Fish Like a GIRL

Whether it is a tackle bag, a tackle box or a whole boat, this is the time of year when we, as anglers, go through everything we carried around all year last year.

“Oh! I forgot about this one!” is likely a familiar exclamation in garages and basements across the Northwoods when avid anglers (and, I think, especially tournament anglers) really sit down to go through everything they have been carrying around throughout the open water season. It is just a thing we do. The old “what if” creeps in all the time. For me, I know I start out the year in a fairly reasonable fashion. I have my confidence baits, the stuff I know for sure I am going to use. If I happen to have couple of difficult tournaments, or I do not do well on a favorite lake, out comes the dump truck…

“Beep. Beep. Beep.” Just back that thing up to my tackle bag or my boat and dump in everything. Yes, everything. I mean, what if I have a bait at home that might be just the bait the fish want, or I need just a slightly different color, but I do not have it with me? What then?

A non-angler might ask where the logic is in that. Honestly, if I am being honest, I do not think there is much logic in it. 

As a bait maker, I can honestly say that our first aim is to catch the fisherman, not to catch the fish. All of us bait makers are always looking for the next hot thing, the thing that one guy in that one big tournament said he caught ‘em on that one time. That is the bait we will all be making next week. From there, it is about marketing that bait. You would think those of us in the bait making world would then “know better,” and not get tricked into needing 17 colors of the same bait. But that is simply not the way an angler’s brain works. We are meticulous when it comes to finding the “spot on the spot” and creating way points and even keeping fishing logs. But when it comes to baits… see above.

Each winter I am always shocked by the amount of “stuff” I have managed to pack into my tackle bag by the end of the year. Even with it crammed to the top, I still go through the other baits Chet has in the boat, just to make sure there are a few more things there — just in case I need them.

But, let me be completely honest, there have been tournaments where I have only picked up one rod of the seven or eight that I bring along. When I was running my own boat rather than being a co-angler, I often had 15 rods or more in the rod locker. But there are many times that I will not put down the one rod with which I start. I will use the same bait in the same color all day long. It depends on how the day starts. If we wind up on good fish right away in the morning, I have had days where I would die with that same rod, with the same bait, in my hand. Off the water, with hindsight being 20/20, as they say, changing it up might not have been the worst idea. But it gets into your head. You caught a four-pound smallie in the first half an hour and had a little more luck through the next two hours, so you cannot psychologically make yourself put that rod down and grab another. I am speaking of myself, certainly, but I know a good number of other tournament anglers are the same way.

So, what is that bait that I will throw all day if I catch a few fish on it? Will I give up “the juice?” Of course I will. And I will give it up right here because I know if a reader tries that bait and does not catch as many fish with it as they do with their own favorite, the rest of that pack will likely be found next winter at the bottom of the rod locker or tackle bag. That bait, that super special, only known to me bait? A skirted double tail grub on a football shakey head. 

That is the top secret “juice.” That said, I do not seem to have as much luck with these days as I did years ago, but most of the lakes we fish now are much more pressured than they were back then. The fish get smart. That is how they get big and old. Just like humans, fish do not get old by making bad choices.

If we are being completely honest, when we look at color, in dark water, black and blue is the ticket. If that does not seem to be working, I move to black and red. In clear water, I am using either green pumpkin red or watermelon red. And that should be the extent of it. Of course, that is not the case, but it can be that easy. But what if tilapia is the hot ticket, or black and green is the flavor of the day? I suppose it is easy to see how this happens, even for non-fishermen, when it is explained like that.

I remember a conversation with one of my “coffee guys” back when I was a restaurant manager. He loved fishing, too, and we often swapped stories and tried to help each other out when one of us was struggling catching fish. He was going through a hard time once and asked me what color the fish were hitting.

“Bob, you can throw any color you want,” I told him. “As long as its green.” That was true at that time. Green pumpkin or watermelon, and the flake color did not seem to matter for weeks: red, green, gold, orange, purple. It did not seem to matter, which was a lot of fun for the couple of weeks it lasted.

Here is the kicker — what works for me and on what I am catching fish after fish, may not work for the other person in the boat. We are no more than 20 feet away from each other, closer to 10 or 12, and we are targeting the same fish, but if the other person does not have the same confidence in the bait, he (or she) will catch fewer fish with it. I can almost guarantee that. It is a weird fishing phenomenon.

I would love to hear about everyone’s favorite baits, or even just a favorite color. Feel free to drop me an email — and do not forget to send in fish photos, whether they are ice fishing or “soft water” fishing photos.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].