Inside Angles: Multiple Means to the Goal of Great Fishing

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As each new year begins, we celebrate not only by getting another season-timely magazine in your hands but also by beginning another year of In-Fisherman TV. The new TV year begins on the Outdoor Channel, playing there for 6 months before playing another 6 months on Sportsman Channel. You can also catch In-Fisherman TV on the World Fishing Network.

The TV show remains one of the most popular outdoor programs of all time. The format is simple, straightforward, and memorable, as In-Fisherman editors take viewers to fish for three different fish species in three different parts of North America on each show. Smallmouth bass, crappies, walleyes, muskies; and pike, salmon, sturgeon, largemouth bass, catfish, and carp—plus inshore species like tarpon, redfish, and stripers. It’s an exciting mix, with emphasis on teaching about fishing, the fish, and the world they live in.

We have also more recently highlighted another means to help you catch more fish and enjoy your fishing and viewing even more, with the opportunity to subscribe to MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). MOTV allows access, on demand, to thousands of hours of material and episodes generated over the years by the top outdoor television producers of hunting, fishing, and shooting programming, including In-Fisherman.

The next step in this viewing connection to In-Fisherman magazine is for us to recommend specific viewing opportunities that match timely fishing topics as the seasons roll along. Space in each issue is to be dedicated to a highlighted topic, along with MOTV viewing opportunities that vividly illustrate the topic in action. It’s hands on visual help.

I might, for example, revisit what I’ve taken to calling the “light-switch phenomenon,” my characterization of a lure presentation set of circumstances in which a change in presentation tactics dramatically changes one’s success, totally transforming a situation. One minute the fish are small and few between—and with a switch in tactics (often a dramatic switch) the fish suddenly are large and plentiful. It’s the closest thing there is to magic in fishing.

I have often written over the years that fish can’t tell you they like something if you don’t show it to them, exhorting anglers to be willing to fish bigger and more aggressively in situations where they more normally fish small, employing finesse tactics. And when those tactics aren’t working, they too often assume the fish are even more tentative than first anticipated and temper back even more.

Anglers tend to be too timid and fish too small most of the time. If what you’re doing is too aggressive, let the fish tell you. Swinging for the fences should always be an option—part of your repertoire—even though most of your presentation changes necessarily won’t be so dramatic.

It’s now long accepted that walleyes often totally engulf 5-inch paddletail swimbaits when they won’t touch a plain jig and minnow. And the reason we continue to talk about “rippin’” retrieves with spoons or lipless lures is because so often they totally change how fish respond. At times rippin’ can be like magic in making fish respond when you would otherwise swear they aren’t even there.

You can watch the light-switch phenomenon play out for smallmouth bass on In-Fisherman TV (Season 42, Episode 25) on MOTV. One graphic example of spoon rippin’ played forth on a late-season trip to famous Mille Lacs Lake. It’s the last week of October and water temperatures are in the low-40°F range. Hair jigs and Ned rigs would be normal fare for a day on the water—slow and easy on the slow grind and swim. Instead it’s hardcore spoon rippin’ that’s on display.

Another varied approach is illustrated on a trip with In-Fisherman Field Editor Steve Ryan, as we demonstrate retrieve tactics, and how modifying retrieve speed and cadence can flip the light switch to more big bites (check Season 43, Episode 18).

That’s part of the challenge of fishing. We generally suppose there are no magic lures or presentations, but at times something comes close—right time, right place, right fish, right presentation, and we light up the playing field; light switch on, lights out for big catches. Said another way: Presentation right, fish bite. Presentation wrong, fish are gone.

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