July 2005, San Pablo Dam. It was fishy in the morning, with breeze but glassed off during the day to tough conditions. All day I poked around catching nothing.

At 5pm, conditions changed and the wind started blowing over the hills. This is a common condition at that lake. As that change happened birds started to work in the middle of the lake, picking silverside and shad.

Having caught nothing for hours I drove to the middle of the lake and started spooning and casting a huddleston in the bait balls. This produced nothing, but I drifted with the wind toward shore for a while.

As I got closer to the shore, a subtle point that was exposed at low water looked good from the angle I was coming from. One cast across the point and my bait got smushed by a 13lb bass.

None of this would have happened without the typically pointless trip to the middle of the lake, being at the right place on the right condition, and the natural drift of the boat.

...........

Last year in Sherman Lake fishing for stripers there were birds here and there but nothing worth moving on. After a few stripers and not much action we got set to leave.

As I drove across the lake, one grebe moved in a way that made me stop. Just one grebe out in the middle of the grass beds. But the way it moved looked like something was happening.

We stopped and put 40+ stripers in the boat. There was never a boil or another bird, just wide open striper fishing.

............

This spring at Don Pedro, we were having a slow day in an ABA team tournament. Our plan wasn't working and we had perhaps 10lbs in the box. We've been beaten down so many times at that lake fishing a set program that we decided to just turn it loose and try all new places.

We struck out on a few but as we moved through the lake bites started coming. The fish were on windy banks eating reaction mid-day. With 5 minutes to go in the tournament I cast through a mudline (and I hate fishing mudlines) and sure enough a nice 5lb bass came up and ate my bait.

Everything that happened in the last few hours of that tournament was situational. Wind, time of year, mood of the fish.

.............

Some days the fish make you feel smart, some days they leave you feeling dumb. But there's a thing that happens over the years of fishing where it becomes more and more subconscious.

Instead of thinking about the rod, the reel, the cast or the lure, you're fishing with more of a heads up mentality. Watching the horizon, listening, waiting for changes to happen and knowing when to move.

This is the experience part of fishing that can't be substituted for. It makes me wonder what it's like to be a guy like Clunn or KVD or Aaron. To have seen tens of thousands of hours on the water.

These guys probably never think about their boat or their gear when they're on the water. It's just a look to the horizon as the sun comes up and a feel on the skin.

We all have these seminal moments where you click with what's going on around you and start catching fish. The hardest part is repeating it, staying in it and making the right moves while you're on the water.

Every day when I go to the lake this kind of thought is in my mind. It's how you learn and keep learning. I think it's part of why the fun of fishing stays with you, because no matter how many hot baits come along or fancy fish finders, there's still the environmental aspect that no machine can capture or manipulate.