As Larry Nixon made last-minute preparations to his gear before departing the dock for the final round of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on Lake Norman in April, there was something different about his tackle.

His Texas rigs were made up of tiny tungsten weights, held in place by bobber stoppers. His hooks were straight-shank, fine wire hooks, all modified with a piece of heat-shrink tubing to create a barb to hold the worm in place.

His shaky heads were a rare Japanese variety, which are hard to acquire in the United States.

The line, in which he entrusted all of his potential $150,000-winning fish, was Vanish fluorocarbon.

The worms he put on the hooks were straight and skinny, hopped up with potent smell and taste, thanks to Berkley’s latest Powerbait technology.

One rod was even rigged with the hottest lure going – a 6-inch Basstrix Paddle-tail tube, paired with a weighted hook.

Nixon’s blend of cutting-edge tackle looked like something you might find in Luke Clausen or Shin Fukae’s boat.

As I obsessively studied Nixon’s tackle, I wondered how this could be. After all, this was Larry Nixon. Where was the 8-inch ribbon-tail worm? Where was the 1/4-ounce lead bullet weight? Where was the 15-pound-test monofilament? And why was he not pegging his weight with a toothpick? What in the world happened to the old-school Nixon?

Later that afternoon, as the 56-year-old pro held up the Lake Norman FLW Tour winner’s check – his 17th national title over a 30-year pro fishing career – it dawned on me that one of the keys to Nixon’s timeless success has been his ongoing effort to embrace new tackle, techniques and technology in bass fishing.

In the current state of the professional fishing business, where 20-something-year-old “kids” continually ride new tackle and techniques to the forefront of the sport, how does Nixon stay in the know and avoid getting stuck in his ways?

Better yet, how does Nixon separate the wheat from the chaff in the bass tackle business? How does he manage to define and refine the new techniques that he considers keepers?

Recently I had the opportunity to find answers to a few of these questions when the legendary pro graciously allowed me in his boat for a day of practice just before the Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake.

‘Updated versions of old techniques’

Upon starting the fishing day, Nixon wasted little time in getting right to the topic of keeping up with bass fishing’s fast-paced changes.

“Part of the job requirement of being a professional angler is keeping up with the improvements and innovations in our sport,” he began. “There is so much stuff coming down the pike these days that has to be evaluated – it makes tackle management a real challenge.

“It’s such a fine line to walk,” the Chevy pro continued. “If you’re hard-headed and ignore these new innovations and improvements in the name of simplicity – which is very tempting – you’ll get bowled over in the check line by anglers who understand them. And on the other hand, you just can’t fill your tackle box with every new gizmo that hits the tackle aisle. There’s a delicate balance that must be achieved between embracing the new stuff and tackle overload.”

“Tackle overload” is a bad word for Nixon, one that he tries to avoid.

“Tackle overload is basically going into a tournament with a pile of lures that you really don’t understand or are not comfortable with – it’s the kiss of death for me.”

For that reason, each and every new lure, innovation or technological advancement must pass a stringent evaluation process before it earns a spot in Nixon’s tackle box.

From tungsten weights to fluorocarbon, from ChatterBaits to swimbaits, from bobber stoppers to weighted hooks, Nixon takes time to fully understand them before employing them in battle.

“During tournament hours, you will not find a lure in my boat that I don’t completely understand, backwards and forwards. I simply will not take up space in my boat with lures I don’t understand, because they can be a terrible distraction.”

Exactly how something “new” finds its way into Nixon’s tackle box is a complex process.

“It’s all about having a better mousetrap,” he offered. “So many of the ‘new’ techniques we see these days are actually updated versions of older lures or techniques. In order for a new lure to find its way into my boat, it usually has to replace an old one.

“I still chuckle when I hear someone refer to a shaky head as a new technique. I won a national tournament on a shaky head in 1981. Granted, there have been a lot of refinements since then – better molds, better hooks, better line – but it’s still the same concept. So as an example, my Japanese shaky heads with light wire hooks have replaced my antiquated crude ball heads with inferior hooks.

“That’s one of the keys to tackle management for me: When I put the new something in, the old something comes out. I don’t put all the new shaky heads in there with the old ones – it’s either one or the other.”

Nixon’s ‘eye in the sky’

How Nixon actually discovers new lures is based on a very unique friendship. He is up front on giving credit where credit is due in the discovery process of new lures and techniques.

“A dear friend of mine named Greg Scott in Dearborn, Michigan, is really the person who gets the credit for keeping me up to speed on what’s happening in the fishing lure business,” Nixon revealed. “He is my ‘eye in the sky,’ so to speak. He constantly monitors fishing Web sites, tournament results and new product releases on the Internet, keeping an eye out for anything that might make waves in tournament bass fishing.

“Greg is a fisherman, an engineer and a bona fide tackle freak, which makes him a tremendous resource. Whenever he sees something out there in bass-fishing cyberspace with potential, he immediately orders some of it, checks it out and then tells me whether or not it’s something I need to pursue. And he is usually way ahead of the curve; he’s usually got it before the rest of the fishing world does.

“What’s more, he knows so much about the Japanese end of the business, which, given the Japanese influence on our tackle in recent years, has been a huge help to me.

“Of the latest, greatest items that have found their way into my arsenal over the years, Greg is responsible for clueing me in to most of it.”

Swimming lessons

If Scott finds something that he feels is worthy of Nixon’s attention, he’ll send it to him. From there, the first place the item goes is into Nixon’s pool.

“I ought to be able to write that darn pool off on my taxes with as much lure research as I use it for!” exclaimed Nixon with a chuckle. “But let me tell you, Uncle Sam is not going for that idea.”

