The Legend of Angler Patrick Sébile - Part Two
La légende du pêcheur à la ligne, Patrick Sébile - Partie Deux
In Part One, we talked a lot with and about Patrick Sébile himself. In Part Two, Pat answers our questions about the pro side of bass fishing, and he concludes our conversation by giving everyone some good tips for tournament fishing success. Please enjoy!
Russ: We have talked about many species today, fresh and saltwater, but our readers are mainly freshwater bass fishing aficionados, so we'd like to hear where you feel that pro bass anglers fit into the overall hierarchy of skilled anglers worldwide? To put our question another way, anglers here in the USA see the US bass pros on TV, in magazines and all over every bass fishing site on the web. We're really talking of approximately 200 individuals who try hard to hang their hats on the top pro circuits here (BASS and FLW). Actually, it's a much smaller group than that, it really comes down to 4-5 dozen personalities who the average angler sees often on TV and other media, in magazines and promotions. Most USA anglers regard these individuals as being the best anglers in the world. The average US angler tend to feel, or has been told that these top bass pros can come fish any lake anywhere, and that the pros will do better than the local hometown anglers who may have fished there all their lives. We have the notion that even the best hometown anglers won't do that good on their home lakes - compared to the top national bass pros who maybe never even fished those lakes before. What do you think about that, Patrick? In comparison to all the anglers you have seen and met worldwide, where do you see the best bass pros fit into the overall hierarchy of anglers worldwide, and how do you think the pros are able to outfish local anglers even on lakes they've never fished before?
When it comes to the top bass pro, yes, he is one of the best in the world, but he constantly seeks just one species, the bass. He is traveling a lot, but not to different countries, and not to catch different species. So he can use the same subset of tackle and lures everywhere and keep the same bass-centric mindset everywhere. He's not doing different fishing every week. He's not doing hundreds of species, not trolling nor deep-sea fishing, flyfishing, bait fishing and so on. When you are doing all that stuff, of course you can not be very, very good for all fish because you are doing hundreds of species everywhere, many different ways in drastically different environments, the high seas, the roaring surf, icy mountain streams you can almost leap over, and everything else.
Bluefish in Mediterranean Sea off Valencia, Spain on Splasher 120
But when you are just touring as a US bass pro, who is making a living at that, first of all, it means you are already very, very good; you cannot make a living at this if you are not good enough, you could not compete. But the truth is, you are fishing exclusively for bass. He really is a super-specialist, one of the best in the country. As a pro, you are meeting many other pro anglers everywhere, studying the sport and how it is done differently in different places, and you are spreading those local applications across other regions you visit too - but it is totally bass. You are part of a touring group of one to two hundred who you compete against, all the best from all over the country, and you need to beat them at their game, whatever their tactics or approaches may be, you need to do better. So you need to be aware of what lures and tactics the other 100-200 top pros are using against you, all over the country, and most of all, you need to be aware of the latest and greatest new lures and tackle. Embracing innovation in equipment is a very big advantage in any discipline, including pro fishing. The pros, they pay attention to what's new, what is the new bait, the new action, what are the new possibilities. You can see just how quickly (almost overnight), the entire top pro field (especially the very best pros) adopt new fishing technology, which could be advanced electronics or simply a new hook model. Whether it was a swimming jig, the shakey jig, swimbaits or anything else, including boat equipment, the pros are ahead of the bass fishing public on new products and applications, whatever those new things are.
Now, when it comes to the local hometown anglers, the big difference is, they do not always open their eyes or their minds enough to other things, to new things, to different things. In fact, there may be no easy way for them to even find out what's the latest and greatest for bass from other parts of the country. And when you have been told (and have proven to yourself trip after trip) that on this lake here for example, you need to use a crankbait with a green back, that's the killer bait to be fishing here, then a lot of local anglers will only do that. So the local angler can do that, and get good with that, but only as good as he needs to be to win against other local anglers who are also using the green-backed crankbait or other local favorite lures and local tactics which have been popular there for a long, long time. The fish will still hit those locally popular baits, yes, but they become conditioned to seeing them and wary toward them.
Then, when the touring pros comes to town to fish the new (to them) local place, the local anglers, many of them, they rarely try different baits and lures, so that's something that really gives the pros a huge advantage over the local anglers - an equipment advantage - in additional to his formidable skills, knowledge and experience.
