Saturday, July 5, 2025

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

In 1981 the English punk band The Clash released a song that many of us still remember. It peaked at #45 on the US Top 100 Billboard chart and was used a few years later in a Levi’s Jeans commercial. Chances are, you’re probably remembering it right now and humming a few bars – especially if you’ve got five decades of life under your belt. Any relevance to bass fishing is non-existent. There’s no mention of anything in the song that an angler could relate to a day on the water. “Should I Stay or Should I Go” is, as they say – out of the rotation.

But what if it isn’t?

As a tournament angler, it’s probably the most reflected on question that someone asks himself or herself in the middle of competition. During bass club tournaments that are held for eight hours on the weekend it’s rare to have the opportunity to pre-fish the week or so beforehand. We’ve all got jobs and other priorities that must be handled before committing time to something that is a pastime or hobby. Instead, a club angler often relies on familiarity with the lake being fished and their history of success (or not) to help make decisions on the water.

My friend Olivia invited me to fish out of her boat this past Saturday. Over the winter she purchased her first boat with the intent to move from being a co-angler to a boater in club competition. Her purchase was an aluminum 19-footer with a 90 horsepower outboard. When she bought it, I thought that it fit her well and that she got a good deal. Saturday was the first time that I had a chance to hop in with her to chase fish in Mississquoi Bay on Lake Champlain.

A little background info – I don’t get to Missisquoi Bay a whole lot. I often find myself driving that way only to put in a bit further south. I’m just too excited to be going fishing that the extra 20 minutes of drive-time is too much to overcome. She on the other hand, gets to spend A LOT of time up north thanks to having a family camp in Isle La Motte. When she optioned going in her boat (recusing me from towing my boat) I accepted the invite happily.

“What I don’t grasp fully as a new boater is when to move,” Olivia said. “I don’t know if making the decision to stay where I am or to go to another spot is the correct decision.”

“You finished second in the last tournament on Dunmore,” I replied. “Seems like you figured out something. I finished sixth.”

“Yeah but, that’s where I keep getting hung up. I never know if I’m making the right decision,” she replied.

As we tossed Chatterbaits and jigs along the weedlinepopping a few good fish in the process she continued to labor under the post-traumatic stress of her decision making. At one point I had to cut her off and approach the podium.

Me - “Look, you’re a tournament angler. You’re not out here waiting for a bite, you’re trying to elicit a strike on every cast. You don’t fish for bites. You want fish to crack the hell out of your lure on every cast. There is no ‘maybe’. In order to win the decisions that you make on the water come with some sort of aggressiveness. And, you’ve got to be assertive.” 

Her - “I like that word – assertive.” 

Me - “It’s what I tell the high school kids that I coach. There’s a lot of ‘hope’ on the way to a tournament, but it takes someone paying attention to things that allows them to adapt and ditch the concrete thinking. Every tournament victory is based on three things – timing, experience and ingenuity. Chance favors the prepared, and we don’t always get the time to pre-fish before a tournament. A good angler can cobble their way through a day and still come out on top. Sometimes, you catch lightning-in-a-bottle, but more often you grind your way through the day and eventually find a successful pattern. One fish is luck, two fish is a coincidence, and three fish is a pattern.” 

Her - “I guess what I don’t understand is how does a person get to the point where they make the decision to change spots and when. Do you wait 15 minutes, 30 minutes? And then what if I make the wrong decision? I’m having a difficult time because I don’t want to be wrong.” 

Me - “You said it best at the last tournament and it really perked my ears up – “We followed the loons around and they led us to the fish.”” 

Her - “…” 

Me - “You saw something, heard something or just flat out realized something subconsciously. Necessity is the mother of invention, and you know instinctively that loons are around food. And while the loons pummel baitfish you know that bass are doing the same thing, so the bait must be near where the loons are and the bass will be close too. I’m sure it not that simple, but it could be.” 

Her - “Desperation is a stinky cologne.” 

Me - “Smells like loons. 60% percent of the time it works 100% of the time. Besides, second place is just first-loser. Don’t let it go to your head.” 

The reality is that knowing when to move spots during a tournament is an acquired talent. I’ve been fishing for 40 years – 15 or so of club tournament fishing, and I still question my decision-making process. The best way I can explain it is that it’s more of a feeling than an exact science. If you don’t see bait, or other signs on the water that tell you the place is “actively alive”, chances are good that there’s not many bass around. One of my favorite ‘tells” is when you’re retrieving your lure back to the boat and a perch or sunfish follow it to where you can see them. All bass anglers will tell you that if a bass follows and doesn’t eat, you should probably stick around a few more minutes. In the case of smallmouth bass, if you see one apple, the tree is usually close by, and oftentimes they’ll lead you right to it.

When you’re out just fishing for fun though, you’re willing to explore a bit more and educate yourself to ‘new-to-you’ water. Olivia and I allowed the summer breeze to push us around for most of the day, catching plenty of fish in the process. Over the course of the day we covered a fair bit of water and were able to narrow our lures choices and likely areas down. I had a great time being a passenger - prancing around on my soapbox extolling the virtues of everything from team sports, boat snacks, poor life choices and the value of being able to ask for help.

At this point, there’s only one thing that I am absolutely sure of – I lead a charmed life and am surrounded by people who only ensure that it gets better each day. Making the decision to stay or go from this place is ridiculously easy.

I stay.