To boost your catch rate, try fishing strategically with a partner. Here’s how

Plan it properly, and the more anglers you have in the boat, the more fish you’re likely to catch—if you work together on your strategy and pay close attention to the details, that is. To start, the most important thing you need to determine is what depth the fish are at. Remember, if you’re fishing at the wrong depth, even on the best spot in the lake, you’re not going to get bit. For example, imagine throwing a topwater for smallmouth bass when they’re gorging on gobies or crayfish crawling across the bottom in 20 feet of water. They’re not going to come up to eat.

Once your sonar confirms what depth the fish are at, the second most important detail is the speed of your retrieve. Do those goby-crunching bass want your bait delivered quickly, slowly or somewhere in between? Do they lash out and strike when it pops up and falls down, swims slowly horizontally or lies perfectly still on the bottom?

Working as a team, two or more anglers can answer those questions in a fraction of the time it would take if you were fishing solo. The same goes when it comes to determining the size, shape and colour of lure the fish prefer. Here’s how I work with a partner to figure out and refine a winning pattern.