Think out of the box

[biteme]

Im guilty of not thinking out of the box. I watch a lot of fishing shows and sometimes get caught up. I rig baits the way Ive been shown on the package or on film. Such a odd thing for me. In everything Ive ever done Ive always bent the rules, but not with fishing. Build a car, do it my way. Build a cycle, my way and on and on. Sitting here today for some odd reason I started to think about this. How do I get out of doing this and get confidence at the same time?
I went fishing with my dad a few weeks back. When my dad and I go out I pretty much know that its a day for us. The goal is to relax and spend time together. So Im chuckin big baits. I look behing me and theres dad sitting on the rear seat. Hes not into fishin as much as me but does like to go out. Because hes relaxed and doesnt care as much he often tries what I would think of as crazy stuff. There he was throwin a three inch worm with a darter head hooked in the middle. Pretty much wacky, but a three inch worm! He caught a bunch of fish that day on that setup.
How many of you are stuck in this rut?

[Tin Can]

I'm definitely guilty of this. I find myself doing the same old things day after day. Sometime I have a really hard time just putting down a bait that I have confidence in even if I'm having a slow day with it. It's as if my brain is telling me that if I put it down the fish will then want it. lol It's ridiculous. I definitely need to become more versatile. It just realy hard to gain confidence in something new.

I fish for fun so my goal first and foremost is to catch fish, so I'm always starting out with something I know, and then I just can't get away from it.

I will say that I have probably learned more new techniques this past year than I have in any other year. Mostly due to this forum and the helpful people here. Hell, a year ago I had never caught a fish on a jig, seriously, I fished for bass for the past 15 years and only picked up a jig in the last 12 months! I thank the LL's for that one. I have much to learn and many a painful experimental day on the water in my future. My goal this year is to experiment and learn as many new things as I can.

[Marone]

My Dad is the king at this. He is always trying new things and has amazing names for them.

A few weeks ago, he had a black 5 " senko wacky rigged on a brown 3/8 oz wadda jig. He was dragging behind the boat in Franks. If he had the rod in his hand, he may have caught the fish, but it got bit! And slammed hard.

If poeple didn't think outside of the box, then how would techniques develop. The wacky rigged senko is a perfect example of this. Very effective, even more than the traditional way to rig a senko for me.

Here's one, 10" inch cut tail with a needle weight in the nose, use an O ring on the last 2 inches of tail end and put your hook in that. Looks like a worm with it's head in the dirt wiggling to dig?

[FishaHallic]

I am guilty of this for sure, I am not sure I would call it a rut though. I like throwing the baits I do, like a topwater because I enjoy a topwater hit even though I could most likely catch more fish throwing something else . I think it is just what I feel comfortable doing. Now the one time I let someone talk me out of my comfort zone and I caught a PB........go figure .

[ash]

I get some quirky ideas on my thinking seat, I mull them over in my head and will setup a rod with the configuration when I am just out fun fishing. Usually I know what I think the presentation will be good in and wait for the opportunity to present itself.

During tournaments I dont get really crazy, I stick with my confidence deals unless I get a gut feeling about changing something up, then I am working on building confidence in my gut.

If I am working out a variation of a technique I typically work it out when the bite is good vs trying something during an off bite.

[Ringer]

How about taking my S-I-L to a night tournament and he hasn't fished much. He told me he was bringing his Banjo minnow kit and I told him fine but don't leave it in plain view and don't tell anyone. I didn't want to get laughed at. You guessed it a 7.5 pound $400 fish!

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

If you stop and think about it, there is no reason the Banjo minnow shouldn't work..My main thing agains it is the way it was advertised..They always had some "world champion fisherman" on that I never heard of..Kind of turned me of from the git go..

I have always heard of Carolina rigging a crankbait..I have never tried it, but when you think about it, it does make sense in that you can get the bait deeper and keep it there..I have always wanted to take one of my broken lip crankbaits that has the line tie in the nose of the bait and not the lip, sand down the remainig lip and rig it Carolina style..Unfortunately all the crakbaits that I have broken the lips on lately have the line tie on the lip and some how it always seems to be on the part of the lip that broke off..

I have no problem thinking outside the box, I just have a problem actually doing it..Chances are a lot of us have this problem..

mac

[Tin Can]

I have no problem thinking outside the box, I just have a problem actually doing it..Chances are a lot of us have this problem..

mac

You nailed it! I think of all kinds of things I could try, actually doing it is another story.

As for the Banjo minnow, it's just another plastic bait and I'm sure it does catch fish, but it's definitely geared more towards catching the angler than anything else. My buddy keep threatening to bring some when we fish, we're going tomorrow to a lake where the bite is pretty good. I'm going to try to drop shot one.

[Marty]

Thinking outside of the box is no problem in fact I thru that box away. The problem comes in when the fish don’t want to get outside of that box!

Marty

[lunker punker]

What box? There is no box!

[ash]

The one between our ears....