 3 Inches Of Fat Plastic Riding The Surface Here'S What That Feels Like On The Other End It Feels Like A Fish Being Asked To Drag A Basketball Under The Water Using Nothing But Its Lips Picture A Swimmer Treading Water
2:19 Perfectly Balanced Neither Sinking Nor Floating Up That Is What Your Float Should Be Pinch On Tiny Split Shot Until The Whole Body Settles Under The Surface And Only A Sliver Of Tip Is Left Showing Like The Last Quarter Inch Of A Pencil Standing Up Out Of The Lake Now When A Fish So Much As Breathes On Your Bait There Is Almost Nothing Holding That Tip Up So The Smallest Pull Shows The Tip Dives Or It Lifts Or It Slides Off Sideways It Talks To You Leave The Body Riding High And The Float Fights The Fish For You The Fish Lifts The Bait Feels A Dead Weight Shoving Back Up At It
3:05 And Drops It Before Your Tip Ever Twitches You Sit There Sure That Nothing'S Happening A Good Fish Just Tasted Your Hook And Spat It Back And The Painted Cork Never Said A Word That Is Mistake No. 1 And Everything Else Is Built On Top Of It The Body Never Rides High Sink It To The Tip Mistake No. 2 Is One Step Down The Line In Your Weights Most Folks Squeeze All Their Shot Into One Fat Lump Right Above The Hook To A Careful Fish That'S Biting A Worm And Finding It Bolted To An Anchor It Lifts Feels The Slab Of Lead And Leaves Quietly The Old Matchman Cracked This More Than 100 Years Ago
3:53 And One Man In Particular Carried It The Furthest Richard Walker The Angler The English Still Call The Father Of The Modern Sport In September Of 1952 Walker Lifted A 44 Pound Carp Out Of A Little Three Acre Pool Called Redmire And It Beat The British Record By Nearly 13 Pounds And Stood For Almost 30 Years They Named Her Clarissa And Kept Her In The London Zoo Aquarium Where A Whole Generation Pressed Their Faces Against The Glass But The Fish Isn'T The Part That Matters To Us What Matters Is That Walker Thought Like An Engineer He Built The First Electronic Bite Alarms
4:38 He Treated Catching A Fish As A Signal Problem To Be Solved And The Solution Starts With How You Hang Your Weight Instead Of One Lump You Spread The Shot Down The Line Like Buttons Down A Shirt Front The Larger Ones Up Near The Float The Smaller Ones Tapering Toward The Hook The Bait Sinks Slow And Natural Now The Way A Dying Insect Really Falls Through The Water Then Comes The Move The Plastic Ball Crowd Never Learned You Set One Shot The Smallest You Own Just A Few Inches From The Hook The Telltale When A Fish Lifts The Bait Off The Bottom It Raises Only That One Feather Light Shot Feels Nothing Worth Worrying About
5:23 And Holds On Up Top The Float Rises And Lies Flat A Lift Bite The Cleanest Signal In All Of Fishing And A Fat Bobber Physically Cannot Show It To You Sink The Float Spread The Weight Two Down The Next Mistake Is Sitting In Your Tackle Box Right Now Pretending To Be One Tool When It'S Really Five Walk Into A Big Box Store And Somebody Will Hand You A Clamshell Of Round Red And White Bobbers And Tell You You'Re Set For Anything Glass Pond Running River Windy Lake All The Same Ball That Isn'T Advice That'S A Company That Would Rather Sell You One Cheap Thing
6:09 Than Teach You Three Right Ones A Float'S Shape Is A Job Description Change The Water You Change The Tool That Is Mistake No. 3 And Almost Everybody Makes It On A Flat Glassy Pond With No Wind You Want Something Thin A Long Slim Float With A Wire Fine Tip What The Old Course Anglers Call A Waggler It Slips In With No Splash Stands Dead Vertical And Shows You A Bite So Small You'D Swear The Fish Only Thought About It Take That Same Skinny Float To A River With Current Though And The Moving Water Drags It Under And Bounces It On Every Ripple Until You Can'T Tell A Bite From A Wave
