A valuable lesson for anglers on learning to adapt

This column is not a scolding but rather a teaching session. It's about what I learned from anglers who made the right choices in finding and hooking fish.

Normark (maker of the famous Rapala lures), and Northland had offered a variety of artificial lures for decades. But it seems the shakers and movers, the ones who spend countless hours dredging the shallow and deeper sections of a lake are the real deciders as to what works and what lacks the kick to make things happen.

I've written about Rapala's Jigging Rap before in this column. I was one of the foolish ones who didn't understand that because a lure like the Jigging Rap was an excellent lure for ice fishing it never belonged in the soft-water box for walleyes, pike, and panfish.

For the uneducated, a Jigging Rap is a double ended minnow bait that sinks. I mean really sinks, but it also swings from side-to-side on its way down.

I have no idea why fish are so attracted to this "creature," nor can explain why this lure is the biggest seller on Normark's hit parade.

My understanding was greatly expanded last year when I shared a boat with George H. of Edison, IL.

We were on Big Green Lake in Wisconsin and after two hours of searching along with a healthy bit of hemming and hawing, George asked me if I had any experience using a Jigging Rap?

I explained I had experimented with that lure on another deep-water, Wisconsin lake and had pretty good success. The only problem was I didn't bring any of those lures with me.

"No problem" he said while he opened his tackle box and produced two Jigging Raps in two different sizes.

I would up with the shallow model while he quickly dropped his Rap over the side to hungry mouths 35-feet below our boat.

In a minute or two George had the fist strike of the day. It was a chunky 16-inch walleye. I soon followed suit with another chunkster. We alternated between walleyes and jumbo perch.

We then moved to another deep spot with a small mid-lake hump. The sonar unit told us there was another school of fish hanging inches off the bottom. We repeated the process and continued catching walleyes, perch and a few crappie.

Because I have a tendency to forget over 55 years of experience and teachings, I often overlook alternate catching methods. And in this case it was another wake-up call for me to smarten up and fish smarter.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.