INSIDE ANGLES
The Magic In This Seemingly Outrageous Presentation

By Doug Stange

» When 4 out of 5 fish completely eat a five-inch plastic bait fished on a half-ounce jighead, and you're outfishing two other anglers (In-Fisherman staff members) in a nearby boat by 9 to 1, the fish are telling you something.

» When you can work along a weededge, casting the same five-inch plastic bait, and catch 25 fish in two hours, while a half-dozen boats in the vicinity, using more standard presentations, scratch only an occasional fish, the fish are telling you something.

» When you can use the same presentation in areas where other In-Fisherman staff members are catching lots of fish, and you catch lots of fish, too, but your fish average at least a pound larger per fish, the fish are telling you something.

» I could go on.

Among the most amazing things I've seen the last two seasons is how differently (aggressively) fish sometimes respond to some plastic swimbaits, fished in situations where other anglers are fishing more-standard presentations and getting subdued fish response. The swimbait presentation can be like turning on a light switch to unexpected response. I mean, the response is absolutely the exact opposite of what others are experiencing and anyone might reasonably expect, based on most past experiences. If fish will barely eat a small offering, standard thinking seems to be, they certainly won't attack (literally) something two or three times larger.

In the first case above, the other anglers were pulling standard spinner rigs tipped with crawlers, working along a weededge for walleyes. In the second case, the other anglers were using a variety of standard walleye techniques, from rigging to jigging to pulling spinner rigs. In the third case, anglers fishing for bass insisted the primo presentation was a 4-inch worm finessed on a 1/16-ounce jighead. The bass weren't responding to crankbaits and spinnerbaits and larger plastic worms. The anglers insisted, based on fine-tuning through a variety of standard presentations, that "finesse" was the key to catching the bass.

In the first two cases, fish response to the swimbait was 180 degrees different than responses to more standard presentations--major aggressive response in a situation where most anglers would swear the fish are in a negative mode. In the third case, fish response was much the same, but the responding fish were larger.

I have now seen these responses so often in a variety of instances that I'm no longer surprised. First, consider fundamental points about presentation: How we choose to fish dictates fish response; that is, the presentation mode we choose dictates fish response. Choose a different mode and it's sometimes possible to get a much different response. That's the heart of the presentation game we play when we're fishing. We're conducting experiments to find out what fish respond to best.

In this case, though, choosing a presentation that seems completely out of place by comparison to standard presentations may result in responses that are completely and almost unbelievably more positive. The response to swimbaits has at times been as magical as anything I've seen in my lifetime of fishing.

The bait I've fished the most in a variety of situations is the Berkley Inshore Power Swim Bait, now called the Power Bait Swim Bait Shad. I fish it on an Owner Saltwater Bullet Head jig, which is a great jighead and one of the only heads I've found that has a hook shank long enough to couple with larger plastics. The 1/2-ounce jighead has a 3/0 hook; the 3/4- and 1-ounce heads, a 5/0 hook. The Berkley Swim Bait Shad fished on this head, has a beautiful three-in-one swimming action, with the bait actually swimming along slightly as the tail thumps and the body rolls left-right, like a flashing crankbait.

I would love to spend more time fishing a variety of swimbaits from different companies. One of the most compelling is the Storm WildEye Swim Bait Shad, available in 4, 5, 6, and 9-inch models. I'm told by hardcore angler friends that the two bigger models are two of the finest baits for huge bass. On these baits, the leadhead is molded into the plastic at the head of the bait. Although weight for these baits isn't listed, the 6-inch bait seems like it has about a 1/2-ounce head. This bait also has a super lifelike swimming action and distinct thumper tail. While the Berkley bait rigged on the Owner head can be fished slow or fast, the Storm bait fishes well at slow-to-medium speeds.

I can't promise that you'll have similar "magical" results if you fish these baits. I wouldn't know why not, though, although, of course, these baits don't apply in every situation. The results may be impressive in some, perhaps even many situations, but no bait is the key to every presentations problem.

The funny thing is how hard it is to believe. I fished with Charlie Moore, director of the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail, to complete a television piece in June (the first situation mentioned at the beginning). Charlie's seen almost everything there is to see in walleye fishing, traveling the country as he does, working with the best walleye anglers there are. "I know you've told me about it," he said, "but the truth is, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, hadn't actually seen it with my own eyes." He repeated those sentiments many times that day, as he landed walleyes that had completely inhaled the big bait he was fishing aggressively. "I mean, walleyes don't even do that to a 3-inch plastic most of the time," he said at one point. "What's going on here?"

It's simple, really. The bait has so much going for it. It rolls, thumps, and flashes (calling all fish!) and can be fished at the right speed and depth. It's one of the best looking things I've ever seen in the water. This presentation, though, just strikes most anglers as being too large, too outrageous to be reasonable in so many situations where they're used to pick-picking around with much smaller lures. Thus, the wonder of it all when it works so well--as it so often does.