6:56 On Current You Want A Float With A Fat Shoulder And A Long Weighted Stem An Avon Or A Stick Float Pinned To The Line Top And Bottom So The Current Can'T Pull It Off Its Line It Holds Its Lane It Lets You Slow The Bait And Ride It Through The Current The Way A Real Morsel Tumbles Along The Floor Glass Calm Water Thin And Small Wind And Chop A Stable Body With A Long Stem Current A Stemmed Float Locked Top And Bottom Match The Tool To The Water Or The Water Wins Every Time Mistake No. 4 Is The Quiet One Because You Cannot See It At All You Can Do Everything So Far Perfectly
7:42 And Still Hang Your Bait In Dead Empty Water Most Of The Fish We Chase On A Float Feed Down Low Bass Holding Tight To The Bottom Crappie Stacked On A Brush Pile Bluegill Carp Rooting Through The Silt Catfish Nosing Along The Floor A Carp Is Practically A Bottom Feeding Machine If Your Bait Is Dangling 3 Feet Up In The Water Those Fish Cruise Right Under It And Never Glance Up You'Re Running A Buffet That'S Bolted To The Ceiling Here Is How The Old Hands Fix It And It Costs Nothing You Clip A Small Weight A Plummet Onto Your Hook And Lower It Down Then You Slide The Float Up The Line Until The Tip Just Barely Shows
8:28 That Reads You The Exact Depth So When You Take The Plummet Off The Bait Rests Right On The Bottom Where The Fish Actually Live There'S Even A Trap Hidden Inside That Trap On A Soft Muddy Bottom A Heavy Plummet Drives Down Into The Muck And Lies To You And Your Bait Ends Up Buried In The Goo Where Nothing Can Find It So You Go Light And Let It Settle On Top Of The Silt Read The Floor Before You Fish It Sink The Float Spread The Weight Match The Shape Find The Bottom 4 Mistakes The Fifth One Began Life As A Secret Kept On Purpose By A Small Circle Of Men Who Did Not Want The Rest Of Us To Know
9:16 Section 4 The Lie Buried In Your Bait Mistake No. 5 Is The One Anglers Argue About Most And The Argument Has A Clear Winner A Beginner Looks At A Bright Metal Hook And Decides The Fish Is Clever Enough To Recognize It So He Buries The Point Deep Inside The Worm Or The Kernel Of Corn To Hide The Steel A Fish Has No Idea What A Hook Is It Never Read A Book It Knows What Smells Like Food And Moves Like Food And That'S The Entire Reach Of Its Thinking The Trouble With A Buried Point Was Never That The Fish Sees The Hook The Trouble Is Mechanical When You Bury The Point In Tough Bait And Then Strike
10:02 The Bait Wad'S Up Around The Point And Shields It Like Trying To Push A Thumbtack Through A Folded Napkin You Pull A Soft Ball Of Corn Straight Out Of The Fish'S Mouth And Feel Nothing There Was A Bite There Was No Hook Up And You Go Home Blaming The Fish The Exposed Point Is The Rule Hook A Nightcrawler Once Through The Head And Let The Body Hang And Crawl Point Showing Hook A Minnow Through The Lips So It Swims Hurt And Panicked And For Hard Baits Corn Dough Boilies There Is A Rig With A Story Worth Telling Because The Story Is A Perfect Little Piece Of Buried History In The Late 1970S Two English Carpmen Kevin Maddox And Lenny Middleton
10:48 Were Stuck Against The Same Wall You'Re Stuck Against Carp Kept Sucking In The Bait And Blowing It Straight Back Out The Instant They Felt The Hook So They Ran Experiments In A Tank Watching Exactly How The Fish Fed And One Day They Tied A Single Grain Of Sweet Corn Not Onto The Hook But Dangling Just Below It On A Fine Strand The Strand They Reached For That First Time Was A Hair Pulled From The Head Of Maddox'S Wife A Woman Named Brenda That Isn'T A Campfire Legend That Is Literally Where The Name Comes From The Hair Rig In That Tank The Same Carp That Had Refused Everything Sucked The Bait In And Because The Bare Hook Now Hung Separate And Naked