With the first cast in the pool, Nixon begins an intensive evaluation of the product.

“The first thing I do is classify it in my mind based on its action and vibration, which is where 35 years of fishing experience comes in. Bass react to different vibrations in the spring versus the summer and in muddy water versus clear water. And the most important thing I want to know, based on its action, is how situational the lure is.

“Like I said, most of the time we’re dealing with an updated version of an old technique. Take for example the recent trend of buzzing frogs like the Zoom Horny Toad.

“When I first threw one, it reminded me of the topwater buzzing spoons we used to use. Well, automatically I know that’s a situational lure that’s cover specific, namely for vegetation.”

In contrast, the first time Nixon watched a Senko waggle to the bottom of his pool several years ago, he knew he was dealing with a bait that was much more universal in its action. It was a throwback to a weightless worm, but much better.

“With a sinking stickbait, you’re talking about a lure that can be fished nearly all year, in a variety of water clarities for a variety of species. In other words, it’s not confined to a narrow window of use either by season or type of cover being fished. To me, that’s a more timeless lure. And in my fishing history, I’ve always favored timeless lures over situational lures. Look at my winning history and you’ll see that timeless lures like Texas-rigged worms and jigs are my strengths.”

The ‘bass-cid test’

Once Nixon has two or three new lures or products that pass the pool test, then he is anxious to present them to the real quarry: Mr. Bass.

When he is “fun fishing” around home, he’ll test drive products he is most curious about. Also, a couple of times of year, Nixon and longtime friend and fellow competitor George Cochran head down to ponds in southern Arkansas for some R&D with new items.

No matter what the innovation is – lure, line, weight, etc. – as he catches bass on it, Nixon begins to grade the lure with three primary criteria: Does it garner more strikes? Does it help eliminate loss of fish? And how time-consuming is the maintenance of the product?

“It’s all about efficiency, simple as that,” Nixon declared. “I want to get more strikes; I want to land more of my fish; and I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time fooling around with a lure to rig it or make it run right in the heat of battle.”

With these critical aspects in mind, Nixon offers two examples of baits on his continuum of efficiency, starting with a shaky head.

“How much more efficient does it get?” he questioned about the shaky head. “You can fish it all year long on nearly any kind of fishery on any kind of cover for all species of bass. It produces more strikes than most baits. Losing fish on it is rare. Keep a bag of your favorite worms in your pocket, and you’re right back in business within seconds of catching a fish. From an efficiency standpoint, it ranks very high in my book. The only drawbacks are that it is slow and it is known for numbers rather than quality.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Nixon returns to the topwater toads.

“There’s no doubt, topwater toads are fun baits to fish – the spectacular strikes they provoke are phenomenal,” he explained. “But from my perspective, their inherent problem is hookup ratio and having to battle fish through thick cover to get them in the boat. The bass has more of an advantage with that technique, and I’m not real comfortable with that, especially if there is a more efficient technique available, maybe like Texas-rigging in open water.”

Again, Nixon reiterates that he is more interested in new lures and innovations that promise improvements to “universal” techniques rather than improvements to “situational” techniques.

With that in mind, here are Nixon’s thoughts and opinions on some of bass fishing’s recent hot trends on the FLW Tour:

ChatterBait: “Most new lures or techniques are improved or refined versions of an old technique, but every now and then we get one that creates its own category, and that’s a ChatterBait: It’s not a jig; it’s not a crankbait; it’s not a spinnerbait; yet it can almost be any one of those, depending on how and where it’s fished. You might say it has a bit of an identity crisis, and in all honesty, I haven’t quite figured that bait out yet. Because of its tremendous vibration, I initially figured it to be a very situational lure for heavy vegetation or off-colored water, but now I’m starting to rethink my conclusion on that one.”

Wakebaits: “Classic example of an old technique that is being resurrected – a throwback to the old days when we used to wake a Redfin on the surface. Craig Powers has demonstrated how effective a Long A can be when waked on the surface. Now that’s a technique that has my attention, because I think the window for doing it might be a lot broader than what many realize – it may not be as seasonally confined as we think. Let’s just say the pool has seen a lot of wakebaits lately, and I’m keeping a close eye on some of the Japanese products that are designed to wake on the surface as well.”

Swimbaits: “Like the ChatterBait, I believe this one is carving out a whole new category for itself. We’ve had things like the old sassy shad-type baits in the past, but these new swimbaits are so realistic-looking in the water that bass just have to come up and take a shot at them. The whole swimbait deal is currently in a state of accelerated refinement by bass anglers all over the country. Some swimbaits have better action, some have better durability, some have better hooking systems, and all those attributes are in the process of being blended into one package.”

Tungsten and fluorocarbon: “They are absolute staples in my arsenal now, but it took me a long time to warm up to both. The first time I put a tungsten sinker on fluorocarbon, I broke my line during the cast, and that ended that experiment; I went right back to my tried and true lead and mono. But vast improvements have been made in the production of fluorocarbon, and Tru-Tungsten has been able to consistently produce tungsten sinkers with no sharp edges or burs in the center. Now there is not a lead slip-sinker in my boat – out with the old, in with the new. Once you get used to the incredible feel of the fluoro-tungsten combination, there’s no going back to lead and mono. And as for the bobber stoppers, they complete my new Texas-rig system by allowing me to ‘peg’ my sinker without actually pinning the weight to the line, which is a huge plus to me. I’ve never been a big fan of pegging anyway, so the stopper allows me to kind of peg without really pegging. The Texas rig is a perfect example of a technique that’s been vastly improved by innovation: It’s still a Texas rig, but everything in the system has been refined to greatly enhance feel and make it more efficient.”