Inside Angles: A Business Plan—Making Magic on the Water

It helps to have an overarching perspective of what’s at play as we try to put a presentation plan together—no matter the fish species. A business plan, you might say, so we can make magic on the water.

The ideas Buck Perry taught so many years ago remain constant. Depth control is the first order of business, followed by speed control or, said another way, the way we work lures (and present live- and deadbaits). No surprise that these factors usually play forth in obvious fashion in our magazine articles. A case in point:

I have been intrigued the last several years, following the exploits of Casey Ehlert and Lyal Held online, catching big bass on crankbaits in November when our fishing in Northcentral Minnesota is about to crash as ice cover sets in. By this time, the classic skirted-jig bite has usually died. So Field Editor Steve Quinn puts into perspective how they’re catching these fish from water that often has dipped below 40°F. The tactics could apply anywhere largemouth bass swim and water temperatures dip into the frigid range, even if ice cover doesn’t set in on waters farther south in North America.

Quinn emphasizes both speed and depth control. The crankbaits must run within a couple feet of bottom; that’s where the smaller panfish are that bass are feeding on; so, given the water temperature, the bass aren’t going to chase much beyond that (depth control). And, although cranks often are run at a constant slower speed to trigger fish in cold water, in this instance, pausing them and having them suspend dead still is the final key element in getting them to bite (speed control).

I spend a lot of time on the water after largemouths this time of year, too. Fishing with skirted jigs and soft trailers is a fundamental way to extract big bass from remaining weedgrowth (and other cover) most of the fall, until just about the bitter end. With Ehlert and Held weighing in we now have a better understanding of where some of the bass go and what they’re doing when the jig bite dies during the last week or two of the season.

I might interject, though, to add further perspective to this mix, that when the skirted jig bite dies for me I still often do well with paddletail swimbaits. The best paddler bodies are the grinder style, as I call them, because they have so much action slowly retrieved like a crankbait once they’re counted down to depth. The best of them, like the Berkley PowerBait Power Swimmer, especially the smallest one at 3.8 inches, on a 1/4-, 5/16-, or 3/8-ounce jighead, produces a body waggle in conjunction with the thumping paddletail. It’s tough for bass to resist, even in frigid water. Indeed, the thumping likely is even more distinguishable to fish in cold water, because the water’s denser then. Same with crankbaits.

Which points out that other variables are part of what can be an intricate process after those fundamentals (speed and depth) are in order—lure size, profile, and color, for example. (Quinn takes you through those factors almost in order.) We’re working on the fish’s senses, trying to trick them into sampling what we’re presenting to them. As we have so often said, that’s the way we speak their language. Get those variables (and others) right and we predispose fish into feeling comfortable enough to bite—especially if the presentation also “feels good.”

In most cases, after depth control and speed control are in order, it’s the vibration pattern that we suggest to fish that finally triggers them. Humans have the same senses as the fish we pursue, save one, a lateral-line system that senses low-­frequency vibrations in the water. It’s a sense fish use once they get close to a prey item. Our presentations must first look good, and finally, feel good.

We were the first entity in fishing to discuss fishery biologist Stephen Spotte’s observations about “fish footprints and fingerprints.” He discussed how swimming movements are sensed by fish with their lateral line.

Fish generate hydrodynamic vortices as they swim. The wakes slowly fade away, but not without alerting predators or prey that pass through these trails to the owner’s location and distance. These hydrodynamic trails can be called “fish footprints.” The size of a wake depends on the size of the fish. The distinctive makeup of the wake also varies by species. So “fish footprints” are unique to each species and can be recognized and used by predators and prey—thus they are also “fish fingerprints.” Trails can be distinguished from background water movements for several minutes.

So, using their lateral line, fish like bass that happen through a trail of another fish can tell what fish species it is (fingerprint it) and probably tell if it’s swimming badly—is injured. Likewise, fish can track a school of minnows or other preyfish, sensing the school in larger context as it moves—and track individual baitfish as they break away from the crowd.

The same overarching factors are at play in the articles for each of the fish species in every In-Fisherman issue. Depth control and speed control are paramount and fundamental to the process, but other factors also play a role, especially vibration. It’s all part of the game we play attempting make a connection with the fish. It’s our business plan to make magic on the water.

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