11:35 The Moment The Fish Tried To Blow It Back Out The Point Caught The Lip And Held The Fish Hooked Itself And Here'S The Part That Should Make You Sit Forward They Kept It Quiet For A Couple Of Years A Tiny Handful Of Anglers Used The Hair Rig To Strip Big Carp Out Of Waters While Everyone Else Stood On The Bank Baffled It Didn'T Reach The Public Until Maddox Finally Put It In Print At The End Of 1981 A Genuinely Better Way To Catch Fish Had Been Found And It Was Deliberately Held In The Dark That Right There Is This Whole Channel In One Sentence The Knowledge Is Real It Was Just Never Handed To You
12:21 Free The Point Five Mistakes Down And The Next One Is Wound Around Your Reel At This Very Moment Broadcasting Your Position To Every Fish In The Lake Section 5 The Line That Screams Why Are You Fishing For A One Pound Crappie Or A Jittery Bass On Line Thick Enough To Tow A Truck Because Some Part Of You Is Scared A Monster Will Break You Off That'S Mistake No. 6 The Monster Was Never Going To Bite In The First Place Because Your Rope Of A Line Is Sitting In The Water Like A Power Cable Stiff And Bright And Humming With Every Little Twitch
13:07 And A Wary Fish Reads It From A Long Way Out And Just Keeps Its Distance You Want To Drop Your Diameter And You Want A Separate Leader A Leader Is A Lighter Length Of Line Tied Between Your Main Line And Your Hook You Run It Thinner Than The Main Line So That If You Snag The Bottom Or Hook Something Too Big To Land Only The Cheap Leader Gives Way And You Keep Your Float And Your Good Line Thin Line Shows Less Lands Softer And Lets A Light Bait Drift Down Like It'S Falling On Its Own Now The Materials And This Is Where I Have To Take Something Away From You Because The Trade Sold You A Fairy Tale You'Ve Heard It 1,000 Times
13:54 Fluorocarbon Line Is Invisible Underwater It Is Not That'S A Marketing Slogan Not A Fact And The Real Numbers Aren'T Even Close Here'S How It Actually Works Light Bends When It Crosses From One Material Into Another That'S Why A Spoon Looks Snapped In Half At The Surface Of A Glass Of Water How Much It Bends Comes Down To A Number Called The Refractive Index Water Sits At About 1.33 Old Nylon Line Sits Up Around 1.53 Far Enough Off From Water That A Fish Sees It Plainly Flora Carbon Comes In Near 1.42 Closer To Water Than Nylon True Less Visible Than Nylon True
14:41 But 1.42 Is Not 1.33 And Anything That Doesn'T Match The Water Exactly Still Bends The Light Still Throws A Faint Shadow Still Gets Seen Flora Carbon Is Harder To Spot It Is Not Unseeable The Company'S Rounded A Little Bit Better All The Way Up To Invisible And Charged You For The Gap What Truly Hides Your Line Is Keeping It Thin A Skinny Line Of Any Kind Disappears Better Than A Fat Line Of The Miracle Stuff The Honest Reasons To Reach For Flora Carbon Are The Ones The Marketing Buries Under That Magic Word It'S Denser Than Water Close To One And Three Quarter Times As Heavy
15:27 So It Sinks And Pins Your Bait Down Where You Want It And It Barely Drinks Any Water Nylon Is Thirsty Leave It In The Lake A Couple Of Hours And It Soaks Up Water Goes Soft And Quietly Sheds Somewhere Around 1/6 To 1/5 Of Its Strength While You Fish Flora Carbon Shrugs That Off The First Fluorocarbon Line Came Out Of A Company Called Kureha In Tokyo Back In 1971 Under The Name Seagar Genuinely Useful Stuff Just Not A Cloak Of Invisibility Use It For Its Weight And Its Toughness Run It Thin And Stop Paying Extra For A Ghost Story 6 Mistakes The Seventh One Isn'T In Your Tackle Box At All
16:15 It'S Printed On A Watch Face It'S Built Into An App On Your Phone And It Is The Single Most Repeated Lie In All Of Fishing Mistake No. 7 Is Something You'Ve Been Told So Many Times You Quit Questioning It The Fish Aren'T Biting Must Be The Barometric Pressure There Are Watches That Track It Apps That Grade Your Odds By It Whole Tackle Displays Built On The Idea That Fish Are Tiny Living Barometers Who Feel The Air Pressure Shift And Clamp Their Mouths Shut I Wanna Go Slow Here Because This Is Exactly Where Most Fishing Channels Just Yell The Folklore Louder So Let Me Hand You The Real Science And Let You Make The Call Yourself
