Lose boat options and catch more fish

LOSE a few options when you’re buying a new boat and catch far better fish much more frequently. The greatest aid to catching fish is not sold in boat dealerships nor marine chandleries – it’s professional knowledge. You can always buy the optional boat gear later, but you need the knowledge now.

That’s the key advice from a man who has spent 35 years at the forefront of professional fishing charters targeting species ranging from snapper, fingermark, threadfin, coral trout, nannygai and red emperor to tournament-winning billfish, mahi mahi, wahoo and mackerel. He teaches those skills and shows how to apply them across current technologies including traditional sonar, sidescan, downscan, liveview and others, and systems such as compressed high intensity radiated pulse – more commonly known as CHIRP.

The function names may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer – Garmin uses terms including Sidevu, Clearvu and Panoptix LiveScope. Ryan also teaches a highly advanced level of key fishing influences such as moon phases, tidal flows and directions, river and offshore marine geography and topography as well as fish feeding and breeding habits.

“If you delay buying that ear-numbing boat stereo for a few months and instead invest some money in learning, you can get your sound fix by listening to the ratchet on your reel screaming,” Ryan Moody said.

“Do you really need those two optional rod holders in the side decks if someone can keep you working flat out reeling fish in from the ones already there as standard?

“Likewise, do you really need that optional 40-litre freshwater bladder up front in your boat or would you be better off with 40kg of fish in the icebox instead?

“The key is to get professional knowledge.

“You don’t have to be an electrical engineer to understand the technologies and you don’t have to be a scientist to understand the environment you’re fishing.

“But you do need to be able to apply simple instructions and interpretations to a marine location.”

An essential component of Ryan Moody Fishing on-line courses, webinars and inner circle group coaching sessions is to correct a lot of misinformation posted by well-meaning amateurs looking to pass on their so-called knowledge.

“They’ll make comments about a screenshot of a sonar image but then totally fail to understand that the image is actually showing one rock in front of another.

“And there will be no mention of what that means in terms of targeting fish on its other side.

“Or they will focus on fish arches in the foreground of a screenshot and be totally oblivious to a line in the background being a far bigger fish, neglecting to explain or not knowing why its image is displayed the way it is.”

“They’re seeking to do the right thing and to promote fishing, which is admirable but sometimes it sets people backwards before they can go forwards.

“There’s a very good reason why the best tennis players and golfers in the world have professional coaches,” Ryan said.

“They don’t go down to the local tennis club and ask what they need to focus on to win the next Wimbledon or watch a YouTube video to fix a swing path so they can win the Masters Tournament at Augusta.

“They have multiple, major sporting titles to their credit, they’re at the peak of their playing careers and yet they still use the services of professional coaches, strategists and tacticians.

“That’s why they’re the best in the world.

“The high calibre of professionals around these elite athletes can understand what is happening in terms of their performance and the influences that affect them.

“It’s the same if you want to become one of the very small minority of fishos who catch an overwhelming majority of fish – it requires knowledge.

Ryan said one of the smarter things he has done during his life was to always log relevant information about conditions and outcomes.

“If I rigged a live squid a certain way, I was always really interested in how long it would survive alive that way,” Ryan said.

“Or if it was attacked, did any parts remain on the hook, which parts and did it still constitute an acceptable bait?

“These are things that lead to making improvements about rigs, baits and how they are best-presented.

“That’s why when producers from a television film crew contact me to say they’d like to catch a certain species, I am able to tell them exactly when we should go, where we should go and the strategies we will need to use.”

“Film crews and their high-tech equipment cost serious money – they can’t afford to waste their time.”

It’s for that reason Ryan Moody Fishing has appeared on most major television fishing programs and several many times over, as well as providing expert guidance to fishing magazine journalists and photographers.

“I was approached by one photographer who had spent a full week trying to catch a metre-long barramundi for a magazine cover shot.

“I was flat out at the time but said ‘if you meet me at this ramp in two hours’ time, we’ll see if we can get you one.’

“Just under an hour after leaving the ramp, he had caught and photographed the catching of two one-metre-plus barramundi – including the one that made the cover shot.

“For me, that’s knowledge in its most rewarding form – helping others.

“It’s the best thing about teaching people to fish smarter, not harder.

“Someone goes from being an average fisher to a very accomplished one, simply because they have a better understanding of what’s happening.”

The Ryan Moody Fishing courses range from free separate introductory overviews of sounders, finding fish, catching barramundi and wonky holes, to fully integrated courses with 26 study subjects arranged across four or more structured learning modules. More than 8,000 students have completed Ryan Moody Fishing courses. Structured courses include Sounder Skills 1, Sounder Skills 2, Threadfin Tacts, Wonky Holes and Finding Fingermark.

Ryan Moody Fishing and his fishing smarter, not harder strategies can be accessed via ryanmoodyfishing.com