The top 3 fishing lessons Gord Pyzer learned last year

#3. ALWAYS EXPERIMENT

I was casting on Lake of the Woods, one of the planet’s most intensively fished muskie waters, when I lost that big muskie at the side of the boat. Hyped-up tourism claims to the contrary, I don’t believe there’s a muskie longer than 50 inches that hasn’t been hooked, landed, photographed and released at least once on Lake of the Woods. As a result, the most popular baits, such as the big double-bladed spinner I was throwing, are losing some of their effectiveness.

It’s the same with marabou jigs and Ned rigs for bass. You can still trigger scores of fish with them, but it’s only a matter of time before they also lose their effectiveness. In short, we’re conditioning fish to avoid our lures once the baits become popular. The hard-earned lesson here? It pays to be an outlier, and to never stop experimenting and learning.

Class dismissed.

Catch Gord Pyzer on the Outdoor Journal Radio Show on The Fan 590. See www.odjradio.com for times.

BONUS LESSON: WEATHER WATCHING

Are fishing apps based on solunar tables helpful? I carefully logged my catches this year and was surprised by the correlation—I definitely caught more fish when my app said the fishing would be good. What became crystal clear, however, is that the weather trumps everything. If my app predicted a poor day, for example, but the weather was ideal, the fishing was actually pretty good. If the weather was bad, however, and the app predicted a poor day, the fishing was indeed typically dismal.

Consult Outdoor Canada’s solunar charts at www.outdoorcanada.ca/times.