When it comes to fishing for smallmouth bass the presentation of your bait or lure is the key to success. In this article I’m going to discuss some of the simple reasons why this is the case. For those of you who don’t know, catching smallmouth bass is a ton of fun and these bronze beauties are widely known as the hardest fighting fish (pound for pound) that swim in freshwater.

These fish can be found in lakes, rivers, and even streams. Catching smallmouth bass out of the flowing waters of a small river or stream can make them even more fun to catch. They have an uncanny ability to use the current to their advantage when hooked, which makes fighting them that much more challenging and fun.

No matter what type of water you go fishing for smallmouth in, one of the keys to success is your presentation. The bottom line is that you want your offering (whether live or artificial) to appear as natural as possible. These fish are very smart, and unless they are extremely active, they tend not to bite unnatural offerings.

Let’s begin by discussing live bait. One of the most effective ways to catch smallmouth bass is by using live bait. The best way to have your live bait appear as natural as possible is to use gang hooks. Gang hooks are a pair of small hooks tied in tandem, which allow live bait (especially live worms) to be presented in a completely natural manner.

What are some of the best live baits for these fish? Crayfish are probably the best, although they can be difficult to find and fish with effectively. Gang hooks are great for live crayfish. The second hook helps to hook ‘short striking’ smallies. Worms and minnows are also good live baits for smallmouth bass. Live bait is a great choice when fishing for smallmouth bass. The more your bait looks like it does in nature, the better.

Now, let’s move on to artificial baits. The same principles hold true. If you’re using a crawfish lure for example, it needs to look like a crawfish looks underwater. Try to stay away from unnatural and strange colors that don’t look at all like the way the bait appears in nature. This is true for any artificial lure that’s employed. If you’re using a bait fish imitation, it needs to look like the bait fish does in nature.

When it comes to artificial baits for smallmouth bass, some of the more effective are Berkley’s Gulp and Power products. These baits perform, look, and feel like soft plastics, except for the fact that they’ve been impregnated with fish catching scents. These baits can be as effective as live bait in many fishing situations.

Writing any type of sales presentation is an art form in itself. But a cold call presentation is more difficult because you only have a very short period of time to make an impact. It’s essential that you follow a set structure in order for your sales pitch to flow like a good novel. Let me expand in this analogy; imagine buying a book that turned you off or bored you senseless within the first few pages. It’s more than likely you would stop reading it and move onto something more interesting instead. That is how a lot of companies cold call pitches are received by a vast majority of the population.

I am only going to talk about the introduction in this article, i.e. the first 30 seconds. To write about the entire process creates a very long article indeed.

3 very important things that you need to employ when writing the introduction to a cold call pitch are what I call the ’3 Biggies’.

The 3 Biggies are:

1. Who you are?
2. Why you’re calling?
3. What’s in it for them?

If you do not cover these three points in your opening gambit you stand a good chance of crashing your presentation within the first 15 seconds, this is something that I call the ‘Hello Burn’ and I will talk about that another time.

The process is simple. This is who I am and I work for this company. This is just a quick call to talk about this, and for your time I want to give you this. Voila.

Two basic examples of a simple introduction are below. I have written one for a small one man band gardening firm and one for a blue chip pension supplier. Both companies are fictitious but the idea is to show you that this straightforward process can work for a One Man Band or a Blue Chip company. Have a look at the two examples.

(Arrows indicate the upward or downward inflection of voice)

A one man band gardener.

“Good Morning/Afternoon, my name is … calling from Twigs n Tings. I know that you must be rather busy so I will only take a few moments of your time. I am a local gardener who specialises in working with gardens up to 1 acre in size. I am in the process of expanding my current client list and I would be delighted to offer you a free 1 hr consultation worth (Include your hourly rate + VAT). 9 times out of 10 I can guarantee not only improve the look of your garden, but also give you phenomenal value for money. All I need to do is just take a few minutes of your time to ask a few basic questions; is that OK? ”

A large multi national pension provider

“Good morning/afternoon, my name is … From ABC Pensions, the largest pension provider in the UK. This is just a very brief call to let you know that over the next few weeks a consultant from our area will be offering individuals the opportunity to review their current pension and see how it is actually performing in the current financial climate. This free service is comes with no obligation and may just reveal an opportunity for you to safeguard your pension. Can I just take a few moments of your time to see there is anything that we can do for you? ”

As you can see from the 2 examples above there are two very different types of client that both follow the same simple 3 Biggies rule. One important factor to take into account is to remember that this is a cold call and that you have invaded the prospects privacy. Do not just assume that because the opening paragraph that you use sounds good to you, that it will have the same appealing factors for your prospect. This is why I always recommend that you ask the client if you can take a few further moments of their time.

