I want it to be known I have attended fishing seminars that I was truly impressed with and very educational. There have been seminars that I have walked away with new information that I never thought of, and using those techniques have caught many fish. Then there have been a few fishing seminars that I didn’t care for, but others that attended might have learned from. That being said, while a friend and I were at an outdoors show he wanted to sit in on a seminar and I reluctantly agreed. Not because I didn’t believe I wouldn’t learn something new, but I don’t fish for the species being presented.

The title of this seminar was “CATCHING BIGGER BASS”. So, we listened to the pro fisherman for close to an hour and I walked away thinking to myself, (THAT’S AN 1 HOUR OF MY LIFE I WILL NEVER GET BACK). As I stated above, I truly believe you can always learn something new about fishing from conversations or even by accident while on the water by yourself.

But in my opinion, if you attend a fishing seminar, some speaker should know how to or explain different techniques that everyone can understand. Here’s some things I remember this pro-angler saying to close to 30 people.

1) The Pro explained you can catch big bass in (INSHORE WOOD DEVELOPMENTS) because many will use this structure. It took me a bit like most in the room to determine he was talking about downed shoreline trees in water. I usually call them stick-ups (PART OF THE TREE STICKING OUT OF THE WATER)

2) The Pro said, these trees will always attract PREMIUM BASS. (To be honest, I have caught nice Perch, Crappie, and a few Walleyes from shoreline trees but never a huge Bass). BUT I have caught bass NEAR this type of cover but nothing huge. 

3) The Pro said, Active Bass will hold on the outside or just inside of the branches. The inactive Bass will be inside the branches close to the main trunk. Then, bigger inactive Bass won’t move out of the branches but will attack the right lure. (I thought he said bass inside the branches were inactive. Now I was confused).

4) HERE’S ANOTHER TECHNIQUE I NEVER HEARD OF. He added; fishermen have to use an aggressive approach when fishing this type of structure. I am not a professional fisherman, but I believe the shoreline trees that fell into the water are referred to as COVER. Guess I have a few things to learn.

5) The pro explained, fishermen need to use an aggressive approach when fishing downed trees for big Bass. His CRANKING TIMBER technique is by bouncing crankbaits off the branches on the side of the tree. I thought I was missing something here, because I have never cranked any lure into trees. Has anyone done this? I can see casting on the side of the tree, but never into branches like the pro said.

6) The Pro said, you will get hung up, but by ripping the hooked lure from the branches can trigger strikes. I always thought if you get snagged, you should cut the line or use another rod, because disturbing the tree will scatter the fish. I guess I’ve been fishing stick – ups wrong for years.

7) Towards the end of the seminar, he stated, when throwing crankbaits into trees, he always uses X-BRAND abrasive line. Then he always has confidence in his X-BRAND crankbaits. And there it is. He was starting to pitch brands of product for companies that sponsored his seminar.

Here’s one thing that really bothered me about this seminar. This pro fisherman and even some pros on those TV fishing shows do this too. They never specify if they are fishing for Largemouth or Smallmouth Bass. They just refer to them as BASS and to me, there is a difference between the two Bass and locations.

Don’t get me wrong, like I said, I’m sure there are many fishing seminars that are great, and you can learn many new techniques. But for me, this wasn’t one of them. I mean, if he talked about fishing near trees for crappie, or perch and not cranking into the branches, I might have gone along with that, but I still can’t understand using a crankbait when fishing trees.

Hopefully this article doesn’t stop any of you from attending future fishing seminars, because not all seminars are the same. Most will have truly good professional guides passing on great information and techniques that WILL help anglers catch fish. If anyone has been to a seminar that they thought wasn’t really informative, please share.

I will say, I’ve heard anglers learned some great tips from the pros at THE MUSKY FISHING EXPO last month in Watersmeet and hopefully there will be another one next year.