Top 3 Bass Fishing Goals for 2025: Tips for Beginners, Pros, and All Anglers

Simplify your approach, master the mental game, and embrace responsibility for a better bass fishing experience.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. A fisherman focused on the results he wants, celebrates his success at the end of the day. / Kurt Mazurek

As this year draws to a close, it’s only natural that we start thinking about all the things we’re going to do to make next year better. As bass anglers, the better part often refers to our fishing. While setting self-improvement goals for the new year is a great tradition, it’s never a bad time to start, no matter the time of year. Following are my top three suggestions for improving your bass fishing.

1.) For the Beginner: Simplify Your Bass Fishing Journey

If you’re just getting started with bass fishing, I know it can feel overwhelming. Every lure manufacturer is marketing their heart out to convince you their new offering is the only thing bass will eat. There’s so much buzz about the latest electronics that it’s easy to think the only way to keep up is to drop another several thousand dollars every year with every new tweak and upgrade the advancing technology provides. And even an old, used boat and a pickup truck with 150,000 miles on it are beyond reach for lots of us. It can quickly become pretty discouraging.

But, no worries! Bass fishing is so much more than buying the latest and greatest stuff. And I don’t mean that in a negative way about advancing technology and progress—it’s great for the sport and I embrace it. But I promise you, you can catch a very satisfying and worthwhile amount of bass with whatever gear you can afford.

The author with a beautiful smallmouth bass caught on a canoe float trip. Big catches don’t need big budgets—just practice, patience, and any means available to get on the water! / Mike McSwain | Broad River Smallmouth

Focus on Bass Behavior Over Expensive Gear

Way more important than what you can buy, is what you can learn about bass behavior and patterns. You can develop your casting skills and your senses to understand the difference between a bite and a snag. You can learn to interpret the current weather conditions, seasons, water condition, forage, etc., and make decisions about the most likely way to catch a bass. 



Keep refining and learning from your results and soon you’ll be catching lots of bass. And you’ll have a rock solid foundation that will make you a much better angler in the big picture. As you do start to grow your gear collection, you’ll be much better equipped to make good buying decisions and end up with the things that will actually improve your results.

2.) For the Pros: Strengthen Your Mental Game

One of the most appealing things about bass fishing is that almost anyone can become great—any age, any size, any gender. Unlike a lot of competitive sports, the physical requirements for a successful bass angler are fairly minimal.

Yes, casting mechanics can play a role on some days, but after anglers reach a certain level of proficiency, the difference between the absolute best caster and the rest of the pros doesn’t usually show itself in the tournament results.

Your knowledge of bass behavior and your interpretation of a bass’ reaction to current conditions is the next area anglers focus on, and rightly so. Some anglers develop the ability to connect with that underwater world on a higher level—the great Aaron Martens comes to mind. This takes time, study and dedication to master, but again, information about bass behavior is pretty widely available and reasonably well understood. A vast majority of the pro field will be at least very good at understanding bass.

Focus equals serenity on the water: A bass angler embraces the peaceful rhythm of fishing in the moment with a clear mind. / Envato | Wirestock | DGB632K

Why the Mental Edge is Key in Bass Fishing Tournaments

There is one area that a majority of your competitors ignores, or at least doesn’t fully embrace. Maybe this line of thinking is considered to “woo woo” for some, but this is where you can make advancements in your tournament fishing that will sometimes defy explanation. The real difference between the best and the rest happens between the ears, the mental game. Your ability to think critically, to ignore distractions, to remain in the moment, and to stay focused can jump you to the top of a field you thought you couldn’t beat.

Learn from 'The Art of Learning' to Optimize Your Performance

It will take a bit of commitment, but not any real financial investment. And, even bigger than tournament success, the power of clear thinking will positively affect your whole life. I’m not sure why people shy away from this, but use that to your advantage. Here is a great place to start. The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. This book is not about bass fishing, it’s about optimal performance. The story happens to focus on an international chess champion who became a Tai Chi champion—both activities that like tournament bass fishing, are more mental than physical. I promise you, read or listen to this story and it will change the way you think about a lot of things. Worst case, you’ve invested the price of one good jerkbait. Best case, it might set you down a path that unlocks the key to your tournament success.

The book "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkins is just as important to the author’s bass game as any other traditional fishing book in his library / Kurt Mazurek

3.) For Everyone: Bass Fishing Responsibility and Accountability

I don’t want this point to become preachy. I’m far from perfect myself, and I don’t believe I should be in charge of telling anyone else how to live. Picture this for yourself and decide if this sounds right to you.

Small Actions That Create a Positive Impact on Fishing Communities

Embracing personal responsibility and accountability is the cornerstone of achieving your fullest potential and realizing your dreams. It really is an empowering way to live and a useful way to improve your bass fishing. It couldn’t be simpler and you can start right away.

Understand that your actions can have a negative or positive impact on those around you. Have you ever pulled your rig into the middle of the launch ramp and then started taking the cover off and loading gear from your truck, even if there is an obvious, out-of-the-way spot to take care of those things without making the ramp useless for everyone else? Do you justify that action, by reminding yourself of the time someone did that to you? Plus, you don’t know them. Why should you care? But now, imagine a world where that has never happened to you. Would you prefer that world? Be the person who creates that world.

Responsible launching: Courteous angler, Shane Beisner, always preps his boat away from the ramp, keeping the launch process smooth for everyone. / Kurt Mazurek

Embrace the Golden Rule: Better Angling Starts with You

Have you ever seen trash laying on the ground in the areas you fish? Would you prefer a fishing environment with or without trash? Have you said to yourself, I hate seeing that but I didn’t put it there? Consider the possibility of picking it up when you leave and disposing of it properly. The argument that then you’re just encouraging the offenders is pointless. No one wins. Take the small amount of effort required to protect and enhance your favorite place to spend time doing the thing you love.

The B.A.S.S. Conservation Clean-Up Challenge is an initiative to encourage anglers and boaters to tackle the problem of...

Posted by Bassmaster on Monday, March 14, 2022

Have you ever offered to help someone by grabbing the rope as their boat approaches the dock you’re standing on? Have you ever given a stranger a handful of whatever soft plastic worked well for you that day? Have you ever contacted your local Department of Natural Resources and volunteered to help clean up a lake or assist with habitat improvement?

The list of opportunities for personal responsibility and accountability is long. I could write specific examples all day. But this concept is super simple and it’s something we’ve all heard, “treat others the way you’d like to be treated”—it’s the Golden Rule.

Keeping our lakes beautiful—every small action, like picking up trash, makes a big difference for the fishing community. / Envato | kjekol | C6KDD87

May your future be filled with success, happiness and a long list of personal best bass fishing experiences and memories. Cheers!

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