question for dave stewart about pro fishermen

[davidsa]

Dave-

I'm wondering what differences you have noted between a good recreational angler and one of the top pro's who depend on the pay check to feed the family?

I've often wondered if a top pro can vizualize what is underwater at a level that I could never grasp. These conversations of bouncing cranks off deep water stumps on a point or dragging a jig in open water of a ledge that goes from 20 to 24 feet and catching limits as a result to me has always been an amazing thought to me. I honestly don't think I can read my graph well enough to even tell what a stump would look like no less to imaging a ditch beside the stump

As I fish an area repeatedly I stumble on to spots that under certain conditions can hold lots of fish. I have memory for these spots and can find them years later. The pro does not have time for this long learning curve.

[Dave Stewart]

Dave-

I'm wondering what differences you have noted between a good recreational angler and one of the top pro's who depend on the pay check to feed the family?

I've often wondered if a top pro can vizualize what is underwater at a level that I could never grasp. These conversations of bouncing cranks off deep water stumps on a point or dragging a jig in open water of a ledge that goes from 20 to 24 feet and catching limits as a result to me has always been an amazing thought to me. I honestly don't think I can read my graph well enough to even tell what a stump would look like no less to imaging a ditch beside the stump

As I fish an area repeatedly I stumble on to spots that under certain conditions can hold lots of fish. I have memory for these spots and can find them years later. The pro does not have time for this long learning curve.

Actually I have had a number of recreational anglers in my boat that I have no doubt could compete with the professionals....no doubt the professionals are talented or they would not be where they are...but they have their own different levels of talent also....just like ball players, they all get paid to play ball but they are not all on an equal level when it comes to talent.

One does not get good at any sport without talent, one does not get great at any sport without sacrifice, hard work and dedication. Some of these guys out there are very young, but if you add up the number of hours they have on the water and living and breathing bass fishing compared to the average angler, you would find they are very mature in relationship to experience.

[kygorski]

Gee Dave I feel for you, 61 years old wow! Dave you got at least 8 years of hard fishing left in you. Then you can slow down. When I was 68 I felt like a kid, now I'm 74 and feel like an old goat. But manage a couple of times a week.

[Dave Stewart]

Gee Dave I feel for you, 61 years old wow! Dave you got at least 8 years of hard fishing left in you. Then you can slow down. When I was 68 I felt like a kid, now I'm 74 and feel like an old goat. But manage a couple of times a week.

Well, right now I am still hanging in there but also you have to realize that guiding 7 days a week is not just "going fishing"...my days are 16 hour days 9 months a year and then I work teaching bass classes 7 days a week in January and February. My choice of course to work like that but I also know the reality is that I cannot keep doing this for another 10 years at this pace....but probably will never quit completely...wife says they will find me one day in my boat out there and she is probably right.

[kygorski]

That thing about being found in the boat is something my children are resigned to. when I got my early buy out I was thinking of guiding.My son offered to buy the boat,and help out for the first year. We went out with a couple of guides, and it is brutal work at times, andit takes time to learn the trade.I stopped to think, I wanted to relax and enjoy my retirement.So we opted for a travel trailer instead, and never regretted it.Its good guides who teach that make it worth the money,and most of them do that, ran into only one who fished to catch fish, and only took us to one or two spots.My cousin guides in the upper part of michigan and wisc, he told me sometimes it get unbearable when some folks wont even try to understand what they are doing.

[davidsa]

I figure Dave really likes what he does. To do anything so many hours so many days in a row, the only way I could stand that is if I liked it.

For those that have or have had jobs they dislike, one just can't fake it that long and keep the energy up.

As much as I like to fish, I have zero aspirations of being a guide. I've found anything I feel obligated to do feels like work and a rut to me. I'd like to keep fishing as something that I look forward to as an escape. I still have dreams of place near KYL when I retire. Keep thinking I will take up bow hunting for wild Turkey I have no idea why as I have never even shot a bow! Just seems like the thing to do in western KY.