That's My Story

PRESENTATION IS HALF THE BATTLE!

Originally published in Western Outdoor News week of Oct. 9 , 2007

Maybe you’ve heard a fishing pal yank your chain a bit and tell you, “To catch a fish you have to think like a fish!”

Easy to say. Funny to hear. Ridiculous to apply…or is it?

It’s not so far-fetched if you give it some thought into getting into a fish’s head. You would think that with our fat craniums that can put a man on the moon we’d have the advantage over our piscatorial quarries who have brains the size of a splitshot sinker. The fish are surely overmatched! Ha!

Still, they seem to outsmart the majority of us more often than not. So kicking up your success rate with fishing means figuring out what’s going on in the fish’s grey matter!

Presentation is half the battle.

Consider your own eating habits. Good food is good food Bad food is bad food, but food that looks good, even if mediocre sure helps! That’s probably why fast food and coffee shop food is so popular. It’s not the best chow on the planet but put in the correct surroundings with a little garnish; a pleasant waitress; clean plate; some crayons on the table; good fragrances emanating from the kitchen; and a cook that doesn’t look like he also picked up the garbage in the alley goes a long way towards enticing us to eat!

Same with fish.

It’s not just the taste. It’s the whole sensory package so your presentation is often the critical issue, especially if the fish are touchy. If the bite is WFO and they’re eating everything except the paint off the boat, no need to read further! But enhancing the presentation can give you an edge when the bite is tougher, touchier or you just want to catch more fish than the next guy.

Take your hook size. For example, all you have for bait is a 6 inch sardine. All of a sudden, several striped marlin appear. Sure, you should probably use a big forged 8/0 hook, but if you stab your little sardine with a huge hook, that little ‘dine probably isn’t going to swim so well. Use the largest hook you think you can get away with but still keep your boat looking like something Mr. Billfish wants to eat.

Likewise with line. Again, there are trade-offs to be made.
Remember that your small bait already has a hook stuck in him. Now he’s on the end of yards and yards of line that you feed out. Line is heavy. Line is stiff. Try pulling a bunch of wet rope through the water. It’s tiring.

As you feed more line and the longer that little bait stays out there, the more tired it gets. It’s not swimming so well anymore. He doesn’t look so good anymore to a gamefish compared to another bait nearby that’s lively and energized. Go with the lightest line you can get away with , but be careful of using line that’s so heavy your bait might as well be pulling a chain. Change your bait often. Keep your bait looking good.

How you pin your bait also affects it’s attractiveness.

Several things to consider. Fish, generally always swims forward. So, pinning a bait in the butt or on it’s backside then slow trolling it drags it backwards. Quite an unnatural swimming motion, not to mention you’ll kill the bait. Same with putting a lead on the line. Except for a few exceptions, the lead will also drag your bait backwards or keep it swimming irregularly. Best on both occasions to pin your bait through the nose. In both situations, a nose hooked bait swims better and looks better.

Finally, let’s talk about smell. Again, this is an important part of your presentation. You know yourself, that food that smells good sure goes a long way to getting those neurons in your brain saying…EAT! EAT! EAT! Conversely, when food smells bad, it can be perfectly good, but you surely don’t want to fork it into your mouth. In fact, usually if it smells bad, it is bad.

Old timers will tell you that smell is just as important to fish. These days they make all kinds of scents to put on your baits and lures. Some actually add a “fragrance” like shrimp or anchovy or somesuch. Others “mask” the human odors we just normally impart to everything we touch either because we pick it up or else it comes with our human oils.

But, I was taught long ago, that even being careful about what you touch can go a long way. My hand that touches bait does not touch my burger. It does not touch other oily things like motor parts. I do not scratch my face with it or use that hand to apply sunscreen.

If I do touch something, I immediately “re-stink it” by crushing a dead bait in my hands or washing it with soap and water (if available) then getting the soap scent off with whatever is handy like an old bait or some commercial scent. The point is, I get the unnatural man-made scents off my hands and do not touch anything that might affect the fish’s appetite!

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.