You know how you hear a little bit of this, a little bit of that, an offhand comment in the hallway at a sports show? And how, after a few years, they come together somehow to form a link? For all of us, fishing is a lifetime study, both fascinating and frustrating.


Just about the time you have it figured out, you come off the water with your tail between your legs.


About the best any of us can do is talk to great anglers, read good how-to articles, then blend all that information and advice with our own experiences. And let randomly-tossed tidbits come together on their own time.


One stream of originally disconnected thoughts that has landed in a common corner of my brain has to do with presentation. Is it possible that, no matter what type of bait you're using (including live bait), that your approach to presentation goes a long way toward determining the response you get from the fish?


Fish are weird, we all know that. But are we sometimes the guilty party when it comes to 'finicky' fish? Do we sometimes bring out a finicky response by fishing with misguided 'finesse,' when a more active presentation might elicit a savage strike?
Doug Stange, Editor in Chief of In-Fisherman, absolutely came right out and said so in an article in the March, 2003 issue. Writing about fishing soft plastics for walleyes, Stange was making the case that 'Thumper' plastics (plastic bodies with pronounced, heavy tails) need to be fished more aggressively than we typically fish a nightcrawler impaled on a live-bait rig. Walleyes often 'react finicky' in the presence of live bait presentations, he argued, when in the same situation 'they respond to larger and measurably more aggressive presentations:with a more aggressive response.'


Stange's are not the only words ringing in my mind. Larry Dahlberg is convincing when he talks about bringing out the 'predator rush' in a big fish by tweaking the triggers with an erratic, vulnerable presentation. He is a master at making a Rapala look like a real minnow that's struggling to get away. The biggest mistake most anglers make, Dahlberg says, is to 'pucker up' when a big fish rushes the bait. In other words, that's no time to stall out. Must make it look like your lure is reacting to the presence of the predator, or the big fish will often lose interest in the chase.
Mentally, most of us fall prey to the effects of a cold front. We give the fish no credit at all for being interested in, or capable of, eating. Might we not be guilty of babying those fish to the point that we lull them to sleep with our 'finesse' offerings?


Scott Fairbairn, a member of the Rapala pro staff, picked up on telemetry studies that suggest walleyes may travel more after a cold front than before it. So he has actually begun to troll Rapalas faster, to cover more water, on post-front days, with good success.


Doug Johnson, a legend in musky fishing circles, described in a recent issue of Esox Angler magazine that he has changed his approach on post-front days, too. He still relies on fishing methodically and thoroughly (his trademarks), but now uses smallish bucktails and reels them in fast. That, he says, is 'sort of opposite of what I used to do, but it seems to work well.'


Cold front or no cold front, it seems to me that fish do respond in kind to the way we present our baits. Cold fronts help make the case, because we have always believed fish are less aggressive under those conditions, and have often slowed our presentations to a crawl. That's our response, not the fish's. Lately, I have come to believe that a convincingly presented crankbait, often fished aggressively-even in post-frontal conditions-brings out a big-time response from a variety of fish.
Bits and pieces of this have been there for a long time. After reading Buck Perry's classic book, 'Spoonplugging' as a teenager, I have been out there with the rest of you, trying to get 'reaction strikes' from fish, often by bringing baits past them at a high rate of speed and/or intentionally causing the bait to bump bottom or other cover.


Having said all of this, it does seem that some fish need time to react, especially bass. But it also seems that we think our way out of catching a lot of fish by not trying active presentations more often.


Even in cold water, even after a cold front, if you twitch and burn a Husky Jerk, a lot of fish seem to forget they're supposed to be lethargic when it comes flashing by.
It's certainly one of those ideas that begs to be experimented with. Does your approach to presentation determine the response you get from the fish?
In fishing, it may come to be understood that you get what you ask for.