Go Ugly

Go Ugly

There are many pieces of advice I have given over the years I have fished but this one will be different as it has to do with taking the visual experience you get from looking at a bait and deciding to use it. Many times, we all gather baits in our tackle box and see an old ugly bait that maybe someone gave you or it was in a grab bag you got at a tournament and say man that thing is ugly.  Well, I’m here to tell you if the fish aren’t biting and you keep looking through your tackle box what you have got to lose, tie that bait on and give it a try. Many times, that ugly bait to you may very well be what the fish are looking for and it gives your day a boost.

There are several reasons this can be successful, the first is today’s lakes are pressured like never before and something ugly may be a presentation that the bass may not run from because of the pressure. They may not recognize it, it may have a different wiggle, movement or color that attracts a bite. It may drop differently or explode out of a stop and go retrieving that creates movement the bass have not seen and hence you catch a fish. It’s a common fact that the bigger fish are always reacting to something different in movement or size as they have been caught many times by commonly well-known and seen baits. Different can be good and ugly can be great; give it a try.

This past week on the water I fished with a guy that pulled out ugly bait, fishing was in a tough period of the day, the bites were at a premium so he tied on one of these ugly baits and preceded to catch some fish that we couldn’t get to bite prior to that. The bait was pink in color, weird looking and thick but it had a different wiggle. The movement was not one I had seen before, it reminded me of an old swim bait I used to fish; guess what it worked! It just reminded me of this old thought I had gone through my head: go ugly when nothing else works.