Scenario: Warm, sunny, flat calm conditions,or highly pressured fish. Tip: The Do Nothing Technique. Cast one of your Meat and Potatoes Tackle Company lures to an area you feel should be holding fish. Let it sink to the bottom on a slack line. Even if you've thrown it right into a root wad or brush pile, if you don't move it, this technique will rarely lose your lure. Let it sit there. Let it sit. And sit. Let it sit there for one minute without moving your line at all. Now point your rod tip at the lure on the bottom. Start reeling up the slack line quickly with your rod tip pointing straight at the lure. When all the slack line is gone and at the moment you feel tension on the line, increase the speed of your retrieve still more and at the same instant, sweep your rod tip up over your head - keep cranking fast so that you can still keep the lure coming as you slowly lower your rod tip back down toward the lure again. Keep reeling as fast as you can and keep pointing the rod tip at the lure. One of two things may happen when you start retrieving the lure: First, a fish will jump on it immediately. The fish has had it's nose literally on top of the lure since it hit the bottom. It wonders what this is and as a predator, it is waiting for it to show sign of life so that it can pounce on it! Second, it is following the lure and will jump on it closer to the boat as the lure nears the surface and possible escape. This fish is still not convinced the lure is a meal it wants, but as the lure nears the surface - and possible escape - greed takes over. The fish has to make up its mind: do I grab an easy mouthful or do I let it go. Usually the bite takes place. What is happening with this technique? Whatever the scenario is as stated above, these fish are in a neutral if not negative frame of mind. It's not the lure that is wrong and making fishing so tough in these conditions. Instead, it is going to take a special tactic to incite fish to feed on artificial lures at these times - fish can even hesitate on live bait. But this technique incites riot. Fish are suddenly as aggressive as fish can get. That's a switch! Exciting stuff when a good fish hits your lure at the boat! Once I had a 40" musky come halfway out of water to latch onto my Meat and Spud Spinnerbait. What a fight, and this fish hadn't even gotten back in the water yet! At times such as these, and they are all too common in the summer, this technique can be a pattern that you can count on all day as you go from spot to spot around the lake. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Think out of the box and don't be afraid to do things you would not normally do.
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