Just make it happen

🎣 Team Jo-Jo’s Seven Fundamentals for Fishing & Catching Success

As practiced, tested, and refined by Oneofthepack & the seasoned veterans of Team Jo-Jo

To consistently catch fish rather than just fish, your strategy must be rooted in a solid understanding of the seven key fundamentals—developed through decades of trial, error, and plenty of Silverwonder hookups. Master these, and you’ll move from guessing to knowing. Ignore them, and you may just be joyriding with a pole in your hand.

✅ 1. WIND AT YOUR BACK

When fishing with lures, it’s critical to position yourself with the wind at your back whenever possible. This fundamental principle improves:

• Casting Distance: Enables longer and smoother casts, which can help reach schooling fish or structure just beyond a normal cast.

• Line Control: Reduces slack and bow in your line, which improves bite detection—especially critical for subtle hits from Silverwonders.

• Lure Presentation: A taut line ensures your lure behaves naturally on the retrieve, especially when tight lining, bouncing, or twitching along the bottom.

• Wind can help you drift: As you cast & retrieve across lakes, bays, canals.

• Boat Positioning: Allows for stealthy approaches and efficient drift control when employing methods like DWWC&R (Drift with Wind Cast & Retrieve).

Pro Tip: While wind at your back is ideal, some crosswinds can work if you’re fishing banks or passes where bait is being blown in and stacked.

✅ 2. MOVING WATER

No flow = no go. Water movement is the trigger for feeding behavior in most estuarine and inshore species. Whether it’s rising or falling tide, moving water stimulates:

• Baitfish Movement: Causes shrimp, mullet, pogies, and shad to flush through drains, points, and ledges.

• Ambush Opportunities: Predators like Redwarriors and Silverwonders are set up along current seams, waiting for food to come to them.

• Fish Positioning: Look for funnel points such as drains, cuts, marsh edges, or bayou mouths where the tide naturally concentrates water and bait.

Pro Tip: Check tide charts but also learn how different wind conditions affect tide velocity and direction. Even a strong wind can override the predicted tide.

✅ 3. WATER CLARITY (Confidence Factor)

Water clarity directly affects visibility, lure choice, and angler confidence. Use this 1–7 rating scale when evaluating water conditions:

Clarity Level	Description	Fishability
1	Muddy, visibility < ½ inch	Nearly unfishable
2	Dirty, visibility ~1 inch	Poor
3	Slight stain, visibility 2–3 inches	Fair
4	Sandy tint, visibility 3–4 inches	Fishable
5	Murky-clear, visibility 5–6 inches	Good
6	Slight brown tint, visibility 6–8 inches	Very Good
7	Clean, black-clear, visibility 10–12 inches	Ideal

Pro Tip:

• In low clarity: Use paddle tails, bright colors, or rattle baits to help fish locate your lure.

• In clear water: Go with natural colors, smaller profiles, and longer leaders.

✅ 4. HOLDING FISH (Location, Location, Location)

The right location holds fish for a reason, often tied to bait, structure, current, or seasonal patterns. Trust your waypoints, logs, and past experience.

• Historical Hotspots: Use your Team Jo-Jo spot numbers that consistently produce during certain months.

• Seasonal Patterns: Winter = deep holes, summer = current-swept cuts, fall = interior marshes, spring = transition zones.

• Scouting: Use electronics, binoculars, bird activity, and signs like slicks or jumping shrimp to identify holding areas.

Pro Tip: Fish don’t always relocate far. If one drain produces on a falling tide in the spring, it likely will again next year.

✅ 5. PATIENCE (Time on the Water = Opportunity)

Fish don’t always bite on command—even when all conditions line up. Patience is not passive waiting; it’s a strategic presence.

• Windows of Opportunity: Fish often feed in short bursts—if you leave too soon, you may miss the flurry.

• Tide Timing: The bite may only turn on during the top or bottom of the tide swing.

• Bait Reaction Time: Let your lure soak, twitch, fall, or drift naturally—it may take a few passes to draw a strike.

Pro Tip: Mix in techniques while being patient, retrieve speed, switch colors, or try different depths before abandoning a spot.

✅ 6. SKILL (Technique + Execution)

Here’s where you separate the “fishers” from the “catchers.” Team Jo-Jo has honed an arsenal of proven techniques that consistently deliver:

🎯 Core Techniques:

• Anchor & Tight-Line Twitch Retrieve

• DWWC&R (Drift with Wind Cast & Retrieve)

• ORT (Oak River Troll)

• RORT (Reverse Oak River Troll)

• ORS (Oak River Skim w/ Cork)

• Cork Systems: Popping, Sliding, Weighted

• LPT (Lake P Troll) w/ squid trailers

• Drop Shot Rigs – Suspended presentation.

• Live/Dead Bait Deployments

Pro Tip: Always refine your hookset, casting precision, and line management. Every technical improvement boosts the hookup percentage.

✅ 7. LUCK (The X-Factor)

The most seasoned anglers will admit sometimes it just comes down to being at the right place at the right time. However, luck often finds those who:

• Fish More Often

• Stay Adaptable

• Pay Attention to Detail

• Keep Their Line in the Water

Pro Tip: “Luck favors the prepared fisherman.” Be ready when the unexpected moment comes—rods rigged, drag set, hooks sharp.

🟦 Additional Factors to Boost Catch Rates

✅ 8. BAIT MATCHING (Match the Hatch)

Choose lures that mimic local bait size, color, and movement:

• Summer: Shrimp → Shrimp imitations & popping corks

• Fall: Mullet → Larger paddle tails

• Winter: Finfish → Slow presentations near the bottom

✅ 9. STEALTH

In shallow marsh water, fish can spook easily.

• Approach slowly with trolling motor.

• Minimize hull slap, anchor noise, and deck movement.

• Use longer casts and subtle presentations.

✅ 10. TECHNOLOGY / ELECTRONICS

Use sonar, side-scan, and GPS logs to:

• Find drop-offs, shell beds, ledges.

• Return to productive zones.

• Log clarity, temp, and tide info.

✅ 11. WEATHER & PRESSURE

Fish react to cold fronts and pressure swings:

• Before front: Active feeding

• After the front: Sluggish, go slow and deep.

• Overcast days often lead to longer bites.

✅ 12. SOLUNAR & MOON PHASES

• Plan around major/minor feeding times.

• Moonrise and moonset often trigger short bites.

• Combine this with tide charts for optimal trip planning.

🎣 Final Cast

These fundamentals aren’t just theories—they’re battle-proven tactics that have filled coolers, taught lessons, and made legends aboard Bay Flat Sr & Jr. Keep them top of mind, refine them every trip, and pass them on to new anglers so the tradition continues.

Tight lines, clean water, bent rods, and full coolers to all.—Team Jo-Jo & Oneofthepack