I recently went to the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach, California. The show is the unofficial start to the Southern California fishing season. Many of my fishing buddies put aside money all year in anticipation of the show. Then they blow it at the show like drunken sailors on shore leave. I spent most of my time at the show talking to the captains and crews and taking in the seminars.

If you sit through a lot of the seminars, the audience questions start to sound the same. Professional angler Bob Jensen of the show Fishing the Midwest does a lot of seminars. Here he breaks down the most common questions he hears.

Bob-Jensen-pic-8I was in some Cabela’s stores this past weekend doing fishing seminars.  Before and after every seminar I get to speak with anglers who are in the store to take advantage of the seminars or to take advantage of the great prices on fishing stuff.  Either way, I really enjoy this opportunity to speak with people who like to go fishing and who want to catch more and bigger fish when they go fishing.  I learn a lot in these conversations, and hopefully the folks that I’m speaking with learn something also.  Lots of these anglers have very similar questions.  Following are some of the most-asked questions.

Question 1: How important is color?

My answer-Color can be a very important consideration at times.  Sometimes the fish will eat your bait regardless of color: These are the fun times.  The fish are aggressive and you’re going to get bit.

Most of the time though, fish are at least somewhat color selective.  This is when you need to keep experimenting until you find the color they want.  Everyone should be using a different color until you find the productive color.  If you’re using a jig, incorporate a couple of different colors into the jig to increase your odds of showing the fish the color they want on that day.

Photos: Fishing the Midwest (top); Outdoors Unlimited (above)