Ramp Talk

Have you ever heard a fishing story at the ramp where the truth seemed to be a bit stretched? Well, it happens everyday. Fishing is a sport where a fish can grow every time you tell a story, or every time someone else tells the story. The only way to know the truth is by being in the boat when it happens. If your not there when it happens, even if the story is 100% true, it’s still a story.

Fishermen try their best to pry information from successful fisherman at the dock. This is the perfect opportunity to tell a fish story, or not. By telling 50 % of the truth it keeps anglers off your fish, but at the same time your helping them. It’s all right to tell other anglers vague information like what lure you were using and the depth you were fishing. Never give up the particular information to your success like color, presentation, pattern, and the particular area that was productive. Under no circumstances do I listen to ramp talk.

Ramp talk can also be a very effective tool to throw off your competition. During the 2004 NBAA Weeknight Tournament Series the most accomplished fisherman was chasing down my partner and me. We were fishing for 3^rd place and a birth to the classic. Knowing our skills weren’t nearly as good as our seasoned competitors I resorted to ramp talk. During the last two tournaments of the year I made it a point to tell our opponents how many fish my partner and I were catching.

During those two weeks we had two of the most productive fishing days of our lives. At Austin Lake we successfully boated 30 keepers. Our total weight for five fish was 18 lbs and separately we both had 16 lbs. Also, I caught a ton of smallmouth up by Sportsman Park in the St. Joe River. I conveniently told our opponents about these two trips hoping to throw them off their game and get them to think about us. My partner and I successfully held them off and took home our forth-consecutive classic birth.

I didn’t really think my stories had any effect on our opponents until one fall day on the St. Joe River. I motored over to our opponents boat to see if he was catching any. His welcome was less than impressive. He was very angry and scolded me by saying; “I know you didn’t catch that many fish on the river, if your going to talk to me be straight.” At that moment I knew that my strategy worked! If he was still thinking about my stories after the season was over, then my strategy worked.

My advice to any tournament angler or weekend fisherman is to take a story for what it’s worth. Never take a story to seriously because if you weren’t there to see it happen then it’s just a story. There is some useful information to be gained by listening to dock talk but don’t let it become the information you fall back on. Tournament anglers need to focus on what their doing, not everyone else.