Have you ever been out on the water, watching others catch fish, and you can’t get a bite for love or money? Of course you have, everyone I know has been in that situation, and if you haven’t, you’re either a liar or you simply don’t fish! There’s something else you’ll notice about those situations too, it happens to some anglers pretty often and only once in a blue moon with others. Luck? If you’re one of the former and believe they’re just luckier than you, then I’m afraid you’re a bit misled… Let’s break things down first. If there are fish around (because others are catching them) and you can’t seem to get a bite, it is the result of one or both of the following. You’re fishing with the wrong lure, bait or rig or you’re in the wrong place, be it depth or position. Now if you gave me a choice, I’d much rather be in the right place with the wrong lure than the wrong place with the right lure because if you’re where the fish are, you can still catch one. Alright, that may sound a bit confusing so I’ll give you an example. It’s a beautiful summer’s day and you are out at sea fishing for couta. A couple of your friends are also out enjoying the ocean. As you reach your favourite area, your friend next to you catches a fish; then your other friend on the other side catches one. And so it continues until they each have 3 or 4 and your reel hasn’t made a sound. Without having to ask a single question, you can figure out why they’re getting the bites and not you. Here’s how; check what they’re using. A Red Head Rapala is not an easy thing to hide when you lift the fish out the ocean. And a live bait glistens in the morning sun as you take it out the live bait well and put it in the water. Also take note of the position of their boat when they get the bite and the speed that they’re travelling. Something else that’s very important when targeting couta is depth of the bait or lure. This is a bit tricky so you’ll have to look a little closer. Try and see the size of the lip on the lure that catching the fish or the size of the downrigging sinker if they’re using bait. So without asking anything, you will have established whether the fish are eating lures or bait, where the bites are coming from and the speed at which they were going when they got those bites. A few small tackle adjustments and away you go. While that’s a simple example and an easy situation to analyse, you can apply the same logic to most situations. It becomes more difficult when you don’t have the same lures or bait as the other anglers and this is when your ability to adapt comes to the fore. If you’re encountering surface feeding fish, the first thing to look for is what they’re eating. Once you’ve established what they’re feeding on, try and match it with something in your tackle box. A hint when trying to match things; size is the most important factor, followed by colour, and then only shape. There are many reasons why fish eat lures, but I want to focus on 3 for this article. Primarily, hunger. When fish are hungry, they feed and are far more likely to make a mistake when they’re actively looking for something to eat. If your lure looks edible, and the fish are feeding, you will get a bite. Next on the list is Reflexive action. If you’re a social cricket or tennis player (or any ball sport for that matter) and you’ve got your back to me, I call you and throw you a ball. You’ll catch it without thinking twice. The same happens with fish. Imagine a shoal of tuna cruising somewhere in the deep ocean and a lure comes by at high speed right through the middle of the shoal. Just the speed and position will trigger a response for one of them to grab it. Finally, there is curiosity. With most gamefish, they will follow a lure out of sheer curiosity. Because they don’t have hands like us, they will often mouth your lure simply to see what it is. Lucky for us, we don’t really care why they take the lure, as long as we get the bite. While there are many other reasons such as protective instinct, competitive instinct, anger, territorial instinct, etc. Just understanding the few elaborated on in this article will help you become a better angler.

First Cast does it again, getting himself into a nice Yellow Fin Tuna at Fujairah, check it out.