Commit to Experiment

Keep an open tackle mind on the water

By Shaun Bailey

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No matter what lake your on or what the conditions are, if it’s your home body of water or if it’s the first time on a lake across the country, one of the most important things to a successful day on the water is to always remember to keep an open ‘tackle mind’.

By constantly taking new approaches, buying new and innovative baits, changing lures, styles and techniques you will see a huge increase of fish you catch both in pre-fish as well as in tournaments. I make a full time job of fishing tournaments both pro-ams and team tournaments and am constantly on the search for the next great bait. I’m always trying to get a competitive edge on the fish and my competition. Whether its making a bait myself, modifying a store bought bait or searching through tons of Internet web sites to find baits that I think will be new to the fish and fit the present conditions. Honestly, having a bait in a tournament that your catching them on that no one else is throwing and the fish have never seen before is one of the biggest confidence boosters for a tournament day on the water. I've won more tournaments than I can remember on baits no one has or are virgin to certain bodies of water.

I see a lot of guys who are set in their ways and are not versatile or unwilling to experiment. They end up catching their fish the same old ways they did in pre-fish, but to my mind that's not what pre-fish is for at all. Pre-fish for me is a time to explore outside the box and look for the glory hole. I use my pre-fish as a time to approach a lake differently then most anglers do ordinarily, by exploring new techniques and baits. I’m always trying to find a new way to catch fish. Try to use your practice time wisely but also do some exploring with a bait you have never caught a fish on before, just try different stuff constantly.

If you know that there are fishermen catching fish on a jig or a drop shot, then spend 3 hours slow rolling a chatter bait or scrounger, on the bottom and super slow. Baits can’t be eliminated from your arsenal until fished on all types of structure for a proper amount of time. Too many people put a bait down after a short time. You may have fished a few points with a new bait and got no bites, then moved on to some deep water walls and ran a bunch of rip rap bank, still no bites and its been 2 hours. Most people would put it down, but little did you know that all you had to do was move to the flats and slow roll it deep and it’s like live bait. All of a sudden the bite improves. The point is to eliminate everything before retiring a bait for the day. You don't have to go outside of the box too far, but try something the fish haven't seen much of, and keep and open mind.

Some of the best bass fisherman I know figure out bites and patterns daily. Having 15 or more rods on the deck, driving around like a crazy man from spot to spot, throwing everything in the book trying to figure out the dominant pattern. Before you know it they have it dialed in and are catching fish like crazy. I'm not saying this happens all the time, but the guys who keep an open mind and run and gun, get rewarded by occasionally winning a tournament, and sometimes more than once. An angler may find a bait or a spot and run with it for a couple of tournaments but most tournaments are won on a variety of baits and patterns. Certain lakes may vary, but a guy who says, "Every tournament on this lake is won with a jig", isn’t always right. I hate to be the one to break it to you but ... there's always a better way to catch ‘em. A good friend of mine, Doug Riha, once said that to me and since then it has screwed me up a time or two, by putting down an amazing pattern to try to find a better one. But it has also opened my eyes to a whole new realm of fishing.

Anglers, who always strive to find the better way, win tournaments plain and simple

Recently I had the pleasure to join the pro staff of a company from Japan called Evergreen International. Basically they make the best fishing tackle I have ever seen and used; from hard baits, spinner baits, top waters, line, rods and more. They basically sent me everything they make. A few baits were very different and I knew instantly I would be winning tournaments on these baits, and that we did. In testing all these baits my partner Mike Rooke and myself found a bait manufactured by Evergreen that we won not one but two team championships. The grand prize for winning these championships was brand new boats. Without keeping an open tackle mind and trying everything that was new and available to me we might not have won those two boats this year. Another key example for me was at this years U.S. Open. Another amazing sponsor of mine, Huddleston Deluxe, offered to custom carve a top water bait especially for me to use in the tournament. Ken Huddleston came through and delivered a bait that got me 4th place in the tournament. Not only did Ken custom carve me a bait, but also custom painted 4" Huddleston Shads for me that put fish in my box almost daily. Once again I was throwing baits that no one else was throwing on a pressured Lake Mead and for me that was the ticket to success.

By always keeping an open tackle mind on the water, and adapting to change constantly, I'm sure you will have more success and have a more fulfilling day on the water when all is said and done.