There is a popular fishing show called “Brent Chapman’s Pro. vs. Joe.” on TV and the internet. In it professional tournament fisherman Brent Chapman takes a non-pro fisherman out for a day on the “Joe’s” home waters. They have a friendly competition to see who can catch the first, biggest and most bass. Brent usually wins.

I get to do my own version of that show every month. A good example was last Thursday when I drove to Smith Lake north of Birmingham and went out with Alex Davis to get information for a February Alabama Outdoor News article. We fished from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Smith is a highland lake much like Lake Lanier, with steep, rocky shorelines, very clear water most of the time, and big spotted bass. Due to the heavy rains in December the lake was over full pool and very stained. Our bright colored crankbaits disappeared about four or five inches deep.

Alex is 30 years old and has been fishing the FLW Tour tournaments the past four years. That is the top trail for the FLW tournament series and he does well on it. Alex guides on Guntersville and Smith when he is not tournament fishing, so fishing is all he does.

I didn’t have much confidence in catching much since the water was so stained. But Alex was confident. He said he usually fishes subtle baits like a drop shot worm or Fishhead Spin down in 15 to 25 depths in the clear cold water in the winter. But the stained water was 55 degrees so he changed tactics. He fished points with a crankbait, and targeted water less than ten feet deep.

After fishing about four points and Alex catching about a dozen bass to my zero he gave me a crankbait the color he was fishing. I don’t carry much fishing stuff with me on the writing trips and I had only a couple of crankbaits and they were a color that is best in clear water.

At the end of the day Alex had landed between 30 and 40 spotted bass – I lost count at 30 – and had several weighing more than three pounds. His best five, a tournament limit, would have weighed about 15 pounds. He caught every one of them on one crankbait.

I finally caught one spotted bass on a jig head worm. With the rods I took with me I just could not cast the crankbait far enough to get it down to the eight foot depths where the bass were feeding. Alex casts were half again as long as mine. Thats my excuse and I am sticking with it!

Thursday was not the first time this has happened to me. A few years ago I did a Georgia Outdoor News article with Mike Milsaps on Lake Lanier. He is one of the best fishermen in Georgia and wins a lot of tournaments. We didn’t catch much the day we fished but he told me he would be on the lake the next week, practicing for a BFL tournament, and invited me to go with him.

I had a club tournament the day after his BFL so I jumped at the chance to go, hoping to be shown enough to do well in my tournament. After Mike tried several things and figured out what he would do in the tournament, he said he was going to show me something for mine.

In the BFL, if you don’t have at least a limit of bass averaging three pounds each you won’t do well. But in the clubs I am thrilled with a limit of two pound fish, or even just keeper size bass.

Mike took me to a rocky bluff bank and started fishing it with a crankbait. After he caught about six spotted bass in the 15 inch range I had not had a bite on my crankbait. He gave me one exactly like he was using we started up the bank again after I tied it on.

We went about 50 yards and Mike caught several more bass and I still had not had a bite. I realized he was not casting and I asked what was wrong. Mike said he was watching me trying to figure out what I was doing different. He said as far as he could tell I was fishing just like he was. He started casting again and again caught several bass.

By the time we got to the end of the bluff he had landed 14 keeper spots – and I had not had a bite. The only difference we could come up with was he was using ten pound test fluorocarbon line and I was using 12 pound monofilament.

The next Sunday in my tournament I had a reel spooled with ten pound fluorocarbon line and the crankbait Mike gave me tied on it. I went to that bluff bank and fished it, and never got a bite!

Really good fishermen have some kind of special ability to catch fish. It is almost like a sixth sense that tells them exactly how to fish to catch bass. I seem to get little doses of it on rare occasions but nothing like they have every day. That is the difference between the Joes and the Pros!