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Casting Out Of Your Comfort Zone

By: Chad Morgenthaler

www.chadmorgenthaler.com

Whether we like to admit it or not, as anglers we all have a certain technique or bait that we feel most comfortable fishing.  It’s like an old worn out pair of boots that you just can’t make yourself throw away.  It’s comfortable and it just feels right.  It’s that one option that we all look to when fishing get tough, or we just want to have a great day on the lake.

When I became a professional angler and started fishing new lakes around the Nation, I had a quick check with reality that forced me to fish outside of my comfort zone.  In order to remain competitive I had to learn how to fish new baits and perfect new techniques.  In the world of tournament fishing not knowing when to lay down your “go to” bait can be a very costly mistake with a very steep learning curve. Unfortunately I can be a little hard headed, and it’s a mistake that I still make on occasion.  

I know my comfort zone, and even after six years of fishing the circuits I still have a hard time stepping out of it.  I’m a Southern Illinois boy who grew up on shallow water lakes and ponds with heavy vegetation.  If there is a remote chance that I can key in on a successful pattern by flipping and pitching jigs and soft plastics, I’m going to do it.  I am always excited about visiting lakes where I know that this pattern might prevail.  

As much as I enjoy fishing in this manner, focusing on my comfort zone is not always productive, and at times can be very counterproductive.  Being a successful angler is about keeping an open mind and becoming versatile.  Doing the opposite and forcing a pattern in the long run can cause a lot of missed opportunities.  

This situation just happened to me recently at the FLW Tour event on Beaver Lake in Arkansas. The first day of practice I discovered a pattern by throwing one of my favorite baits to visible cover, a Rattlin Shak’n Shad by Lunker Lure.  The lake was flooded with a lot of dirty water.  I caught some really nice fish the first day of practice in a very small clean area of the lake.  I continued to expand on the pattern and found throughout practice that even though the weather changed I was still able to dial in on that particular pattern and make it productive in several different areas.    

It became obvious my pattern was working very well on post-spawn fish, and I felt confident when the tournament rolled up.  Unfortunately what I failed to dial in on was the spawn bite that was still taking place in the dirty water.  I spent one day of practice fishing the dirty water, but couldn’t lock in on anything I felt confident in.  In my mind I was still holding on to my “go to” bait that worked so well in the clean water.  I failed to step outside of my comfort zone and really try to figure out the bite.  The anglers who stuck with it, and figured out the dirty water pattern, definitely prevailed in this tournament.   By not stepping out of my comfort zone I made a very costly mistake.

It’s great to have a confidence bait and pattern that works extremely well.  But it is also important to keep an open mind in order to remain versatile.  Take time to visit a new lake and enjoy time on the water targeting different types of structure that you normally wouldn’t fish.  Over time you will gain confidence and catch more fish than you did by focusing in on one or two methods.  It can be frustrating and time consuming to learn to fish different baits and techniques, but it also allows you to fish much more productively and keeps fishing fresh and exciting.  

A longtime ago a friend once told me that if you can find 10 different ways to catch a fish during practice hopefully one of the patterns will prevail during the tournament.  I have found it to be a great piece of advice.

A special “Thanks” to all of my sponsors: Jasper Engines and Transmissions, Yamaha Motors, Ranger Boats, Lowrance Electronics, Svanda GM Motor Group, Fenwick Rods, Abu Garcia, Berkley Trilene, Plano, Reaction Innovations, Solar Bat, Lunker Lure & Hawg Caller, Power-Pole and Nameoki Village Marine.

Make sure and log onto my web site www.chadmorgenthaler.com and signup for my fan club.  E-newsletters are forwarded monthly and one lucky winner each month receives a prize.  Tournament summaries are posted after each tournament and pro tips are updated often.  It’s a great source of bass fishing information