How To 10X Your Bass Fishing Skills with the “Protege Effect”

What Is the Protege Effect—and Why It Matters in Fishing

Humans have known about this for a long time. The Roman philosopher, Seneca is credited with the quote, “While we teach, we learn.” And, in more recent times, Nobel prize winning, American, theoretical physicist, Richard Feynman said, “If you want to master something, teach it.” In the 1980s, renowned scholar, Jean-Pol Martin described this concept as “The Protege Effect” or the learning-by-teaching method.

Science-Backed Reasons Teaching Boosts Angling Performance

Without getting too deep here, let me give you the basics of this concept. Our brain processes and stores information differently when we are learning for ourselves, versus when we learn something we expect to teach others, as well as when we actually teach something. Expecting to teach causes our brain to better organize the material and actively seek out the key bits of information. It can also lead to increased motivation to learn, since people will often make a greater effort for others, than for themselves. And, teaching can lead to increased feelings of competence and confidence.

Mentorship = Mastery

My Own Story: Mentoring a Co‑Worker Raised My Game

I remember talking fishing with my co-worker, Dan. He had fished growing up, but had never been exposed to the idea of focusing on a specific species like bass, rather than catching whatever may, or may not be, biting that day. Dan is a super sharp, highly analytical, strategy and numbers guy. He was really excited about the idea that he could apply those skills to fishing.

At that point, I had been fishing regional and local tournaments for several years. I had done tons of studying and had experienced tens-of-thousands of on-the-water hours. I had some successful tournament days under my belt, but I also still had a lot of fish-less days. But, now I had an intelligent adult looking to me for answers. He asked good questions and it forced me to consider everything I knew about bass fishing, and consciously produce solid answers with strong rationale.

We fished together a lot over the next couple years and even started to share some tournament success. I didn’t realize it right away, but while he was learning, my personal proficiency was improving fairly dramatically. My catch rates and consistency were going up and my tournament results showed it. I felt increased confidence in my abilities as an angler. And none of these improvements were happening on a conscious level for me. It took a year or two before I put the pieces together and realized the positive impact that sharing my knowledge had made on my own fishing skills.

5 Simple Ways to 10X Your Bass Fishing Through Teaching

1. Invite an interested but relative inexperienced angler—kid, spouse, co-worker, etc.—to join you for a day on the water
2. Look for opportunities to share a mini lesson: your favorite knot, why you picked that lure, fish behavior, etc.
3. Consciously reflect on each trip: what did teaching reveal to you?
4. Join local youth fishing programs as a mentor
5. Answer questions and offer tips on online forums or social media groups

Give Back, Fish Better, Keep Bass Fishing Strong

No matter what level your bass fishing skills are at currently, there’s always room to move up. And if you think about it like this—one of the best ways to improve yourself is to have a positive impact on someone else’s life and make a positive contribution to the future of the sport you love—how can you go wrong?