Put yourself in a fish's shoes to catch more fish

The aim of fishing, beyond the pleasure of the activity, is obviously to catch one or more fish. Most of us want to progress and catch more fish, and it's not always easy to know how. Instead of thinking like a fisherman, let's try thinking like a fish...

Thierry Cendrier Published on January 19, 2026

Fishing is all about being in the right place at the right time, whether in terms of seasons, days or even hours. Fish behaviour varies over time and even over the course of a day. So the choice of spot and location within it is not a matter of chance. Let's try to understand how fish make this choice.

La premiÃ¨re Ã©tape pour capturer un poisson est d'identifier ses zones de tenue. — The first step in catching a fish is to identify its holding areas.

Locating fish

Fish life is governed by primary instincts: reproduction, feeding and survival. So when a fish chooses a post, it must be able to meet its needs at the time, and this can vary over the course of the season, but also over the space of a few days and according to the time of day.

When I analyze my fishing area, I will first ask myself the following questions, which are inevitably the ones the fish answer:

What's the best place to ensure my survival and peace of mind? We need to understand not only the sources of oxygen, but also the stress factors that fish will seek to escape, and the conditions that will provide them with serenity.
Where is the best place to find food? We need to analyze which structures can fix food and understand where currents will bring it in greater quantities.
Where's the best place to surprise my prey? You need to think like a hunter and identify where a predator might be hiding in the immediate vicinity of the food supply.

Quelque soit l'espÃ¨ce, la nourriture est un Ã©lÃ©ment fondamental pour localiser les poissons. — Whatever the species, food is a fundamental element in locating fish.

The right moment

Similarly, to determine the right time to go fishing, you need to understand the activity patterns of the fish you're targeting. So we can ask ourselves the following questions:

What are my strengths as a hunter (sight, speed, mimicry...) and when is the best time to exploit them?
Under what conditions is it easiest to find and surprise my prey? Think in terms of light, noise and prey activity.

En observant le milieu et en pensant comme un prÃ©dateur, on peut tenter de deviner oÃ¹ il se cache. — By observing the environment and thinking like a predator, we can try to guess where it's hiding.

Put yourself in the prey's shoes

Finally, while putting yourself in a predator's shoes allows you to identify its holding areas and times of activity, you also need to think like a prey animal.

Indeed, the presentation of our lure, in terms of trajectory, speed and rhythm, must imitate that of the coveted prey. So we can ask ourselves what path the fish we're trying to imitate will take, and what its behaviour will be when it's looking for food, or on the contrary when it realizes it's in danger.