How many of you take the time to bend open the gaps of your hooks? You know what I mean, don't you? Take a pliers and open the gap of the hooks ever so slightly. Jigs, plain hooks, or crankbaits, it doesn't matter. But by just doing this, you'll dramatically decrease the number of poor hooksets and lost fish. This is just one simple little tactic that can make such a difference, yet it is probably the most overlooked.

Next in line would be to sharpen you hooks or check the last foot of line before the hook. Simple little things like this can't be looked over. You can't for get the basics. Without fail, if these are overlooked, you're going to lose fish.

Another detail or problem that is allowed to persist is conformity. Simply put, an angler loses his drive to keep an open mind and his willingness to try something new, or even do what needs to be done to catch fish. Many people become comfortable with one or two presentations or methods of catching fish and with to do nothing but fish the way they like to catch fish. The result, fishless trips. Once you start to ignore the basics like the ones I opened with, you've put yourself of the path of conformity and headed into a rut.

What I want to tell you about this month are a few offbeat or new tactics that have meant more fish for me in the past and will get more fish for me in the future. Every angler nowadays should be skilled in not only the accepted basic presentations, but have several offbeat tricks up the sleeve just in case the walleyes or bass don't read the same book that he does.

It's really funny sometimes how patterns can breakdown in no time and fish suddenly stop favoring a certain presentation and seemingly disappear. When this happens, the average angler may just chalk it up to a bad day and head in. But not if you keep an open mind and wish to experiment.

Case in point...Recently a friend and I were working the Wisconsin River near Wisconsin Dells. All winter long, the river has been open, so this had been our fifth trip out. We had the typical vertical jigging winter pattern working for us on every trip-until this one. The fish were less receptive to vertical jigging and then just shut down. Not to worry, we went to an even slower presentation.

When vertical jigging is ignored, we slow down. The next presentation we offered was the basic slip sinker and hook live bait rig. The fish once again started out responding to this offering. But within a matter of an hour and 10 fish, the hits became barely detectable. We could no longer see the hits. No thumping of the rod or tick of the line-nothing. The fish swam up and sucked in the minnow and sat there. Plus, when we picked up the rod and lifted the slip sinker to set the hook, the fish blew out the minnow.

Now what to do? Well, the current was slow enough, that we now went to using a small split shot instead of a slip sinker. We also didn't let the sinker touch the bottom so when the fish hit and we picked up the rod, the sinker was already off the bottom. We didn't lose another fish! All we did was pick up the rod, and if we felt the slightest extra weight, we drove the hook home.

A couple of hours later, the hits were absolutely undetectable. The only way we know a fish had the bait was when we checked the rods.

Now this is what I call a double shutdown. But, we didn't give up. I remembered several other times when the fish got tough that they could be triggered by a couple of different techniques. I tied on a Walleye Willowspoon on an ultralight rod (as the spoon is classed as an ultralight jigging spoon) and just a piece of dead minnow to add some scent.

The walleye and sauger came unglued. The same fish that were hitting so light that they were almost undetectable were now slamming my offering. Brian tied on another willowspoon and the next (and last) hour on the river brought us 17 fish with multiple doubles and one triple! It was unbelievable.

Persistence paid off. The willingness to abandon how you want to catch fish and fish what the fish want always pays off. For many anglers though, this seems like a foreign concept.

Another hot little tactic I've picked up over the years is dragging jigs. That's it, simply dragging the jig on the bottom. Oh, I can hear it now, "You can't drag a jig on the bottom, it'll snag and you'll lose it!" First off, you don't just drag a jig anywhere in a river. This tactic, like every other, has certain areas and applications that make this possible. Second, if you can't stand the thought of losing a couple of jigs, I hope you never take a liking to tossing crankbaits to rip rap or over shallow rocky bottoms at night.

Anyway, when you're working a flatter, more predictable sandy bottom, like a sand flat or main channel edges, dragging is a perfect application. Especially when casting or vertical jigging tapers off and fish stop biting.

Dragging is just that. Let the jig down to the bottom and hold on to the rod. Let the jig drag along the bottom and watch the rod tip. Many times the tip straightens out or just bows more. These aren't usually violent hits. But to this, too, there is a twist. Drag the jigs-upriver!

Now, when you consider the current flow and that you'll be going into the current, even on slow current flows you'll need at least a 3/8 oz. Jig. The big jig is necessary to get the jig down and still keep it close to the boat. As you all should know, the closer you can keep your offering to the tip of the rod, the more control you'll have and the better hookset you'll get.

Standard ballhead jigs work well, but specialty jigs will work even better. The Odd Ball and Slo Poke jig, both made by Bait Rigs are two of the very best I have ever used. Both are designed for the hook to ride upright, even  at rest. This will automatically eliminate many snags and increase your hooking percentage. The hook is always upright and ready to stick a fish, not the bottom.

Speed is another factor. It may seem like you're really flying upstream, but you're not. You need a ton of speed to move up against the current, but just move upstream fast enough so the jig slowly crawls along. The rule is just fast enough that you can feel the jig dragging, that's it.

This was another trick figured out, really as a fluke. My former partner and I were out fishing the Wisconsin River several years back, and we were vertical jigging a section of the main channel 8-12 feet deep. We'd jig down river through the fish, turn the boat around, put the trolling motor on high, crawl up through the fish. When the boat was far enough up river from the fish, we'd stop, set up and drift down through them again.

On the second pass through, I noticed a big loose loop on my spool. When Steve turned the boat around, I dumped the line until well past the loops. When I closed the bail, the slack picked up and I could feel the jig dragging the bottom. So, I left it to see what would happen. Steve asked what the heck I was doing and I replied, "Just messin' around." I started popping fish, 4 fish on 3 upcurrent drags.