17:02 A Fish Does Carry A Swim Bladder A Gas Filled Sack That Controls Whether It Rises Or Sinks And Yes Gas Does Expand A Little When Pressure Drops All True The Catch Is The Size Of The Effect A Weather System Rolling Through Changes The Pressure On That Fish By A Tiny Amount But A Fish That Swims Up Or Down Just A Few Feet In The Lake Changes The Pressure On Its Own Body Far More Than Any Storm Front Ever Could And It Does That 100 Times A Day Without A Thought The Pressure Swing From The Weather Is Lost In The Noise David Ross An Oceanographer At The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
17:50 Has Put It About As Plainly As It Can Be Put It Is Not The Barometer Doing The Work When Researchers Go Hunting For A Hard Repeatable Link Between Air Pressure And Whether Fish Feed They Keep Coming Up Empty Handed And The Careful Reviews Land In The Same Spot The Folklore Is Right That Fish Often Go On A Tear Right Before A Front Rolls In The Folklore Is Dead Wrong About Why It Was Never The Pressure So What Is It It'S The Weather Riding In With The Pressure A Dropping Front Brings Wind Brings Cloud Throws A Chop On The Surface That Scatters The Light And Makes Shallow Water Feel Safe
18:35 And Shifts The Temperature That Is What Flips The Switch Not A Number On A Dial Read The Sky The Wind And The Light And Throw The Magic Barometer In The Trash Which Carries Us To Mistake No. 8 Fate And The Way Most People Get It Exactly Backward They Think Feeding A Swim Means Dumping In Pound After Pound Like A Dump Truck Tipping Its Load But A Full Fish Does Not Bite Pile In A Feast And You Don'T Gather Fish You Stuff Them And They Drift Off Fat And Bored The People Who Study This For A Living Know Better Dr Keith Jones Spent 16 Years Running The Berkeley Fish Research Center
19:22 In Spirit Lake Iowa Watching What Actually Makes A Fish Strike And What Makes It Turn Away With Smell And Taste Driving Nearly The Whole Show And The Lesson The Old Match Anglers Reached By Feel And The Lab Reached By Experiment Is The Same One Little And Often You Put In A Small Amount A Couple Of Handfuls To Lay Down A Scent Trail A Few Scattered Crumbs Just Enough To Get Fish Searching And Competing For The Next Bite Then You Keep It Topped Up With Tiny Pinches Keep Them Hunting Never Let Them Fill Up And They'Ll Inhale Your Hook Bait Without A Second Thought Because Each One Is Afraid The Fish Beside It Will Get There First
20:07 Eight Mistakes Down The Last Two Both Happen In A Single Second Right When The Fish Is Already On Your Hook And You'Re About To Hand It Straight Back To The Lake Section 7 Poisoning Your Own Water The Float Goes Under This Is The Moment And Mistake No. 9 Lives Right Here The Pop And Drop You Swing To Set The Hook And The Instant You Feel Weight You Drop The Rod Tip Toward The Water That Slack Is Fatal A Hooked Fish Shakes Its Head First Thing And Half A Second Of Slack Line During That Shake Throws The Hook Right Back At You A Clean Hook Set Is One Smooth
20:55 Firm Sweep That Keeps The Line Tight And The Rod Bent Letting The Rod And The Reel'S Drag Soak Up The Fight And If You'Re Casting Far On A Short Rod You'Ve Got A Belly Of Loose Line On The Surface So Your Strike Wastes Itself Just Lifting That Slack While The Fish Spits The Bait A Longer Rod And A Tight Line Turn That Lazy Strike Into Something Instant Which Leaves Mistake No. 10 The Invisible One And The Reason I Saved It For Last You Stopped For Gas And Got Fuel On Your Hands You Washed Up With Perfumed Soap Then You Pinched Your Bait Onto The Hook And Wondered Why A Careful Old Fish Won'T Come Within A Foot Of It
