...that moment when you find the key to a specific pattern and get 'em dialed in. I don't get to be on the water quite as often as I'd like to be these days, so these moments are far and few between for me. Last memorable one I had was earlier this year on Monti when I discovered I had to bring my spinnerbait through the grass at a very particular speed to trigger the bite.

What's an "a-ha" moment that stands out for you?

The very first time I threw a bungee rig.

I went to a pond I like to fish that has amazing average size for a public pond. There were 3 guys there fishing when I got there. I had read about the bungee rig for weeks before trying it. I watched the other guys fish for a minute or two, none getting bites. Two were fishing plastics of some kind and one guy was throwing a spinner bait. I was actually waiting to see who was heading where so I didn't cut any of them off. Once I figured where I was going, I walked down to the water, made my first cast, and within 5 seconds got bit. 3lber on the 1st cast. Over the next 5 minutes I caught 6 fish and none of them were under 2.5lbs. And I had just watched two of the other guys fish this exact spot. They had to come over and see what I was throwing, when they saw how the worm was rigged you could tell they were laughing to themselves.

But the jokes on them. That rig is unstoppable in the ponds around here. And I've never seen another person using it. That was a definite ah ha moment.

One day out on Lake Belton some time ago, I figured out the bass wanted a t-rig pumpkin lizard. Nothing fancy to it just a ZOOM lizard. It was later in the afternoon, and was just getting ready to call it a day, when the bite just turned on. I managed to get myself a nest on my reel, so as Im pulling line off into the water to untangle, I get bit and with no lizard just bare hook and bullet weight. Of course was by myself, so who's gonna believe me?

Ive had a few, mainly on lakes I know well so they don't stand out as much. Few years ago on Amistad during a tournament we figured out a pattern and boated 30 or so fish, we just weren't catching the big ones. And a couple weeks ago on Squaw we had a great day for numbers but not bigguns. Not sure if that is exactly figuring them out, but catching is always fun

That happened to me at a local lake in May, when I would let the chatter bait fall into the hydrilla then start retrieving, if it got hung up, I would rip it free an bam! I caught two over 6#'s and a 5# in less than an hour on one spot, on a lake that 3# had been the biggest I had caught out there before that day.

One day late last winter, right before all the snow and Ice came, I found a pattern at Fork flipping jigs and chatter baits, cuaght several between 3-6# in a two day span. I was in the trees but I had to flip into certain looking trees (even though they are all dead and look basically the same, something looked different) and it was pretty awesome for me to figure that out.

I have had it happen a few times when fishing big ponds out of my old Jon Boat, but not as often on the lake.

Had a similar moment with a chatterbait and deep grass/hydrilla. It was the middle of summer and started fishing at sunrise ( muddy water and the beginnings of an algae bloom on the tips of the hydrilla) Got just a few on topwater early and crankbaits later (nothing crigging or heavy drop shotting the outside grass line), but as soon as I put on a chatterbait with a gold blade and orange/black trailer it was just about every cast for a while letting it fall to the bottom and yo yo along that deep grass line edge.

I wish I could say I had them more often, but I'm not that good of a fisherman I guess. I have had a few that stand out in my mind.

Most recent was this September on Rayburn. We had caught a few fish early on topwater and frogs around grass in shallow water, no surprise there. Around 930 we left an area to head towards the canyons. My boater had made the comment about stopping and trying an area that was similar to our first stop but he hadn't prefished it all. At the time, I had 3 fish (co-angler limit) and he had 1, so I was all for trying a similar area. We stopped off on the way and never left a 3-400 yard stretch the rest of the day. The "Ah-Ha" moment for me was the fact that the fish wanted a popping frog vs. a regular hollow body. I was fishing behind the boater and getting 4-1 strikes. After I caught 3 more keepers and culled twice, he switched over and started getting a few. We left fish biting when we finally had to head back for weigh-in. The only sad part about that day was losing my two best fish in the grass.

Another one was on Lake Tyler. Similar to Collincountytx, I switched to a gold bladed chatterbait from a chrome one and the fished had to have it. Nothing big that day, but they wanted the gold blade.

Coach

Lake Fork - 4th of July weekend - swimbait. I had to throw that swimbait between 2 trees, and land on one of the underwater branches. I would pull the swimbait up to end of branch and wiggle it to drop off. When it dropped off and fell, WHAM. This went on for 2 hours straight and all the fish were 5 lbs and bigger, with a 9 as a kicker.

This pattern lasted 2 weeks.

This all started in 1970 fishing with an older gentleman in KY.. We were on one of the Oxbow lakes off the Ohio river when a thunder storm rolled in. He pulled out a old orange spinner bait and caught 3 really large bass back to back around the Cyprus trees during that storm. He gave me that spinner bait at the end of the day.

We all have been caught in an upper level disturbance while fishing. Most fishermen will either stay home or get off the water because it is going to be a miserable day and the bite seems to just shut down. Actually the exact opposite is happening. The huge Bass are not on a feeding pattern. They are grouping together and being just absolutely aggressive.

This pattern has held true all these years. My biggest stringer was near that lake in Ky. during a tournament in 1972 with 10 fish weighing 62 lbs.. Five other winning stringers over 25 lbs. have come on this spinner bait over the years here in Texas; twice on Ivie, once on Falcon, twice on Amistad and several occasion in Mexico. They absolutely hate orange during bad weather and the worse conditions the better.

I had a company there in KY. cast that spinner bait so I would always have it available for tournaments. I still have about 20 of these old baits left and call them my Halloween Spinner Bait. Throw it during the right conditions and it will be The "A-ha" moment.

chasing schoolers all day couldn't get them to bite anything, I was throwing top waters, lipless, swim baits, flutter spoons, my wife met me at the lake after she got off work. she puts on a Shad colored fluke and throws out there. And Bam! We caught over 40 in about 2 hours lol.

I just chunk whatever I have tied on out there and fish. If I don't catch one in a few minutes I go somewhere else and repeat.

Sometimes I catch a fish and sometimes I don't, maybe I'm under thinking this whole fishing thing.

Do the heavens open up and you hear angels playing harps when this magical "ah ha moment" occurs??

Duh, of course.