As I’m getting ready for my drive north to the next Bassmaster Elite Series event on the St. Lawrence River, I’m reflecting about what I’ve done during our break since the Pickwick event. I spent time with Melissa and our family, filmed some for my Mark Menendez Bass TV show that airs in my hometown, ran errands and got myself ready for the trip to New York.
But a real highlight of the time was a visit from my friend Toshinari Namiki from Japan. “Tosh” was the first Japanese angler to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic in 1997. We became friends in 1996 and have spent quite a bit of time on the water together. Early on I taught him about American fishing techniques and how to fish our waters.
This time was different. Tosh came here for a visit, and he taught me some new Japanese techniques. It was cool because along with fishing with me, he was doing some filming on his own for his company O.S.P. (Osprey Spiritual Performer). While he would be filming in his boat, I would be in mine testing different Strike King products with the techniques he taught me, and I became comfortable enough with one of them that I will use it to my advantage in competition going forward.
Unfortunately for you, I’m not going to share this technique publicly as I want the chance to use it on the Elite Series if the situation arises. But this technique is not what this piece is about anyway.
It’s really about our willingness to learn.
I can be guilty of being set in my ways. Being a – shall we say “seasoned angler” – I tend to use the things that have gotten me to the dance so many times, and I know I need to expand a bit.
Tosh was filming and I was fishing, and the bite really slowed down. I picked up that new application and started working on it, and before long, I was catching a fish about every five minutes on it. It really began to build that urge to learn new things again.
It brought back memories of when I was just starting out fishing from a boat. I had a little aluminum bass boat with a 40-horsepower engine on it, and I would go to the lake as often as I could and only bring one rod with me. I knew that if I wanted to be competitive, I needed to become proficient at techniques, and to do so, I needed to remove temptation to try something different.
I would take a flipping rod and some jigs, or a spinnerbait and only have the one rod to throw it on. If I was going to catch fish that day, I was going to have to figure out how to make it happen on that technique. It was this approach that began the development of my skillsets and helped me learn what I am comfortable with as an angler to put food on my family’s table.
But, in fishing the way I have for so many years, I may have limited myself at times. This experience with Tosh taught me a lot and gave me a new technique that I can use in events to help me. But more importantly, it reminded me that as anglers, well, as people, we owe it to ourselves to keep learning.
It will pay dividends.