18 RULES THAT EVERY TRUE ANGLER FOLLOWS
Frankly there are no experts, only more experiences to share with one another. So before we embark on our fishing journey, there are a few golden rules of fishing that we may like to follow to make our trips more enjoyable.
1. Less is better, if it can get the job done, the lighter your line and the terminal tackle attached to it, the more fish you fool.
2. Never contaminate your line or terminal tackle with lubricants, insect repellent, sunblock, suntan lotion, or any substance that will repel fish.
3. Keep your line tight. Give a fish slack, and you give it a chance to throw the hook. Also, in order to tire a fish as quickly as possible, its important that you always maintain maximum pressure.
4. No matter how far you cast, the best-looking spot is almost sure to be out of range. Concentrate on casting accuracy, not on distance.
5. All unneeded fish should be released to the water unharmed.
6. Whenever you cover a lot of ground searching for fish - be it trolling, circling a lake, walking a river bank, or driving from pond to pond - return to the most productive or promising spot for dusk.
7. To find your target fish, find its ambush site.
8. When you cast your bait to a spot where you think there may be a fish, cast it as if you are 100 percent positive there is a fish. The more you put into a cast, the more you get out of it.
9. When searching for a fish, try a few casts at anything that catches your eye. It may have caught some fish eyes also, and it only cost a few casts to find out.
10. The most necessary, the most important requirement for an artificial bait is your confidence in it!
11. Trophy fish of almost any species are likely to be in the best place to get food without becoming food.
12. If the fish are not biting, whatever you do, do not do nothing.
13. The best place to find fish is where you have just found a fish. When you get a strike, keep going to the same spot until you stop getting strikes.
14. Always leave your fishing spots as close as possible to the pristine conditions you found or had hoped to find.
15. If you can't get the fish to bite on what you have brought, try using what's there to catch - a frog off a lily pad, a grasshopper from the bank, a piece of barnacle off a boulder, a piece of shellfish on a grass patch or any bait fish you can catch.
16. Bring a small knife and a source of fire. You never know when you will need to use them.
17. Release all juvenile fish to let them have a chance of reproducing their next generation.