ultralight with a Rooster Tail in a stream or a surfcaster on the Carolina coast; you already know what to do with it.
An understanding of depth ranges – Bass live in water less than a foot deep to 60 feet, and versatile bass anglers are comfortable fishing for them anywhere in this range, with everything from topwaters to drop-shots.
Ability to pattern fish – Fish, no matter what kind, are patternable. Bass are the epitome of this fishing fundamental, which is why bass tournaments are such a comprehensive training ground. Tournaments put anglers on a clock to define patterns. They must be well-aware of a host of variables at all times: depth, structure, bottom composition, cover, water clarity, current, bait and weather – just to name a few. It’ s a lot of pieces to a puzzle that are changing all the time, but bass anglers, especially ones that fish against the clock in tournaments, are used to putting it together in short order.
Knowledge of how bass relate to cover – All fish relate to something. Even the most pelagic roamers in the ocean are moving along a rip, a floating weedline or huge contours 1,000 feet below them.
Bass are excellent teachers of how fish orient to cover, structure, current and water clarity – from the roaming nature of smallmouths, to the suspending habits of spotted bass to cover-hugging largemouths. Seeing the vast array of ways bass relate to these elements in their environment provides useful clues to the ways fish all over the globe relate to their surroundings.
If you know how to drop on bass in deep cover using your depth finder as a guide, then you’ re ready to go catch snapper, grouper and amberjack on offshore reefs in the ocean; it’ s the same concept.
If you know how to skip a soft jerkbait up in the dark shade of bushes or docks, then you’ re qualified to catch snook out of mangroves – or barramundi in Australia, for that matter.
You know the little ditch that holds bass in the back of that flat over there? Find that same kind of trough in a tidal flat, and chances are it will have redfish in it.
Bass anglers are very familiar with that patchy light-anddark mixed bottom that is a magnet for smallmouths. That same kind of“ mottled bottom” is sea trout magic in saltwater bays.
So many of the ways bass relate to structure and cover have a duplicate counterpart in other environments for other species.
Ability to assess aggressiveness – After years of trying to fool bass into biting artificials, a real takeaway is the ability to assess a fish’ s aggressiveness. Bass demeanor can range from stone-cold lockjaw to the desire to ravage everything in sight. Determining whether a particular species can be triggered by boisterous reaction lures or that it requires a more natural, finessey offering is a page right out of the bass fishing playbook.
Work ethic – Finally, the work ethic dedicated bass anglers bring to the table is unequivocal. Staying in the hunt, from daylight until dark, is a way of life for them. It’ s in their nature to keep pushing, keep changing areas, keep switching lures until they force the fish to reveal something that becomes a critical clue in the hunt.
So whether you’ re after bonefish in Belize, peacocks in Peru, barramundi near Brisbane or the mighty Mekong giant catfish in Thailand, if you’ re a decent stick in bass fishing, dialing in what you’ re after is going to come much easier. That’ s why bass anglers really are the best anglers.
ILLUSTRATION BY STEVEN P. HUGHES
APRIL 2018 I FLWFISHING. COM 19