Now let me tell you this story, it's about Japan, and it makes this very clear. About two years ago, my tackle distributor in Japan prepared a 12 day promotional marketing tour for me, fishing fresh as well as saltwater all over Japan with fishing writers and recognized fishing celebrities in Japan. Every day I would fish with a different celebrity angler (such as a pro) and journalist in a different place. It was for different species each day, or with a different guide or VIP angler, just to meet them and to show them my baits' effectiveness on the water. One day, I was paired with a Japanese bass pro who was ranked I think seventh at that time on the pro tour in Japan. He was very good and he was trying several different approaches, very good ways to fish. Well, he was quite familiar with this lake, and had been winning or doing well in tournaments on that lake, so he was a top pro, but also, a local who'd become used to fishing this lake in accustomed ways. Of course it was my first time fishing in Japan, but what I saw by having fished bass in the USA and in Europe under tough conditions, and what I knew about Japan, is that there's not a lot of freshwater with bass, and therefore, high fishing pressure. So I just had a feeling from my experience that maybe my Stick Shadd 90 floating model would be the key bait. I cannot say I was sure about that, but it was a kind of a logical assumption I made upon assessing the situation, and sure enough, it worked. Since I sensed the bass were pressured, I was just using my bait slowly, just twitch a little bit and make a pause for about 5-8 seconds, twitch a little bit, then just one jerk and pause again, and by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I was at 17 fish and he was at zero, sticking to his lures and methods known to be best for that lake. Starting on fish number 10, the pro started to applaud me, and the journalist who was there writing a story, he stood up and applauded me too. That was very unusual for me to be applauded, but I do understand the meaning of this, and that was very nice of them. So there are some very good local anglers who can win many local tournaments with their accustomed ways, but the fish become accustomed to those ways as well. So when a capable outsider comes along, with new ways of fishing, the fish have not built up resistance or wariness toward that, and they're really going to bite!
So you local guys, become aware of what's new, what are the new approaches, new things to do, then you really can have something your competitors lack. Keep an open mind to anything that's new, and that openness can prove very useful to you. It may not even matter what new lure it is - just that it's something innovative, not seen by local fish before.
A glistening smallmouth, a big smile and a Magic Swimmer 110 F-SK (new for 2009.)
Russ: You have fished with some of the best bass pros from the USA and Japan and all across Europe. In your guide service, you have guided many of the world's best non-pro anglers who are dedicated trophy hunters. With all your experience being around good anglers worldwide, would you say that US bass pros, and the Japanese bass pros, are the best anglers in the world? Or is there another group of anglers somewhere that are better than or as good as them?
The answer to this is that the fishing business in the USA and Japan, the bass fishing and boating business is big enough to make possible the tournaments with big money prizes and big sponsors. So if you are really skilled and you believe in yourself, you can dedicate yourself to that (to become a bass pro) and you can just be a tournament angler, you can make a living at fishing, and for some of them, much more than a living. Look at KVD, he has made more than 3 million dollars, and it is not just the winnings but the sponsorships too. So that makes many people dream, and I am pretty sure for many of the readers, it's just human to dream about that. When you dream of something that can make your life better, when there is a path there that some people can follow, you can improve yourself and go higher, whether that dream is tournament bass fishing or whatever. So whatever you dream, when you see something that can be better for your life, and there's something to work toward and to excel at, that can pay off handsomely in the end, that makes you go that way. So yes, you can become a bass pro in the USA or Japan and through the media and promotional interests, become nationally or globally famous and make a very good living. It certainly can be done. But in Europe or countries in other parts of the world, we don't have that. That means when you have a very good angler in Europe, what can your dream be? Your best dream is maybe to have an opportunity to write for a fishing magazine but that's not such a high-paying job. It's not like making a living as a bass pro. For people like me, especially in Europe, we are very few because there's little money to be made from fishing. Especially when first starting out as a young person in fishing, the money side is just a disaster. So, I would like to say that, yes, in the USA and Japan, there are great, great, really great tournament anglers. They are great because of their fishing skills and abilities, but they also become great because of the financial incentives, the media and the fishing business that gives them the opportunity. So this kind of fishing dream, it can pay off in the USA or Japan. But I can tell you, in Europe or other parts of the world, okay, there are tournaments and very good anglers, but the income is not there in order to make a living at it. The business side of fishing is not there. So you can be a very good fisherman in Europe or other parts of the world, who pays attention to what's going on, who wins tournaments, but you can not make a living at that. So I'd say it is the business possibilities that enable anglers in the USA and Japan to dedicate themselves fully to fishing, and thereby become the best there is at it.
Sleek freshwater striper on Slim Stick 118
Pat Sébile's Tournament Winning Tips |
These are little things, small ways that can win big tournaments. |
Hope you have enjoyed my story, and good luck fishing from Patrick Sébile!