When I was a lot younger about 25 years ago, I was fishing a lake and not having a whole lot of luck. Even so, I was one of those "kids" who knew almost everything about bass fishing since I had already done it for 25 years.

I seen this older gentleman walk up to the shore about 20 feet away and seen he had the exact same lure on that I was using. I kind of chuckled to myself just knowing he wasn't going to catch anything since I didn't and I had been using this lure most of my life. Well, after watching him for about 5 minutes I seen he had caught one. I said to myself "the lucky bum" and didn't think any more about it, just went my way fishing as nothing happened.

Of course, I kept watch on him out of the corner of my eye. Pretty soon he had caught another one to my amazement. Again, I said to myself "what a lucky bum" and kept on fishing knowing he wouldn't catch anymore but keeping an eye on him just the same. Again he caught another bass and then another and then another and I said to myself, "Lets see how this lucky bum is doing this".

So, I was on my way walking towards him to talk to him. This man was one of the nicest gentlemen I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I said, "I have fished that lure most of the day and never caught one thing and you have caught all these bass just within a short time, how did you do that?" He said, "Technique!" I said "technique?" He said, "yep, technique". I went on to tell him I had my own technique and that I fished this lure for over 25 years and usually with pretty good results. Well, what he said next about floored me. "He said "you're using it wrong". I thought, "What the hell is he talking about, me using it wrong?". After all I was young and still had 25 years of bass fishing experience. Who was this guy anyway to tell me I was using one of my favorite lure's wrong?

I got looking at this pretty jacket he was wearing, I was in California at the time and I noticed a couple of things about the jacket. The main thing I noticed was this one patch that said "World's Topwater Bass Fishing Champion" among lot of other sponsor patches. I said to myself "Um...maybe, I better listen to this man". I can just say I am glad I did. He taught me what he was doing different, what I had been doing wrong and a technique that I incorporated from his and my technique that I use on almost on all my topwater bass fishing retrieves even to this day.

I was fishing with my son several years ago at a little lake we fish in Ohio. We were using the exact same rod, reel, line and lure and even the same lure color. I had caught about 15 fish and he hadn't even had a strike and we were only standing about 10 feet apart. He said "Why are you catching all the bass and I haven't caught any?" I said, John, you're not holding you mouth right. He said "How are you supposed to hold it?" I said like this and made the worst face I could think of to make.

Several months later he went to California to visit his grandparents and he was fishing in a river for trout there. His grandfather came along and said "John, are you not feeling well?" John said, "No, I'm fine Grandpa". His grandpa said, "We'll John, what is the matter with your face?" John said, "Well, Grandpa, Dad said I had to hold my face like this to catch fish". John's grandpa couldn't wait to go back to the house to tell his grandma who told my wife who told me. The funny part was I had forgot all about the other incident and me telling him to hold his face like that.

So, what do both of these stories have in common? Even though the older gentleman and I was using the same lure, fishing the same water, he was catching bass and I wasn't because he knew the "technique" to use. On the same hand when John and I was fishing, we were both using the same kind of rod, reel, line, and lure and I was catching fish and he wasn't because I knew the "technique" to use in that situation and John didn't.

It's not only important to know what lure to use when you're fishing but you have to know the technique to use with the lure you choose to fish. It can make all the difference in the world between a great bass fishing day and a not so good bad fishing day, to say the least.