Fishing School
Positioning
This lesson will show you the easiest ways to position yourself to make sure you’ll be getting into some fun fish catching action even if you’re a complete beginner.
Topics Discussed
- 1:41 – Easiest Strategy – Boat
- 3:06 – Easiest Strategy – From Bridge
- 3:48 – Biggest Mistake
- 3:56 – Situational Examples
- 4:28 – Strategy for lures
- 5:36 – Cross current lure trick
- 6:15 – Worst time to fish bridges
- 7:13 – Positioning around docks
On The Water Example
Here’s a helpful video that shows these positioning strategies in action on the water:
If you’d like to see some fun fishing reports of this type of fishing, here are some links to posts we believe you’ll enjoy watching:
Please use the Comments section below to let us know of any positioning related questions you have. We’ll gladly make more lessons for you as needed.
Tight Lines!
Sometimes the current is going with the wind, is it better to just avoid lures and use live bait then?
Not necessarily… it’s very rare when lures can’t work at all due to the wind and current being aligned.
The alignment of current and wind in a given spot favors live bait, but lures oftentimes work well in that scenario too (especially if the current isn’t very strong).
Love the videos so far, I mostly fish off piers in SC . Do you have videos on pier fishing?
This is an excellent video about positioning. Everything explained very nicely, in simple terms.
Unrelated question, but did the pelican survive at 1:16 though? 🙂
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment Attila! All pelicans seemed to be fine that day out on the water.
Great video! Beginner Question: you mention several times that we must fish lures (working them) differently from how we fish live bait like a dead shrimp (soaking them). You don’t say “why” we must do that? Thanks!
Great question David! The core reason why dead bait works so well is because its scent attracts fish to it. And since fish are tracking to the bait by following the scent trail that’s pushed by current, it’s important to not move it so that the fish can more easily find it.
Great video on positioning, it seems very logical. Does this apply to beach fly fishing for snook? I am from Naples and beach fly fishing for snook is very popular. I am just trying to apply the previous lesson positioning to what I am targeting.
Thank you guys so much for these video. 100% worth the yearly investment!
Thanks Bryson! For targeting snook along the beach, it’s most often best to stand as far away from the shoreline as possible since the snook are almost always cruising very close to shore… I’ve seen many people who are wade fishing and casting out while the snook are passing behind them:)
Thank you.
This will help a ton. I just bought a kayak and live right by two bridges that can be targeted. Great insights on positioning. I bought a paddle kayak (no pedals) which makes it hard to stay in position when the current and/or wind is pushing me around. I have a small 3.5lbs anchor. I’m always a little wary about anchoring close to bridges with fear of my anchor getting stuck or big boats wake. Anyone has any tricks/tips for anchoring a kayak to fish bridges/fenders?
Given the dangers of anchoring in areas with current and boat wakes, I recommend drift fishing when fishing bridges from a kayak.
Just joined last night and the few videos I have watched have me wanting to get back out on the water. I can’t wait to try the techniques.
Thanks for the video. What was the type of weedless sinker/setup you were mentioning?
The rigging details are explained in the Lures/Hooks lesson a bit further down in this course: https://www.saltstrong.com/fishing-school/beginner-module/lures-hooks/
If you could just slow down, a little bit, your talking speed I could understand
more of what you are saying.
Hey John, you have full control over the talking speed of these videos by clicking/tapping on the small wheel-looking icon that’s on the bottom right corner of the video (the Settings section). In that section, you can slow down or speed up videos as needed.
In certain areas where we fish, there are locks that provide an excellent environment to use both artificial and live bait for fishing. While I have been primarily focused on the marsh, it is time that we revisit the bridges, locks, and docks. Once more, it important to revisit the fundamental fishing techniques!
Thanks for making time to post the helpful comment Danny!