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Let It Sit!
“Let it sit!” is the phrase I say most often when teaching lure presentation as part of my kayak fishing classes. A finesse presentation only works if the angler has the confidence and patience to let the lure remain still. The presentation refers to any number of lures. The tough as nails winter angler knows to allow the head of his jig n pig to rest on the same spot for up to several minutes at a time. Fishermen who are proficient at catching big fish with soft jerk baits will dead drift them until they come to rest on the river bottom, then let them stay right there. These fishermen know that the biggest fish almost always take the motionless presentation over a spastic one.
Anglers learn presentation skills by catching many small fish at first. Most anglers learn that larger lures catch larger fish, and begin to change their presentation techniques. Few anglers make the jump to understanding the importance of the motionless presentation.
Motionless is not completely accurate though. The most successful dead drifted lures have built in subtle motion that is initiated by either the current or the push of water caused by a curious fish. With tubes, the tentacles will sway gently in the current. Lucky Craft suspending jerk baits have an internal ball bearing that causes the bait to twitch, seconds after it came to an abrupt halt. These subtle cues are the equivalent of watching a sleeping person’s chest slowly rise and fall. Although there is no obvious activity, you know that you are looking at something that is alive.
When retrieving a reaction style bait such as a buzzbait, you immediately know when there is a bite. You see the explosion of water, hear the thrashing, and feel the impact. That is usually not the case with finesse style lures that you let sit still. Thinking back to most of the larger fish that I have caught on a tube, there were relatively few that I felt the hit, and was sure that it was a fish. Most of the time, the pressure of the taught line felt slightly different.
Peter Photenhour of Fredericksburg, Virginia explained it this way. “Have you ever stepped on gum that someone spit out on the sidewalk? Well it sort of feels like the feeling when you lift your foot, and feel the springy resistance.” That’s certainly a subtle cue. Other anglers have coined the term “feel funny”. You won’t always feel the thump of the fish inhaling the tube. Sometimes your line just feels funny, or feels different than it did a second ago. That’s when you need to remember that hook sets are free.
Duane Richards, a successful upper James River smallmouth fisherman has a sense for when a fish has rushed up on his suspending jerkbait. He makes a long cast, and his entire boat shakes as he purposefully jerks the lure into place. Then he lets it drift motionless. He uses Power Pro braided line to help him detect this subtle change in line tension. When the fish see and hear the lure come crashing into their area, they rush towards it and stop short, staring at it from inches away. Duane knows that they are there waiting for a sign of life. Sometimes they can’t stand it any longer, and take it as it drifts motionless, and sometimes Duane will give his rod a short hard twitch on slack line. The braided line conveys the vibration down to the drifting lure, and it twitches without making any forward progress. One of the three smallmouth that have been staring at it from inches away lunges forward and runs with it like a dog with a bone. Duane, who was paying full attention to his presentation sets the hook immediately.
Jeff Kelble, who guides fly fishermen on several rivers in Virginia and Maryland describes how most 20 plus inch river smallmouth take a bug on the surface. “It sort of looks like a toilet flushing. The fish positions itself under the bug, and sucks it under without touching the surface of the water.” Just like Duane Richards being able to detect a subtle “Rub” as a smallmouth rushes his jerkbait, Jeff Kelble has an eagle eye for watching a tiny toilet flush under the fly that his client is drifting.
Both Jeff and Duane have honed their senses for detecting these subtle cues. One is a visual cue, and the other is a tactile cue. Both require the angler to be paying full attention to the presentation. Many anglers miss these cues because they allow themselves to be distracted from paying full attention to the “let it sit” presentation. It’s not always the most exciting thing to focus on, but it does work.
To make sure that you are able to pay full attention to your presentation, ask yourself before every cast, “Am I ready to do nothing but pay attention to the presentation?” If you have a habit of casting, then adjusting boat position, or looking for the next place you are going to cast, then you need to correct the bad habit. Not paying full attention to each cast means that you are passing up the opportunity to set the hook on the largest fish in the water.
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