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| Learning how to get the most out of your lures is another important variable that can't be over emphasized.
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Are You Controlling What You Can?
Part 3
By Stan Fagerstrom
If you’re after consistent success as an angler, controlling those few variables over which you actually have control is essential.
If you’ve read my last two columns you’re aware they dealt with two of these variables. They were casting ability and selecting the equipment best suited to handle the problems you’re facing. There’s a third equally important variable and it’s the subject this time around.
So what is it? It’s learning how to best use the lures you select for the species of fish you are after. The anglers who put the most fish in their boats do a good bit of study and research where their lures are involved.
Let’s say the last time you read a story about walleye fishing the writer told how he had made a dandy catch of those elusive critters using a new lure designed for trolling. A day after reading that piece you visited your favorite tackle store and picked up a half dozen of these lures for your own tackle box.
Now that was a good move, but it’s not end of the story. Knowing that a lure is productive is one thing. Knowing how to use it to give it the best opportunity to put fish in your boat is something else. Every now and then I run into newcomers to fishing who seem to think all you need is a rod, reel and line along with a pocket full of lures and you’re in business. It just doesn’t work that way.
I had a hand in the design of the Mack’s Lure Pro Model Stan’s Spin spinnerbait. I expect I’ve thrown that lure in more places and for longer periods than darn near anybody. Am I a cinch to catch bass on the lure that carries my name by using it in the same fashion each time out? No way! I won’t and you won’t either.
Now don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. A spinnerbait is a great lure for a beginning bass angler because it does get a fair share of fish even when it’s simply cast out and brought back in with a medium fast retrieve. But limiting yourself to that one procedure doesn’t begin to tap the lure’s full potential.
I recall once checking in at the airport in Guadalajara, Mexico. I was on my way home from a fishing trip to Mexico’s big and beautiful Agua Milpa Lake. I’d had a great trip to that Mexican bass factory. One of the highlights had been twice taking five largemouth to 5-pounds on successive casts. Every one of those ten fish came out of brush filled shallow coves. They all smashed into a Stan’s Spin I’d rigged with a black and blue skirt. I used a fast retrieve that kept the lure racing along just beneath the surface.
Once I got my boarding pass at the airport on the way home I noticed someone waving at me from across the room. It was Shaw Grigsby, a valued friend and one of the top tournament bass fishermen in the world. Kevin Van Dam, another world-class pro and two-time winner of the Bassmasters Classic was with him. They were on their way home from Mexico’s Lake El Salto. That’s another Mexican bass fishing paradise I’ve fished a good many times.
Grigsby and Van Dam had been at El Salto to do a television fishing show. Shaw told me he and Kevin had some of their best success at El Salto throwing spinnerbaits. Did they get them with the same fast retrieve I had used so successfully at Aqua Milpa? Not even close! Their most effective procedure had been to cast their spinnerbait and let it fall all the way to the bottom. They let the lure rest for a heartbeat or two, then jerked it up. Often it was---wham! Fish on!
This is an excellent example of what I’m taking about. Here we had the same type lure being fished in two different lakes. The technique that got the best results in one was the exact opposite of what got the best results in the other.
I’ll share some additional thoughts about lures in my final column in this series. Watch for it beginning April 1.
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| This Stan's Spin spinnerbait will catch its share of fish---and then some. But as with most bass lures you have to learn how to present it in a fashion that appeals to the fish. |
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