Up the Down Staircase
EVERYONE WANTS TO catch big fish. It comes with the territory. We up our game, looking for the edge, constantly wondering if we missed something, never completely satisfied with what we’ve got or what we know.
From the very beginning, most bass fishermen feel earthbound. They cast out from the bank, yearning for the day when every inch of shoreline will be within their grasp from the front deck of a big, beautiful bass boat. Can’t hurt to dream, can it? According to Bassmaster Elite Series pro Chris Zaldain and California big-bass legend Bill Siemantel, it can.
To them, the dilemma is not with the dream, but with the reality: Most bass fishermen, most of the time, cast in the wrong direction.
“If you’re on the bank, you want to cast out as far as possible, and if you’re in a boat, you want to cast to the bank. It’s really a weird thing,” offers Zaldain, who is one of the few professionals dedicated to swimbaits and the uphill retrieve. “By simply placing your boat on the bank and changing the angle 180 degrees, you are 10 steps closer to the natural and realistic.”
For decades, this has been a core tenet of Siemantel’s philosophy, one that