21:41 Understand What You'Re Up Against A Fish'S Sense Of Smell And Taste Isn'T A Weaker Version Of Ours It'S From Another Planet The Channel Catfish Is The Clearest Case The Scientist John Caprio Measured A Catfish'S Taste Responding To A Single Amino Acid At The Lowest Concentration Ever Recorded For Taste In Any Animal With A Backbone A Catfish Is Basically A Swimming Tongue And None Of This Is New Back In 1956 Researchers Showed That L Serine A Compound That Sits On Plain Human Skin Repels Fish At An Almost Unbelievable Dilution A Trace Of You Rinsed Off Your Fingers Reads In The Water As Danger
22:28 So When A Weary Fish Drifts Up And Catches Diesel Bug Spray Or Perfumed Soap It Doesn'T Think It Bolts You Poisoned Your Own Water And Never Knew It The Fix Is Discipline Wash With Unscented Soap Or None The Morning Of A Trip Keep A Clean Rag If You Pump Gas Keep Your Hands Off The Bait Handle Bait With Clean Wet Hands It Sounds Fussy It'S The Whole Distance Between The Old Man With The Heavy Net And Everybody Else On The Bank So There They Are 10 Ways The Signal Dies Not One Disaster But A Stack Of Small Quiet Failures Each Looking Like Nothing On Its Own
23:15 That Together Hang An Empty Net On Your Shoulder And A Lie In Your Head About How The Fish Just Weren'T There They Were There Leonid Sabaneyev The Russian Naturalist Who Wrote The Book On Freshwater Fishing In 1875 And Traded Letters With Charles Darwin Knew It Then Walker Knew It In 1952 The Lab Knows It Now The Fish Are Talking The Entire Time The Only Question Is Whether You'Ve Still Got An Instrument That Can Hear Them So Sink Your Float To The Tip Chain Your Shot Match The Float To The Water Find The Bottom Free The Point Fish Thin Ignore The Barometer And Read The Sky
24:02 Feed Light And Often Strike Tight Keep Your Hands Clean Do Those 10 Things And The Next Time You'Re On The Bank The Painted Cork Crowd Is Going To Look At Your Net And Decide You Got Lucky You Didn'T You Just Learned To Read The Dial They Took Away From You If This Changed The Way You See A Simple Float You Already Know What To Do The Next Piece Of Buried Knowledge Is Coming Soon Until Then Keep Your Tip High And Your Hands Clean See You By The Water The Needle On The Gauge A Float Is An Instrument It Wasn’T Luck A Signal Up The Line Float ≠ Bobber Recap Float = Instrument Bobber = Dead Signal Fish Are Already Talking The Dial They Took From You Sink The Body. Read The Bite. Mistake #1 Body Too High Sink It To The Tip Mistake #2 One Lead Lump Richard Walker 1952 The Telltale Shot Lift Bite The Cleanest Signal Recap Sink The Float Spread The Shot Read The Lift Bite The Wrong Tool, On Purpose One Float Can’T Do Every Job One Ball ≠ Every Water Mistake #3 Wrong Float Shape Mistake #4 Wrong Depth Use A Plummet Mud Can Lie Recap Match The Shape Find The Bottom Let The Water Decide The Lie Buried In Your Bait Free The Hook Point Mistake #5 Buried Point Bait Shields The Point The Hair Rig Kevin Maddocks Lenny Middleton Brenda’S Hair → Hair Rig The Fish Hooked Itself Recap Expose The Point Separate Bait From Hook Knowledge Was Hidden The Line That Screams Thin Line Beats Fear Mistake #6 Line Too Thick Fluorocarbon ≠ Invisible Water 1.33 Nylon ~1.53 Fluoro ~1.42 Kureha • Seaguar 1971 Recap Fish Thinner Use Leaders Fluoro Isn’T Magic The Barometer Hoax Read The Weather, Not The Dial Fish Are Not Barometers It’S Not The Barometer Wind • Cloud • Chop Temperature A Full Fish Won’T Bite Little Often Recap Ignore The Pressure Myth Read Sky And Wind Feed Light, Often Poisoning Your Own Water Slack Line. Dirty Hands. Lost Fish. Slack Line Throws Hooks Dirty Hands Kill Bites Catfish = A Swimming Tongue 1956 L-Serine Diesel • Bug Spray Perfumed Soap Recap Ten Small Fixes One Readable Signal No More Luck Story
