Biggest key to fishing success: Finding Fish

I watched this fish hit my Charlie Brewer Slider 3” grub - super fun!

We had another amazing year on the water! Thanks so much to everyone who booked with Freshwater Therapy during 2021. I have had an incredible experience guiding because of the caliber of the client that comes on my boat! So thank you!

One of the biggest take aways from 2021 was the simple thought that you can’t catch fish that aren’t there. We spend time pounding areas where we caught fish in years past, but you can’t catch fish if they aren’t in that location. And so the more I’ve thought about this truth, the more my electronics play a role in what I do.

Here are some of the things we uncovered on Lake George in 2021:

1. You can’t catch suspended fish on the bottom. The cool summer saw fish suspend for a longer period of time. We had to employ techniques to catch suspended fish. We saw some incredible things - stuff we could never see without Garmin’s Livescope in action. I’ve seen all brands of live imaging and still think Garmin’s is way ahead of the pack.

2. In 2021, there seemed to be more fishing pressure than I’ve ever seen before. I know COVID has moved a lot more people outside and out onto local lakes. This forced us to do more finessy techniques - often talking the fish into biting.

3. We can almost always find Lake Trout, but getting them to bite is another challenge. This year we caught lots of fish employing radically aggressive techniques.

What about walleyes in Northern Michigan? We had an amazing fall fishing ‘eyes, perch, and smallies. Here’s what we did to up our catch rate:

1. Again - fish in areas where we see fish. I had times where I could see a half dozen fish swimming around in front of me. If I didn’t see fish, I would move to another spot.

2. We learned so much about fish activity and how they relate to the baits we throw. We would see walleyes shoot out of the weeds to hit a jig or we would watch a pod of walleyes interact with a jerkbait. The other thing Livescope did for us is unlock details that normal 2D sonar could never do. We could see trenches in the weeds and dips in the bottom contour - and at the same time see how the fish set up in these areas.

Garmin’s Livescope has really been an incredible teaching tool. I look forward to all we’re going to learn during the hardwater season - but really can’t wait to have two Livescopes on my boat in 2022!