Becoming a better fisherman?

[piranha]

Definately time spent on water as well as broadening your knowlege of species, lures and techniques by any means , I live in Australia but spend most of my time looking at lures and techniques that you guys use in the USA and the japanese bass market to help improve my fishing for a different species of bass down here.

quality lures definately make a big difference, only 12 months ago i was an average bass fisherman using plastics, poppers and walkers, then tied on some OSP bent minnows and wholla fish coming thick and fast due to using a technique and lure that not many fish down here have seen before

[MRQturbo]

Fish with others... It is amazing what you can learn from someone else and vice versa...

[toddmc]

You need three things to continue to improve as a fisherman. 1. Experience (time on the water) 2. To continue to take in knowledge (possibly through reading articles and fishing seminars) 3. To fish with people that fish differently than you (possibly through tournaments).
I started bass fishing as a teenager in the early 80's and quickly found that reading articles or fishing the golf course ponds around me only got me so far. Fishing with other fisherman often forces us to look at things differently and to improve. By fishing club and later team tournaments in my teens, I began to see how people approach things differently.
It wasn't until I got my first boat that I really figured out that every day on the water is a new learning experience, even when you don't catch them. I hated coming in after not catching them so much that I realized that I must constantly fish pro-ams as an amateur to learn new things that I may not necessarily learn on my own, even though I will also fish as a pro on bodies of water that I already know.
I've become an extremely versatile fisherman by being willing to try new things even when I am catching them. It helps to have lakes in my backyard. I'll be sitting around thinking about the weather and conditions and a light goes off about how I can do something new. Next thing you know, I am using that technique to catch them on the bigger bodies of water.