My January column titled “Little Things” was about all the little steps you take as a fisherperson and how they all work together to make you a better angler. I am going to be writing about some of the little things that you can do that will make you a better angler, regardless of your experience level. Some of the “little things” I will be discussing may be tips that you already know, in that case it will be very valuable for you to read them and let your mind be reminded of these crucial tips that make you a better angler. Whether you know these tips already or not is irrelevant because touching areas of your mental arsenal with these tips will open your mind to new ideas and allow you to discover new tricks and tactics. No one fisherperson dreams up all of the best ways to catch fish. You can be just as productive at discovering new tricks within your techniques as a professional fisherman. Great fishermen were not born great, they developed into great fishermen by years of on the water experience. Some excelled faster than others because they picked up on patterns quicker than others. And patterns being within techniques as well as within catching fish. The guys you want to pay close attention to are the older, salty veteran pros that have been fishing professional tournaments for years and years. I shouldn’t even have to mention any of them because you already know who the “DADDY’S” are. The reason I use them as examples is because they are going to go about their work the easiest and most efficient way possible. They flow through situations and travel the path of least resistance even if the situations they are in are unpleasant. They subconsciously flow with their surroundings because that is their home, they have been there for thousands of hours. They don’t have to react to weather and pattern changes they act with them. There are allot of “little things” within this article but I am going to pinpoint one of them in particular. Watch two television shows. One hosted by Larry Nixon and the other by Shaw Grigsby. Both of these guys are tournament champions of the past and present and every single move they make and attempt to teach you is one they learned through years of tournament fishing. If you don’t trust baits they are throwing is what they really throw in the tournaments that’s fine, sometimes I am skeptical of that, IGNORE the lures they are throwing. Watch their mechanics, every single move they make. You will learn from their mechanics, pick out one thing that they do and practice it next time you are on the water. You must master your fishing mechanics. Bill Cannan Professional Fishing Guide