Learn to Think Outside the Tacklebox

Let's say you're fishing down a 300-yard section of shoreline with laydowns, scattered stumps, and logs. For the past few fishing trips, you've been catching fish on a spinnerbait, but your first pass down the bank today yields only one small bass.

The wheels in your brain immediately start turning. You wonder, "Did the fish leave? Did you catch most of them?"

All these scenarios and more will run through your mind, while never once considering the possibility you might trigger the fish into biting by just changing lures or presentation with the one you're currently throwing.

Instead of tossing a spinnerbait, why not switch to a shallow crankbait? If a front has pushed through recently, you may need to slow down to something like a Texas- or Carolina-rigged worm. These aren't drastic changes--just simple adjustments. Often times, the fishermen move around more than the fish do. Change your tactics before you change your locations.

Fish get conditioned to seeing the same lures time after time. One of the quickest baits they get used to seeing and becoming leery of is a buzzbait. When the fish start slapping at a buzzbait or missing it on the strike is a good indication it's time to switch to a topwater prop bait. You will be making the same presentation but with enough of a change to make the bite pick back up.

Along the same lines, I remember one windy spring morning a few years back when I had been watching lots of surface action along a particular stretch of wind-blown shoreline, but the fish would have nothing to do with the Buzzjet Jrs. I had been throwing--they wouldn't even swat at that topwater bait. I went through a whole series of color changes, with the same net results.

It wasn't until I just had made another cast and was letting the lure rest while I thought about the situation, that I discovered the problem. It was my presentation. After letting the Buzzjet Jr. sit there at rest for several seconds, I, with no forethought, took a quick turn on the reel handle, and a bass suddenly jumped all over the bait. For the next 45 minutes or so, it was nonstop action, as long as I would let the bait rest, then make a quick turn on the reel handle, and if necessary, repeat the process. To say they were "hammering" the bait would be an understatement.

I also read about a guy and his friend who had a Christmas Eve tradition of going fishing. A couple of years in a row, they fished a shallow lake during a warming trend. The first year, they noticed the bass kept spooking as soon as their baits hit the water. After nearly an hour of watching this happen, the one guy decided to tie on, of all things, a popper.

One huge explosion then followed another as the duo spent the rest of Christmas Eve afternoon catching between 20 and 30 fish. The next year was the same thing all over again.

A young fella once asked a seasoned angler what he considered the key was to becoming a good fisherman. The seasoned angler thought for a moment, then said, "Learn as much as you can, and be on the water as often as you can. Read and do your research on techniques, study weather patterns and fish behaviors, but whatever you do, never ever stop learning."

The seasoned angler paused, then added, "Also remember this one thing: Don't be afraid to take all these things that 'should work' and throw them out the window and start over again from scratch. Allow yourself to find what works. In short, learn to think outside the tacklebox."