I supposed I should start with an apology. It's only Week 2 of my "Thursday Tips" plan, and I've already messed up and let a Thursday pass. Instead of abandoning the notion for this week, I'm going to go with a Thursday tip on Friday morning and hope to do better in future weeks. So with apologies, here I go:
When I start asking pros and guides about lure presentations, they almost always say something about experimenting and letting the fish dictate their preferences. Usually that part gets offered with a semi-apologetic tone. Pros know it sounds cliche'. They also know we'd all like a simple, straight-forward answer about the best presentation for a given situation. However, they also know that the answer is not that simple, and that in most cases you truly do need to mix it up and then pay attention to what produces the strikes.
I hear and therefore write this advice in one form or another so frequently that it almost seems to elementary to offer as a tip. The fact is, though, that most of us need the reminder because we truly don't experiment often enough, and when we do, we don't pay sufficiently careful attention the common denominators of every strike. It's so easy to fall into a rut with presentations, simply assuming that if fish don't bite it's because we're not around them.
Specific things to vary depend upon the lure you are using. For a jerkbait, vary the sharpness, length and cadence of jerks and the length of each pause. For a spoon, vary the sharpness of lifts, the line tightness when the lure drops, whether you make bottom contact, the length of pauses between lengths...
The key is to remember to too mix it up -- unlike me, forgetting to post a Thursday tip yesterday!
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