Something I've always tried to do, dating back to my tourney days, is use something different than the majority of guys out there.  That line of reasoning applies to week-end anglers today as the sport and wealth of information has grown.  I also believe that many of the recent innovations have come from an effort to do just that, show them something different.  I'm not just talking baits, but presentations as well.  One of my favorites is C-rigging small cranks for deep water applications.  Another is using bulky hair jigs with a trailer rather than traditional skirted jigs.  I still use these and others to give the fish something they don't see much of and they continue to produce with better than average results on pressured waters.

What do you do, or throw, that is out of the norm? It could be something as simple as rigging a tube backward, or as complex as a major modification to an existing bait.

Early in the year I throw bright spinnerbaits to fool stupid bass . Around June those bass are a bit wiser so I throw subdued colored skirts with a bit smaller blades . A gold willowleaf main blade with a copper colorado secondary blade had put several hundred fish in the boat the past two  years . Thats a combo I never see anyone else throw . I dont know if its better than more traditional blade finishes but it works and its something they are not seeing elsewhere .

What do you do to show them 'something different?

 

Admittedly, I do not usually 'need' to do a whole lot of this.

However when the local brown bass population is in or around skinny water, but

generally seems unwilling to eat a jerkbait and shows little if any interest in any of my topwater offerings, I break out the Rapala Sub-Walk. 

I've been doing it for a while.

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/42340-michigan-reports/?do=findComment&comment=432906

I've mentioned it in a few threads over the years.

Annually, despite not being one of my top producers over all,

I still have has enough success and memorable trips with it, 

that it's still a very viable option IMO.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

Finesse presentation on our local lakes are predominate with everyone drop shotting or Ned rigging. Still a few  big swimbait anglers around. 

Summer in SoCal is all about Threadfin Shad schools so that is the blue plate special of the day everyone selects.

Oddly structure spoons and tail spins disappear until fall, but work very well for Shad school bass along with Matty’s (Jig with tail spinner in lieu of a trailer). 

Ned jigs have replaced Dart jigs with curl worms....why is beyond my comprehension, Darts out fish Neds for school bass.

My standby Hair jigs w/ pork trailers bass rarely see unless I am on the water year around.

Tom

The main reason I started fishing with jigs is because I don't see a lot of anglers using them around here.  Most of the time it's more about the presentation, and where to fish it,  than the bait itself.  In the small lakes and ponds around here the only time I fish with a t-rig is when I want to use a creature bait or craw.  Plastic worms get rigged weightless, on a split shot rig, or on a c-rig.

What do you do to show them 'something different?'

 

IDK! Turn my hat around  backwards!

51 minutes ago, Catt said:

What do you do to show them 'something different?'

 

IDK! Turn my hat around  backwards!

Backwards for you or for the rest of us?

This is how I show em something different.

5 minutes ago, Black Hawk Basser said:

This is how I show em something different.

 

I tie on the latest most expensive lure some one on tv says is new and revolutionary I purchased just for those times when not even dynamite works.

I up size and down size virtually everything and I have a lot of success doing so. How many threads have you read, articles have you read, and videos have you watched about the "best" size or "do it all" size? Everyone out there is throwing the same size. That's how I show them something different.

I stuff the body of a craw inside of a tube then Texas rig it. 

I fish naked. Works every time. ???

30 minutes ago, huZZah said:

I fish naked. Works every time. ???

 

Over sharing! ?

34 minutes ago, huZZah said:

I fish naked. Works every time. ???

What ever you do...DON'T post any pics!

The uploading sideways just didn’t seem realistic…

Not much really. 
The one thing I started doing and having fairly good success with is adding a rattle to a weightless stick bait and to a punch craw. 

It may be common for some, but I was having a hard time getting bit from the back deck at a B.A.S.S. Nations Pro/Am 
and tried it. 

It saved the day and ended up qualifying.
 

 

 

 

 

Mike 
 

Not sure how unorthodox this is because I am not a huge crankbait guy, but I like to pause my retrieve for a second and then give it one or two jerks like I would a jerkbait. I've gotten a lot of strikes doing that, especially in peak crankin' season. 

 

I know some guys basically do the opposite of this and crank jerkbaits, but I have never had any luck doing that. 

About all I see guys using around here are Texas rigged craws...senkos..keitechs, chatterbaits and whopper ploppers. So I throw ribbon tail and curl tail worms...flipping jigs...spinner baits...swim jigs with menace grubs or single tails and buzzbaits.

Not sure how well I can articulate what I'm thinking, but here goes. 

 

I see a lot of people getting caught up in what you're "supposed" to be throwing a particular time of day, water clarity or season of the year.  Though I believe certain lures perform best in specific situations, it doesn't mean they won't work at other times.  Sometimes showing them something different is as simple as not limiting yourself to the norm.

 

Single bladed spinnerbaits, sometimes a small size. Buzzbaits modified a lot to get them squeaking real good. Try a dremel sander for that ?. Later in the year I will slow roll spinnerbaits. That is a technique all but unknown around here. But there’s a lotta youngsters around here so if you throw something other than a senko or chatterbait, you’re already doing something different lol

Yo-yoing lipless baits off shore is something I am fond of doing . I dont see a lot of other anglers doing it . 

In my lakes fish rarely see my Shadow Rap jerkbait. So when it get tough, I start throwing that and sometimes I'll be rewarded with a few fish!

Around here, in the spring, everybody and they're dog is a fisherman. At that time, it's harder to show them something different,  because lots of guys are throwing every lure under the sun.                                                               Once it starts getting hot, only the diehards remain. I usually downsize, soft plastics. It's worked enouph times over the years to make me a believer.

This was my "something different", last Saturday. Really heavy pressure during a tough bite on tournament day, I leaned on a 5" Mister Twister Poc-It Phenom worm on a 1/16oz EWG Ned head for a lot of my bites including my biggest of the day. Pitching the Menace at stumps and laydowns while everyone else fished jigs and beavers got a lot of the rest of my bites including one of my second largest fish.