Who Says You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?

I'm living proof that you can. In many cases, it's a matter of unwinding some of the bad habits I've picked up over the years.

Back in the day, for example, I fished soft plastics with worm hooks and pegged the lead sinkers with toothpicks, until I came to realize the damage I was doing to my line. I subsequently graduated to using little pieces of rubber bands to peg the sinkers. With the passing of time, though, I fell out of fascination with all soft-plastic fishing. When I started back again, I adopted a lazy man's style: using weighted hooks, so I didn't have to bother with any sinkers or any pegging.

That, however, was all before I started spending concentrated amounts of time in Wayne's boat. As he has pointed out to me on a number of occasions, he's a guy who's "anal" (his choice of words, not mine) about everything he does. I've witnessed that for a lot of years now, as he performed maintenance on my boat. It's only been recently, though, that he has been getting a first-hand look at my bad habits on the water and realized some changes were needed.

With his help, I'm getting back to using unweighted worm hooks and tungsten sinkers pegged with bobber stops. Had no idea the latter is what a lot of folks are using nowadays. As a result, did some research online and found out that bobber stops can serve multiple purposes.

Bass pro and Phoenix Boats founder Gary Clouse, for instance, says they also work for adding versatility to a lightweight Carolina rig in shallow water. He puts on a bobber stopper, then a 1/4- or 1/8-ounce sinker, then another bobber stopper before tying on the hook. This gives him flexibility as needed to shorten or lengthen the distance between the lure and the weight. Or, if you decide you don't want to Carolina rig, simply slide the sinker and stoppers downs to the top of the worm, and you have a Texas rig without having to re-rig.

Clouse went on to explain that, with a little ingenuity, you can create other uses for bobber stoppers if you put some thought to it.

For example, he was fishing a Smithwick Devil's Horse one day and kept having problems with the bait's nose prop and/or front treble hook getting caught in his braided line during a retrieve. Some guys reduce this problem by tying a 6-inch, heavy monofilament leader between the braid and the lure. Just by trial and error, Clouse discovered he could do the same thing with a series of bobber stops.

He picked up a rod that had a pegged sinker and 40-pound braid, cut off the lure and removed the sinker, then shoved the bobber stop forward, in case he wanted to put the worm back on that rod. He subsequently got to thinking and added three more bobber stops, tied on the Devil's Horse, and slid the stoppers down against the nose of the bait. "It worked beautifully," said Clouse.

However, I digress. Getting back to me and my faults, I've also learned the value of using Real Magic line dressing on my braid. I use it on all my rods to start the day and add, as necessary, to keep all of them casting smoothly throughout the day.

Coupled with a little luck, perhaps this back-to-basics course I'm undergoing will register a boost in my numbers...oops! make that our numbers, 'cause as Wayne keeps reminding me, we're a team. In any event, the retraining certainly can't hurt.