Most every angler I have ever guided at Lake Casitas has heard me use the term "No bass has ever talked". It really sums up the sport of bass fishing. What I mean by this is the entire sport is based on a theory. It's true, since no bass has ever talked, the entire sport of bass fishing is based on theory. Once a bass conducts a seminar, I will promise you the arena will be sold out. But until that time we have to rely on the best anglers in the business to give us some type of guidance as to how to go about improving our bass fishing skills.

Why are professional bass anglers hired to do seminars, write books, and produce videos on the sport of bass fishing? Because they have the best theory. Remember there are no true professionals in the sport of bass fishing, or true experts on the sport of bass fishing. It's entirely based on a theory. The sport has really only been organized for about 50 years now. Bassmaster magazines first issue was produced in the mid-60's. Why the top professional bass anglers in the country are so coveted at speaking engagements is they absolutely have the best "theories" in the sport.

Professional bass anglers at the highest level fish most every day, they spend the most time on the water, and they fish with the highest number of partners as at most every event they are paired with a co-angler. This gives them the greatest opportunity to learn from other fisherman, and learn from their mistakes at the end of each and every tournament. Since they spend the most time on the water, at the highest level of competition, without question they have the best theory. Once again, it's a theory.

What I'm trying to get across to you is how much is left to be discovered about the sport of bass fishing. And how important it is for you on each and every fishing trip to have an open mind and be flexible about your approach. I can tell you working as a fishing guide at Lake Casitas, I fish most every day. And I can tell you that almost every single day that I go out it's different than the day before. It changes every single day. It always amazes me just how open-minded you have to be each and every day when you put your boat in the water.

Let me give you an example that most of you have experienced on how much we have left to learn about the sport of bass fishing. For example, the Alabama rig. All of you that have fished a spreader rig understand how incredible this rig has worked this season. I can tell you at Lake Casitas it's absolutely one of the most deadly fishing techniques on the lake. The anglers that designed and produce the very first Alabama rig are a perfect example of using an open mind, of thinking outside the box. This spreader rig absolutely manufactures strikes that we were not getting before. The fact that you have 3 to 5 swimming objects on the spreader, it flat manufactures strikes that we just weren't getting before. This is just one example of how the sport is growing each and every day.

Two years ago absolutely no one in the sport even knew what an Alabama rig was. Now it's a mainstay especially in the summertime when we have schools of bait fish up throughout the entire Western United States. You can only imagine the spin offs that will come from that Alabama rig. Most likely it's probably just the beginning of other spreader systems to be used in the future. What I'm getting at is let the bass continue to speak to you each and every day that you're on the water.

If you catch your first bass of the morning on a top water bait on the inside edge of a grass line, continue to push that pattern and fish the inside edges of grass lines until that pattern no longer produces. Once that pattern quits you have to start all over again experimenting and going through different fishing techniques until you come up with something that begins to produce again. That's what the Alabama rig was all about, just about somebody trying to approach the sport in a different way.

Just as Dee Thomas did in the 70's when he developed and fine-tuned the flipping technique. Just as Bobby Garland did in the late 70's when he came up with a large crappie jig called a Fat Gitzit which went on to start the entire evolution of finesse fishing as we see it today. Bobby's invention of that bait which required a spinning rod and light line was the starting point for every single finesse technique that you see today. When Herb Reed masterminded the first ever soft plastic stick bait and called it a Slug-go. Herb Reed's Slug-Go was responsible for every single soft plastic stick bait that you see produced today. There would be no such thing as the Zoom fluke had it not been for Herb Reed, he started the entire phenomenon. I can go on and on with all of the revolutionary anglers and designers who have introduced groundbreaking lures and techniques that we all have benefited from. And believe me there are still many, many things left to be learned about this sport. Go early, stay late, and always fish with an open mind.