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Some guys are better at it than others. It is more than putting time in.
I work off-and-on on draggers. This past spring I was asked to fish the spring squid run down off Charlestown Ledge in RI. The guy I fished with has great fish sense--meaning we out fished all the other 25 draggers that were fishing around us for the month of May. Now you'd think that any monkey could set and tow and otter trawl across the sea floor. Wrong. Same with plugging or throwing eels or chunking. This dragger captain is good because he knows all about the squid but he really knows what his gear is doing on the bottom, the net and door spread, the size of the net compared to the size of his engine. On any given tow we'd catch 1000 pounds of squid for a 2 hour tow and the boats right to us were doing not even half that. Fishing is cool that way. In theory, fishing seems simple. And some days or nights it really is simple. But when the fish are spread out--or with squid when there "off bottom" then it really takes a knack to find 'em and once you've found 'em to stay on them.
Great job whoever you are. I'm the type of fisherman who knows more about fishing than catching.
Where's my fame? I caught 30 fish last night and not one broke 15 pounds. Most were under 5 pounds. But my thumb is sore. And some of those fish may grow as this day wears on. Hell, I might make that 15 a 20. And the schoolies will all become borderline keepers, "just under."
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