“What were you using?” This is the most common phrase used by anglers; whether it be at the boat ramp, tackle shop or a meal after a long day on the water. Nearly every angler is looking for that magical lure that is going to catch fish anywhere and at any time. Anglers are also often looking for the fishing report and a main part of that is the “hot lures”. Today I am going to answer the age old question and share the best walleye bait of all time.
The best bait of all time needs to be effective on every body of water. It needs to work on reservoirs, large natural lakes, small ponds and everything in-between. This also needs to be effective at every time of the day in every weather condition. Luckily, the best bait of all time fulfills all of these requirements.
The best bait of all time is confidence. There is no substitute for confidence no matter when or where you are fishing. This is for a variety of reasons. When an angler believes in themselves, their presentation and their location they are going to fish differently. They will be ready to catch a fish every cast so they will be always be ready for a hookset. Over the course of a day or season this is going to result in more fish landed and a decreased percentage of “misses”.
Confidence also is going to make an angler stay at that spot longer. The argument can be made that it is important to be mobile and find active fish. I do believe this is a terrific mentality and approach, but you need to have confidence in that approach. Running around the lake with no plan is not “covering water”. Covering water involves having a game plan in place and fishing a certain amount of time at each spot in the pursuit of active fish. This is one strategy that when practiced properly is quite effective.
Confidence is key whether you are covering water or looking to commit to a spot. I call this “staying anchored”. This does not necessarily mean you are putting an anchor out, but rather have a firm believe that you are going to catch fish in that spot and that means you stay there and continue to fish. This involves more time with lines in the strike zone and less time moving. This gives the fish the opportunity to turn on, move in or just finally show the angler what they like. The saying “don’t leave fish to find fish” is extremely accurate. If you know you are on fish, it is a much better to fine tune your presentation as opposed to run across the lake in hopes to find more.
As far as presentation every angler is going to have their own favorite baits. This may be something that they caught their best fish, a bunch of fish, or learned from their fishing hero. There often is going to be an underlying theme of effective baits, but the exact parameters may vary. One boat may say “Berkley Flicker Shads really whacked them today”. The boat next to them may be doing just as well with Rapala Shad Raps and the boat that just got off the water before them may have a limit on Salmo Hornets. The main theme here is that the shad profile was working, but the exact bait really did not matter. I often find that themes like these are present, but the exact bait goes down to what the angler prefers. If they are confident in that bait, they usually catch fish.
About 7 or 8 years ago, I was fishing a small reservoir in eastern Nebraska for largemouth bass and I was asked once by a gentlemen at the boat launch, “I’ve never fished here and I’m pretty new at this so I was wondering what color the shad were in this lake. I was told that I ‘had to throw a Shad Rap’ here”. He went on to explain that he was looking at all the different colors of lures and was really stressed about what was the right pick so he bought a wide variety. I replied to him and said “There actually are not any shad in here, this is predominately a bass/bluegill lake. No matter where you are the shad are going to be the same color though.” Confused, he went on to ask me what I usually used and I replied, “generally a spinnerbait here”. He said “I don’t have any of those, but I’ve done really well on Chatterbaits. Do you think that could work here or not?” I told him if that was a bait he had a lot of confidence throwing he would probably have a terrific day on it. The lake is fairly small so I was able to see his boat and I watched many nice fish come into his boat over the course of the day.
This was an example that stood out to me of an angler, particularly an angler new to the sport or certain water body, feeling they had to use a certain bait even though they never had tied one on before. I can personally never think of a day that I HAD to use a certain bait. Generally once I was on fish and figured out the size, profile, color, speed, etc there would be at least a handful of baits that worked for me that day.
I do not believe there is a magical lure on the market. However, I do believe that there is a magical lure for each individual. No matter what you fish for or where there is no substitute for confidence on the water. This confidence will come from experience, successes, failures and lots of trial and error. The key is to have the confidence in yourself as an angler that you will learn from the ups and downs, gain the experience and that will lead you to baits, locations and presentations that will become “secret spots” and “magic baits”. These will be different for everyone, but for each angler they are going to get a little more excitement every time they go to “their spot” with “their bait”. Good fishing!
