The very best anglers I know, people like Kevin Van Dam, Tim Horton, Gary Parsons, Al Lindner, Guido Hibdon, Dick Pearson and Ted Takasaki, share a number of common characteristics. Most notably, they’re rarely satisfied with their results. They’re always looking for an upper hand, whether it’s the ultimate lure, the ideal presentation or a new hot spot. And as often as not they find it. But what’s surprising about these extraordinary anglers isn’t that they experiment. We all do that. It’s that they do it when the fish are active and biting. That’s the last time most of us would even think about tying on a new lure or moving to a new location. Instead, we tend to reserve experimentation for times when nothing else is working. But, if our tried-and-true lures, techniques or locations aren’t producing, why should we expect anything else to work? That’s exactly why the pros test out something new when the bite’s hot: to see if it’s worth trying when the bite’s off. Consider this example. A few years ago, Al Lindner and I were part of a group greeting the start of another ice-fishing season on a remote trout lake in northwestern Ontario. In total, the group had more than 50 hits that day, and caught and released 36 lake trout, 22 of which weighed more than 10 pounds. What’s truly remarkable, though, is that Lindner alone caught one third of them. Why the disparity? Because while most of us were thrilled with the activity, Lindner was constantly changing strategies, trying to find a better way to hook the hungry fish. He began his fiddling by rotating through a battery of new flash lures, jigging spoons and swim baits that he’d never used. If Lindner couldn’t catch lake trout on the new lures now, under the best of conditions, why would he use them when conditions were tough? Failure now meant the lure was headed for the bottom of the tacklebox. Later on, Al’s adjustments were more subtle. He sliced and diced lead off the head of his jigs to alter their weight, balance and action. Other times he made what appeared to be almost absurdly minor modifications, like when he ripped off one soft-plastic lure after another, exchanging each for an almost identical model sporting only slightly different hues. While the rest of us had a great day, Al’s was fabulous. But more importantly, he was able to file away strategic information that’s likely to help him some day when the lakers are much more picky. Even for fish such as muskellunge, which are tough to catch at the best of times, one of the quickest ways to find new hot spots is to search them out when the fish are active. So, the next time you’re experiencing the bite of a lifetime, force yourself to try something different. Put on a new lure or try a totally different presentation. And, by all means, hit that spot you’ve always wondered about. You’re sure to discover a new way to haul in your favourite fish.
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