Although there’s been a lot of talk of increased fishing pressure at Big Lake in the last few years, Capt. Jeff Poe feels like there’s something going on that might have gone a little bit under the rader recently.
“More knowledgeable anglers are fishing today than ever before,” he began. “And knowledgeable anglers aren’t going to run right into the middle of a bunch of boats and start fishing because they know it’s probably going to be a waste of their time.”
Rather than do that, these more knowledgeable anglers are going off and finding their own spots that they have read about or found on their own through electronics and experience.
“So while overall fishing pressure on the lake might have increased the last few years,” Poe said, “I believe that the fishing pressure on the spots has decreased because people are spreading out a little more.”
However, while nice, calm weather helps anglers to head out on their own, sometimes Mother Nature forces folks to fish certain areas. Take a strong south wind, for example. That’s going to congregate most of the anglers in the south end of the lake to try to get out of the wind.
When everybody is confined to the south bank, that’s when pressure can become a problem. What’s a knowledgeable angler going to do then?
If they know they’re not going to have any choice but to fish in a crowd, many may choose to simply stay home.