Try Something New This Season 
By Mike Frisch 

To this angler, one of the most enjoyable things about our sport is that it presents opportunities to fish for different species of fish using a variety of equipment and lures. One of the most exciting aspects of fishing is when we try a new technique, maybe one we’ve heard about from a friend or read about in a magazine or seen on television, and it works. The only way to experience this excitement, however, is to try new things. The following is a look at some things that can help anglers find success when trying new fishing lures and presentation techniques this season.

Try something new when the fish are biting

Often, anglers will only try a new lure or technique when their tried-and-true techniques won’t work and they’re desperate to find something that will catch fish. However, this usually is not the best time to experiment with something new. Not only will you probably not be real proficient with the lure or technique, but you probably won’t have confidence in it either. These two factors often combine to result in further angling frustration.

Rather than experimenting when the fish aren’t biting, I’ve found it’s usually better to learn a new technique or use a new lure when the bite is good. Oftentimes when the fish are active, they’ll hit a variety of lures or baits and, the skills in presenting that bait usually don’t need to be as keen as they need to be when the bite is off. Trying new things when fishing conditions are good can make for a good catch that can serve as a real confidence booster for the angler. When that happens, the angler is very apt to try the method again and eventually it will probably become another member of his or her fishing bag of tricks.

Stay with it

Even when the fishing is good, it may still take awhile before success is realized using a new technique or lure. Therefore, it’s important to have some patience and to stay with the method. Some anglers will tie on a new lure and fish it for a half-an-hour and discard the lure to the bottom of the tackle box if it doesn’t catch fish. Like learning any other skill, fishing a new method or using a new bait will probably require a time investment before the angler becomes proficient with it. However, the time spent in learning the technique is well worth it when the results start coming in over the side of the boat.

Take only one rod

A couple of years ago when plastic “creature” baits first came on the market, I had my eyes opened to the potential of this style of bait when a fishing partner caught several big bass on it. I quickly obtained a selection of Power Hawg creature baits and went fishing. However, rather than taking a bunch of rods rigged with various baits, I took only one rod rigged with a Power Hawg in the boat. This forced me to stay with the lure when I wasn‘t catching fish, even though I may have otherwise been tempted to switch to a presentation I was more familiar with. After a couple of fishing trips, I started to catch decent numbers of fish on the bait and now it has become one of my go-to techniques for big bass.

As I alluded to earlier, if you want to get good using a new lure or presentation, it takes practice. Only having one rod and lure type in the boat forces you to stick with that lure and can help you “get good” with it quicker than if you had the option of switching methods. In essence, it increases your practice time with the new lure or technique.

Fishing is enjoyable for a lot of reasons. One of the real exciting times in fishing is when a new lure or technique leads to angling success. Keeping some of the things just presented in mind, can help anglers learn new techniques that can help them be more successful. Good luck on the water this year!