Okay, so here's something Wayne posted on another forum long ago. I hope it'll help someone catch a few big fish.
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My normal rat retrieve goes something like this: I like to start "hard" when the bait initially hits the
water, akin to the panic a squirrel would have when falling out of the tree and realizing his ass is gonna
get chewed. Quick twitches and short bursts of energy. As the cast gets to the middle, I imagine that
little fool is getting tired of swimming and starting to fatigue. I'll slow down the cranks and the twitches
become less and less violent. If I see a fish and the cast is coming to an end, I will almost deadstick
with just enough movement to get the tail to send out some vibrations.
This is in a perfect world. Most of my hits come within the first 15 seconds of the bait being in the
water. Most times you'll see me cast, twitch, twitch, twitch, sit, twitch and then crank the bait down and
get it back to the boat. They either eat it when it first hits the water or the rat taking off towards the boat
means an easy meal is getting away and they attack it.
I actually believe being a hunter helps with fishing these baits. All the time I spend in the woods gives
me a ton of experience seeing how squirrels act when they are stressed. I've seen them fall from trees,
get chased by owls and hawks and generally exist at the bottom of the food chain in the woods. I try to
impart the same emotion and the feeling of that squirrel fleeing for its life. There is nothing subtle
about an animal that knows it's about to die.
Make sure you are fishing a bait with a floating tail. I think it helps keep the back end of the bait up and
definitely adds to the action of it.
I may come up with more random thoughts on this. I'll add them if I do.
