Pine Knot Outdoors: For any endeavor, never stop learning

When most kids my age were playing Nintendo or watching “The Goonies” on VHS, I was nose-deep in a Stephen King novel. My mom developed my love of reading, even if “Misery” or “Pet Semetary” kept me up late at night. Flash forward to the present. Following more of my dad’s love of nonfiction, Jared Diamond’s “Upheaval,” Sigurd F. Olson’s “The Lonely Land,” Stephen Ambrose’s “Undaunted Courage,” and Alex Messenger’s “The Twenty-Ninth Day” all sit within arm’s reach, dog-eared at various points of completion. I pick and choose my content based on my mood, but mostly I want to inhale something new, continuing to expand my understanding of the world around me. Looking back on 2019, this quest for knowledge helped me become a better angler: 2019 taught me to ditch the live bait, fish faster, and pay attention to the little things.

Sometimes lessons learned just sneak up on you. I have been fishing bass since childhood using only artificial lures. We used to call them plastic worms, but a wide assortment of biodegradable, scented products have taken their place as bass-catching staples. Similarly, I have completely abandoned live bait for panfish. I haven’t purchased a single minnow or picked a crawler for bluegills, perch, or crappies for almost a decade.

The big shift came in 2019 with the confidence to almost completely ditch the live bait for walleyes. I carried live bait in the boat less than 10 percent of my walleye trips this summer. This forced me to develop other techniques and not revert to live bait as a crutch. Live bait still reigns supreme for slip-bobbering, but for all other approaches, I’ve pivoted to more aggressive, artificial lures.

Artificial lures demand a different action than their live-bait counterparts. I grew up slowly Lindy-rigging live bait, but I’ve learned I can approach these same fish with crankbaits, jig and plastic combinations, or reaction-style baits. Crankbaits have evolved to be deliverable in all shapes and sizes to all depths with the advent of lead-core line, snap weights, and calibrated line counter reels coupled with precise trolling data illustrating the exact amount of line to reach the desired depth. And crankbaits have come a long way since the original Rapala floater. Rattles, custom paint, iridescent colors, and bills designed to dive from just under the surface to 40-plus feet are prime examples of the ever-expanding versatility of the crankbait.

Crankbaits have taught me to fish faster. If I’m catching fish at two miles per hour, I try to bump up my speed. If I can continue to pick up fish at three miles per hour, I know I’m running my baits in front of a lot more potential biters. If I was stuck back trolling at less than half a mile per hour Lindy-rigging, I better be on active fish.

The greatest lesson I learned from 2019 is to pay more attention to all the little things that can add up to a successful day on the water. In the past, I’ve been guilty of chasing the hot bite or the new lure that would magically produce day in and day out. In reality, the most important angling decisions are small ones, oftentimes made before the boat hits the water. For example, I now demand premium components. Line, hooks, sinkers, swivels, crankbaits, rods, reels — all have to be firing on all cylinders. Tying a substandard knot, or forgetting to check my drag, or a myriad of other small decisions add up to broken lines, lost fish, and lost opportunities.

I’m constantly in information-gathering mode, trying to tip all the little things in my favor. The year that’s past has taught me a lot, and the quest for knowledge will continue in 2020. For me, it’s a lifelong love of learning instilled one Stephen King novel at a time, probably long before I should have been allowed to read them.

Bret Baker is a lifetime resident of Cloquet. He is a proud husband, father, educator and outdoorsman. Bret began guiding fishing trips when he was 16 years old. Today, in his 40s, his passion is to introduce people to the tremendous outdoor adventures our region has to offer.