There are numerous reasons for this question. First of all you can ascertain if the client is at all receptive to your call and secondly you need to be able to move into the fact finding section of your presentation. Unless you already know that the prospect is right for the product or service that you supply, you must go forward and at least ask a few qualifying questions otherwise you will simply be wasting your own phone bill and paperwork, and of course the time of your potential prospect.

Being in the lion’s pit of life is interesting at times, isn’t it? This is real tongue-in-cheek stuff. One day or even one afternoon can present so many opportunities to become waylaid with worries, fears and anxieties… enough to last the rest of the day, and into the next, easy!

But, this is where control over the mind and our mental processes can come to our rescue.

Recently, I had the privilege of reading an extraordinary piece of wisdom titled, “Practicing awareness in everyday life.”[1] It’s all about the subject of awareness; the skill of staying in the present. The author says it’s the most important skill that we could acquire.

The issue is about how much of our awake time we spend partially or completely distracted from our present activities, because we’re focused on the past or future–”neither of which exist.”

As we experience life, there are so many things that have just gone or are about to hit us that consume our ordinary thinking. This leaves us drained of the attention we could place in the present. No wonder we struggle to listen to people properly half the time.

This subject is all about staying ‘in the truth.’ It’s about sticking with our senses and what they tell us to feel, in the moment. We’re told to focus, particularly around decision-making, on what we’re actually thinking, feeling, saying and doing–that is, we need to be intimately aware of ourselves.

Even simple tasks such as brushing our teeth should require all our ‘manual’ attention. The objective here is to train the mind to think manually, and resist our preponderance to go into mental autopilot. We should “practise awareness until we can operate ‘automatically on manual’, so we can choose to ‘manually go to automatic’.”

What this means is once we’re trained to be aware at will, we then have the ability to become more competent over our attitudes; we become ‘attitudinally competent.’ We can then screen out the unhelpful emotional distractions, scheduling our focus on these for times when we wish to deliberately reflect on the past and plan for the future. We effectively hold the moment (emotionally) and deal with it at a predetermined time later.

We should become adept at being a silent observer of ourselves, being attuned to our thoughts, feelings, words and actions. There is no more basic a goal for a person to have than to become self-aware, and that continually so.

We must resist allowing our minds to wander and meander in undisciplined ways; sure, when we watch a movie and want to relax, a free mind is fine; but truly, do we think an unfocused mind dribbling through the immediate past or near future is helpful? It can’t possibly be and “running of ‘old part-fiction movies’ is insanity.”

Reflection and planning must be restricted to “fully truthful” aspects. We need to determine what truth there is, sifting out the innuendo and assumptions.

So, let’s get to work on not being pre-occupied mentally and simply stay in the moment practicing awareness. Even during so-called stressful times, we’ll benefit from the fresh perspective and strength that comes as a result.

Custody, or parenting time evaluations, are frequently performed by a forensic psychologist at a separation or a divorce between two people, when there is some question as to the fitness of one of both parents to fully parent the child or children. One common scenario is a parent being concerned about the drug or alcohol use of the other parent. These evaluations are invasive and often difficult, but they are typically fairly solid in court and if you have legitimate concerns, they can be a way to help secure your children’s security and safety. The results and recommendations of the evaluation can be written in to court documents, providing further foundation for enforcing certain rules and restrictions that can help keep your children safe when they are with the other parent, or should the problems and concerns be severe enough, they may provide basis for keeping the children away from an unsafe parent altogether. Here are 5 tips for presenting your case for custody to an evaluator:

1. Present facts, not opinions to the evaluator during interviews. This means avoiding “diagnosing” your partner or making too many interpretations of behavior. Stick as much as possible to the facts — the who, what, when and where of the behavior you are concerned about.

2. Try not to get over emotional. This is a traumatic time and being upset is expected – however if you are crying throughout every meeting, the evaluator may begin to question your emotional stability. Feel free to express hurt, but keep your mind firmly focused on your children and their well being and best interests.

3. Present your facts and information framed in reference to the impact on the children. While you avoid diagnosing or giving too many opinions, you can express what concerns you about the behavior in reference to the negative impact on your kids. For example, if your partner has a drug problem, you can express concern over impairment while caring for kids, the kids finding drug paraphernalia, and the legal ramifications should your partner be caught.

4. Be honest about your own shortcomings. If you omit any wrongdoing on your part, surely your partner will be eager to fill in the gaps. When you do present your mistakes, again frame them in reference to impact on the children and demonstrate your understanding of why the activity was harmful or potentially harmful to your kids. For example if you had an affair, explain that this injected a note of chaos and disharmony into your home life, and you understand that this was a negative impact on your children. And of course, be sure you are not repeating damaging behaviors during your evaluation.

5. Keep records and update the evaluator as new incidents occur. Evaluations can take many months to complete, so be sure to log any new incidents as they occur and inform the evaluator via phone or email.

Are you interested in addressing the challenge of divorce from a holistic standpoint, assessing the physical, emotional, practical, and relationship components?