Senkos

[RSBreth]

Al, you are zeroing in on how the angler's mind works with this comment. Yes we all have our favorites and we also carry all these other baits we've *heard* might catch fish like crazy so we've bought them just in case. But you know what? We never go out and fish that new bait first thing out, but stuff it in the back of our tackle box and forget about it. Then, a few trips later when all the favorites just aren't working, we dig deep and find *that* lure that some guys on a message board RAVED about so we automatically think yep, this is it, this will solve all my problems! So we put it on and on a day when NOTHING else works, guess what? THIS LURE DOESN'T WORK EITHER! But because this is the new guy on the block, and the one with all the hype, we think, screw that thing, what was I thinking?...The guys on the message board don't know *WHAT* they're talking about.

This is exactly right. The time to experiment is during a hot bite, not when nothing is working. So next time the fish are slamming your "favorite", try something else. I know its sounds hard to do, and it is.

Al's right about the topwater thing - my favorite lure for walk/wade streams is my popper on my 6-weight fly rod. I sometimes out fish my spin fishing buddies because the are using some tube or Senko or whatever when the fish are aggressive and looking up.