“How are you working that,” I blurted out. “I thought you had to work the DOA Shrimp slowly across the bottom.”

“Well, most of the time that’s a very good technique,” said the DOA founder. “But today we need to do a bit more to get the fish’s attention, so I’m letting the Shrimp drop down on the bottom, setting up a little puff of sand and then slowly reeling up. Look, let me show you.”

Nichols then cast his bait out and said, “ now I’m waiting to feel that bait bounce on the bottom - there it is - and then I’ll reel it back up.” And as he demonstrated his technique, Mark hooked a really big trout. “There’s really a lot of feel associated with fishing,” he said, ”and I don’t care if you use my lures or anybody else’s, the same principals apply. Now you try it!”

Well you have to realize that I don’t really perform well when someone so esteemed as Mark Nichols is watching, but I gave it the old college try.

Flipping the DOA Shrimp along the edge of a sandy pothole, I waited until I really did feel that ever-so-slight bounce off the bottom. I never had a chance to begin reeling up because another lunker trout slammed my Shrimp.

So the moral of this story is – if you don’t know what the heck you are doing – ask someone who does! 

Is it talent? Experience? Luck? Maybe all of the above.  But there is one element missing from that list of possibilities – feel. That’s right. Gifted anglers have a genuine feel for fishing – and there is no reason why you cannot develop those same capabilities. And there’s only one proven way to get started – just ask!

Most of the time, we’ll take a peek out of the corner of our eye. We note how he casts, how much time elapses before he starts twitching or working that lure. We emulate his retrieve rate – practice the old “monkey see-monkey-do trick. And yet, frustratingly, he keeps hauling in fish while you sit there with nary a bite. As I said earlier – just ask. Open that yap. Yes, even make a pest of yourself. It’s the only way that you can learn to decipher the secrets of successful catching.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have personally fished with some of the best. I recall one such trip with the creative genius of DOA Lures, Capt. Mark Nichols. Incidentally, one doesn’t develop a knack for inventing such effective baits without knowing what actually induces a fish to attack your offering.

Anyhow, on this particular day we were fishing some shallow flats along the shore of the Indian River near Jensen beach. Both of us were tossing his highly regarded DOA Shrimp.

Now I’ve always been told that one works the DOA Shrimp s-l-o-w-l-y on the bottom, barely moving it to elicit a strike. But here was the man who invented the darn lure, dropping it down and then lifting it up, almost like a jig. And almost each and every time, Mark was reeling in a nice plump fish.

“How are you working that,” I blurted out. “I thought you had to work the DOA Shrimp slowly across the bottom.”

“Well, most of the time that’s a very good technique,” said the DOA founder. “But today we need to do a bit more to get the fish’s attention, so I’m letting the Shrimp drop down on the bottom, setting up a little puff of sand and then slowly reeling up. Look, let me show you.”

Nichols then cast his bait out and said, “ now I’m waiting to feel that bait bounce on the bottom - there it is - and then I’ll reel it back up.” And as he demonstrated his technique, Mark hooked a really big trout. “There’s really a lot of feel associated with fishing,” he said, ”and I don’t care if you use my lures or anybody else’s, the same principals apply. Now you try it!”

Well you have to realize that I don’t really perform well when someone so esteemed as Mark Nichols is watching, but I gave it the old college try.

Flipping the DOA Shrimp along the edge of a sandy pothole, I waited until I really did feel that ever-so-slight bounce off the bottom. I never had a chance to begin reeling up because another lunker trout slammed my Shrimp.

So the moral of this story is – if you don’t know what the heck you are doing – ask someone who does!