The Benefits of Coangling
The 2016 season will be my 3rd year fishing as a coangler. The previous two seasons I fished in the Bassmaster Northern Opens, but this year I will be fishing in the FLW BFL Northeast division. There are a few reasons for this but the main one is the water being fished. I have fished all of the lakes on the Northern Open schedule this year but I have not fished the Potomac River or the St. Lawrence River, and both are on the BFL schedule. Also, I get to save a little money toward funding next year’s plan of going as a boater, and the boater I usually practice with is fishing the BFLs this year as well.
I can’t stress enough the benefits of starting as a coangler. After fishing local tournaments with a friend of mine for a few years I decided to enter the Northern Opens as a coangler because I didn’t have boat. Before this experience I couldn’t have imagined how much I would learn from the people I was paired with, as well as my practice partner and friend James McMullen. If I started off fishing these tournaments as a boater I would have eventually learned all of the things I know now, but it would have taken much more time and boatloads more money to get there.
The first Open I ever fished was at Lake Champlain in 2014. On day 2 of the tournament I was paired with Matt Lee. In that one day I learned more about how to wield the incredible power of electronics than I even knew existed before that day.
Once I enter as a boater in the near future and see how the results end up, I will be able to say for sure whether or not it was worth it. As of now, I can’t see how it won’t help greatly. Thanks to all of the guys I ever learned something from (even if you didn’t know it)! Hopefully it makes all of the difference in the world for me.
