Daring to be Different

By Big Rik and Stuart Dennis

Rik: It’s spouted often enough by people that you shouldn’t follow the crowd with regards to bait, rigs, etc, and that approaching things ‘differently’ to everybody else may give you an edge.

Rik with a nice common – a ‘different’ approach led to its downfall

But what edge and what is being ‘different’?

On some waters the anglers may all be using a very similar method. For example, they may all be spodding out a couple of kilos of small seed mix and fishing a boilie over the top.

In this case, a single hookbait is being different. If the majority are using coated braids, then supple braid or mono is being different.

But how different can you be? Hasn’t everything been done before? To some extent, yes, but a lot of it comes full circle.

An example.

A club/day ticket water near to me was originally a small fish, pleasure venue dominated by maggot and small hooks. The carp got bigger, the lake got more established and the public started to feed the ducks that abounded on this lake. The fish ate the bread, the local anglers cottoned on and bread became the dominant bait. Sensible angling and taking advantage of a situation.

Four or five years down the line and everybody is still using bread, but the catch rate has dried up dramatically. Enter Rik, with a gallon of maggots and a small spod and I’m catching more fish in an evening session than normally get caught over a whole week. Nothing outrageous, nothing startling, no wonder rig or bait, just being different.

Stu: As a rule I will always try to be different (and for me I’m pleased to say this has landed a couple of bonus fish) but it could well be deemed risky and time consuming to establish a new and/or different approach. I’ve always been experimental and have always looked to improve on the latest rig or the latest presentation. Unfortunately, sometimes to my detriment, and based on pushing the boundaries too far, this has resulted in a blank. Have I kicked myself for breaking some of my own rules? Well, the answer is ‘yes’, but that’s just me.

I can also see little attraction for many to break away from the pack and turn their back on methods that have landed a few whoppers in the past.

Fishing for most is a learning curve where bit by bit you add techniques to experience, and the sum total is watercraft. The best advice anyone can give is to wander around the venue without your rods, sit and observe, and ask a lot of questions. Eventually your watercraft kicks in and you are able to make a sound judgement on the information garnered, no matter if it’s from some guy giving you the spin to put you off the going bait or a good Samaritan steering you in the right direction regarding depths.

All information collated should be deemed as a launch pad only and lead to you to investigating the venue for yourself. That being said I wouldn’t necessarily take much notice of the going bait, so to speak, and opt for something I had confidence in and also that could be relied on as a hitting bait like Maple8/Fusion/Source/Clubmix, etc, etc. The reason I say this is based on the following:

If you had a 10 acre water with 10 swims all of which were fished on a regular basis and the top rod was catching three upper 20’s per week on meaty pineapple (and for some ungodly reason he was vocal about it) then I’d imagine the majority would start using the same bait. The other good baits would be ignored and a trend would start and the whispers would turn into shouting and the shouting would say that the best bait for that lake was meaty pineapple. But would that be the case? I’ll let you work that one out for yourself but hasten to add that within weeks everyone would be on that bait and the application of method would veer towards the rig that the top rod caught on and so on and so on.

So how would I approach it? Well, over a few weeks there would be loads and loads of meaty pineapple in the water with everyone fishing it. Yes it may have populated the lake and may start to establish itself as a ‘norm’ bait and yes I’d stick one rod out on it. But the other two would fly out with something completely different based on considering what the not so vocal other nine anglers may or may not be catching on. The worse case is that I start catching on meaty pineapple and change all rigs to follow the same, but I’d be prepared to bet that the odds of me catching on something different would be far greater than just following the pack.

Rik: But how different?

Although Stuart uses more particles these days than boilies it certainly gives a good example. So I’m not questioning his tactics and his use of boilies but if everyone is using boilies, whatever the flavour label, why stick with them?

Is that being too different?

Light scattering, heavy concentration, broken baits, pellet shaped… the permutations are endless, but is that different enough?

For some waters a subtle change may be enough: lead size, hooklink length, etc, but for some it may be a case of needing to start from the opposite end of the spectrum. To some anglers this may be too far out.

How different should you go and how different do you need to be? Or will you be changing things just for the sake of it?

So many whys, buts and ifs.

Stuart has alluded to us constantly pushing the boundaries with regards to many facets of our fishing, which to me is part of the enjoyment I take from the sport, be it rigs, bait, bait application or any of the other myriad of variables that can be tweaked, changed or enhanced.

Every trip will see us with something new or different as we constantly force the boundaries further and further afield, some times it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t, but isn’t that part of the fun?

How different do you dare to be?