Maciulis: Remember the ‘Three Cs’ of fishing
By Bob Maciulis For Sun-Times Media April 12, 2014 12:21AM
Updated: May 14, 2014 6:40AM
Regardless of the animal or species, whether they live in the water, in the forest or on the open prairie, the requirements for survival are the same: Cover, Convenience and Comfort.
The three Cs. It’s how you can pare down every question you’ll ever ask when trying to find the fish, find the birds, find any game.
Animals need shelter to protect them from the environment as well as from predators. They need to be close to their food source, and that source needs to be sufficiently plentiful. They also need a certain climate and specific environmental conditions.
When all three are available, the species survives and thrives. If any one is missing, the outlook could be bleak.
Instead of waiting for the chat rooms or outdoors columnists — me included — to tell you where the fish are hitting, if you know the basics that apply to your favorite species, you’ll be there when they arrive and fishing will be fantastic.
There is an old saying that just about everyone who fishes has used at one time or another: “That’s why they call it fishing. Not catching.”
Just when you think you have it all figured, when you think you know exactly what you need to do to catch your favorite fish, they turn the table on you.
Of course, that’s the challenge of fishing. It’s part of what makes it so much fun. Basketball wouldn’t be fun if the hoop were 4 feet wide and 5 feet off the ground. Baseball would be boring if everybody got a hit every time at-bat.
Fishing would not be fun if you caught a fish every time you lowered the bait into the water. Sure, it may be fun the first couple of minutes, but the thrill quickly would fade.
The mystery of what goes on below the water line is what makes fishing so intriguing. The more we learn about how fish live, where they live, what they eat and how these all come together, the more enjoyable fishing will be.
There are three basics that govern fish behavior. Understanding why fish do what they do will enable you to find them regardless of the time of year, the time of day or the many other factors that can affect their behavior.
We can boil it down to the rule of the “Three Cs.”
It is a simple way to remember that everything fish do, like most animals, can be boiled down to “Cover, Comfort and Convenience.”
After cover, comfort is important in determining where you will find fish. They are cold-blooded creatures. That means their body temps mimic that of their environment. Learn what temps your favorite species needs.
The third “C” represents convenience, which is the most difficult of the three to interpret. Yet, it’s the key to finding and catching fish.
For each species you fish for, however, you have to think through the three Cs based on the type of cover that species needs, the preferred temperature range they require and how close they are to food.
Legendary guide Bruce Becker, of Watersmeet in the Upper Peninsula, summed it up perfectly.
“Fish? They’re like teenagers. All they do is eat, sleep, then wait for the next meal. Find what they’re feeding on and you’ve found the fish you’re looking for. Muskies, walleyes, bass, crappies — it doesn’t matter. Find their food? You’ll find them nearby. It’s that simple.”