Anglers go through it at different stages. At first they just want to catch some fish--just about any fish will do--but before long they want to catch larger fish.

Reviewing over 35 years of experience, I've formulated some rules for catching big fish. One of my favorites is to go with your ace-in-the hole presentations, regardless of what other anglers are doing.

If I fish exactly like everyone else on a lake or an area, my results will pretty much be like everyone else's--average...and that's not a favorite word of mine.

Sometimes I take standard techniques and alter them; other times I try something different. Only about 5 to 10 percent of the time do I find that sticking to what's recommended is the best way to catch fish. The majority of the time I try to come up with something better.

On a midsummer trip a few years ago to Lac LaCroix, a beautiful sprawling, pine-studded lake on the Minnesota-Ontario border, Fishing Facts Field Editor Roland Martin and I were told by the camp owner, Bill Zup, "those leeches you brought won't work up here."

Well, they didn't work on the smallies--they annihilated them. Between leeches fished outside and slightly into cabbage weedbeds, crankbaits bumped over rocky reefs, and fly rod popping bugs worked over the weeds, we caught more big smallies in a week than most anglers catch in a lifetime.

John Guercio, owner of Andy Meyer's Lodge on Ontario's famed Eagle Lake, also told me how leeches wouldn't catch fish on his lake, either. In the few hours each day that I dedicated to smallmouth fishing on this six-day trip, I caught 36 bronzebacks of from three to five pounds...32 on leeches.

My real ace-in-the-hole live-bait presentation is fishing live waterdogs, the aquatic stage of the tiger salamander. I would use this bait more if it were readily available. It is almost irresistible to big bass, northern pike, walleye, and catfish. It will also take muskies and striper.

A live waterdog lip-hooked on a jig head will generally show you if game fish are on that hump you're reading on your depth finder, or if that school of suspended fish is worth your time.

Using certain types of live bait in an area where that bait gets little exposure is a deadly way to catch more big fish. Leech fishing--for years has become a common tactic for Minnesota walleye anglers--has now spread into other states and Canada. As deadly as it is for walleyes during the summer, it's just as effective for bass in clearer lakes. From the rock-loving Canadian smallmouth to the spotted bass, leeches fished on a four- or six-pound test line with small hooks are deadly. And bigger leeches will get bigger bass.

Madtom or "willow cat" is a small member of the catfish family that's a deadly summer bass, walleye, or catfish bait. Large soft-shelled crayfish are excellent for bass, and big black hellgrammites for trout, stream smallmouth, and lunker perch.

And who can leave out those wild shiners used on trophy Florida bass? Incidentally, this same bait is present in many northern waters, but few, if any bait shops will sell it in the 7-1/2 inch size. I catch my own with 1/64 to 1/100 ounce jigs and use them as a deadly bait for big pike and muskies.

Whenever someone tells me bass are being on Texas-rigged or self-weedless plastic worms, I get the feeling that a big fish catching edge is about to develop. If the weeds are one of the many types of "cabbage," I know this crisp, easy-to-tear-through weed can be more effectively fished with a plastic bait glued to a jig head. Even clinging milfoil or coontail can be worked in the same manner in clearer lakes where the weed edges are visible enough to allow for accurate weed-edge casts.

The jig head I prefer for this technique is the stand-up or Pow-RR head design. A six- to seven-inch plastic lizard is anchored to the jig head with Krazy Glue or a similar super-adhesive. This jig/plastic combo will allow you to do more things than you could with a worm. It is also more visible to the fish when paused or worked slowly because of the upright position it maintains when resting on the bottom, and it will also hook a higher percentage of fish than a weedless worm rig.

Pow-RR head jigs also allow you to use lighter line since you don't have to drive the hook through the plastic before it enters the fish's mouth. Lighter line means you can fish lighter weights in deeper water. And while you'll generally only catch bass on the weedless worm rig, the jig/lizard combo will also produce big walleyes, pike, and even muskies with consistency.

Other big-fish tactics I like are the use of depth and speed controls not commonly used by local anglers. Trolling is a major way to accomplish this.

I would shudder to think I'd have to cast out a long rip-rap bank to find fish, when I know a trolling pass or two would get the job done in 10 percent of the time. Trolling allows lures to work deeper and faster than casting.

Trolling with downriggers in inland waters certainly gives you an advantage over most anglers. My boat is rigged with two Big Jon downriggers that are not only used for Great Lakes salmon and trout, but for southern stripers, pike, muskies, and walleyes. Numerous times big fish have come off the downrigger set-ups while other boats in the vicinity drew blanks with conventional deep-trolling techniques. Even when I use a rental boat or make a fly-in trip, I often take a couple of mini-riggers along. These portable downriggers work fine down to about 50 feet.

Wire-line trolling can open up a whole new world to a lunker hunter. It lets you precisely run lures at maximum depths without sacrificing trolling speed. Wire will help you follow a weedline or other edge more closely because shorter lines are used. It also allows you to work a lure quickly along the base of a drop-off or breakline that's almost totally ignored by anglers, except for a few using slow-speed presentations or vertical jigged lures.

Many anglers fishing a drop-off that breaks from 10 to 30 feet work the top of it. Walleye anglers tend to hit the 30 foot base and surrounding hard bottom, but usually be at a slow speed with live bait. If the average angler spent one-third of his time trolling lures at the base of these edges, he'd probably catch more big fish in one year than he has caught in his lifetime.

Techniques that allow you to fish cover that people pass up or fish poorly are certainly tactics that put more big ones in the boat. Flippin'--the underhanded method of plopping a weedless jig into tight spots--has certainly produced many big bass in recent years. Although primarily thought of as a southern technique, this method is also deadly in the North. Bass, walleye, pike, and muskies can all be taken and, if you really want to tear them up, bait that weedless jig with red-tail or better yet a small waterdog.

Finally, one of my favorite big-fish tactics is night fishing. I love the peaceful sounds of night, the calm lake conditions, and the tremendous big-fish potential. Clearer water lakes are preferred and fishing can be good from 50 degrees F or higher--spring, summer, or fall. Many a lake that's been giving local anglers fits during the day can be fished at night with a lot more big fish success. This holds true for bass, walleye, muskies, and even big panfish.