My Confidence Is Slim.

[GoneFishi'n]

I have been fishing scince I was 5 and now I am 16, my whole life I have been catching bass, bream, catfish, crappie, and almost anything in lakes. But recentley I seems like I just forgot how to bass fish. I have been catching a bass or two everytime I go fishing but it just seems like I have no confidence. Do you guys have any tips or knowledge on what I could do to regain it? I know it sounds weird but if you could that would be great!

[Miller's Ferry 8]

You should fish with luresn that drawe a lot of strikes. Such as baby brush hogs, spinnerbaits, and crankbaits. This will catch you a lot of fish even though sometimes they wont be big ones. Then once you have some confidence you can move up to different lures and techniques. Ex: Jigs, deep diving crankbaits, drop shots.

Just remember for right now keep the lure small and your numbers wll be higher.

[GoneFishi'n]

Me and my dad are going out this weekend to bass pro to buy a Lowrance® Elite-4x Color Fishfinder, do you think that it might help me a little? Iv'e always heard that they only tell you that there are fish under the boat haha.

[Miller's Ferry 8]

Haha. Well with the depthfinders the main thing they help with isn't necessarily finding the actual fish. It helps see the type of bottom and what type of cover is lying on it. Also you can see wads of baitfish. But actually seeing a fish on it at say ten feet and being like "Oh its a bass lets fish right here." that I would not recommend because it could be absolutely anything with the number of species in rivers and lakes.

[GoneFishi'n]

I know this but I mean like how do I tell if a bass is hanging around? Like what type of structure should I be looking for? And we go up to rabun and burton to fish during the summer and school year.

[Miller's Ferry 8]

Well you have to find them and develope a pattern to look for on the depth finder. First you need to take in the time of year and water temperature. For instance now in Alabama on my favorite lake the water temp is around 82 and its summer of course. Usually the fish will hangout in the grass in the morning. Around nine they move out onto the river drop offs. So in the morning you should look for vegetation close to deep water. Bass like that because they can get in the grass early then as the day progresses they don't have far to go to move into deeper water. So, look for steep drop offs on your depth finder and when the find drop offs look for structure on those drop offs. Chances are a bass is hanging out around it.

What type of water system are you fishing in?

[GoneFishi'n]

To be honest I don't know haha. Umm, the weather here has been sunny for about 3-4 days and it has been about 79-86 degrees. I am fishing in a small lake in a neighborhood which is just full of bass and baitfish. So I know they are in there. How would I find this out? Check the temperature or something?

[Nitrofreak]

This time of year when the bite slows way down is a good indication you should be doing the same thing.

Structure is key and your knowlage of it is even more important.

Get out in the middle of the waters look for grass/rock bottoms, humps, fish every point you can, if it has points.

Slow down and use a c-rig or t-rig big fish are deep, you too must go deep if you really want to find them.

If you are thinking of getting a sonar, get the biggest bang for the buck in your budget.

Don't trust your sonar to show you fish, the lower end models will give you a flat one dimentional picture, so a tree limb could produce arches and resemble fish, find something on the bottom, drag a rig across the area, figure out what it is and remember what it looked like on the sonar screen.

[Mumpy]

To kind of reiterate what Nitrofreak said, hit every point you can hit. Probably something more important than a Depthfinder is a Lake Map. Pull one out, locate 5 or 6 points near where you are launching the boat and then start dissecting each point. Look at the Contour lines, look for points that come out into 15’ of water. Then take those points that extend into the 15’ range and start looking for irregular features on the contour lines. Then take those points and fish em slowly with C-Rigs.

You’ll get bit

[Miller's Ferry 8]

How big is the lake?

[Bluebasser86]

This is a tough time of year to gain confidence. Lots of fish are still in their postspawn transitions and spread out all over different areas of the lake and tough to get to bite. Lakes that normally produce a few dozen fish a trip for me are barely kicking out 10 or 15 a trip now. It's a grind sometimes and some days it does feel like you've forgotten what you're doing but keep studying and absorbing the information on this site and it will get easier.

[A-Rob]

I'd hit a totally different part of the lake...even better a new lake.

My home lake, I just switch from largies to smallies and if that fails I switch to whisky

[GoneFishi'n]

Thank you very much guys! Appreciate it.

[Long Mike]

I would highly recommend that you begin reading the Fishing Articles on this site. There is an enormous amount of information there that will help you. And, welcome to our forums.

[RobertBG]

This is a tough time of year to gain confidence. Lots of fish are still in their postspawn transitions and spread out all over different areas of the lake and tough to get to bite. Lakes that normally produce a few dozen fish a trip for me are barely kicking out 10 or 15 a trip now. It's a grind sometimes and some days it does feel like you've forgotten what you're doing but keep studying and absorbing the information on this site and it will get easier.

This is the exact issue I am coming across right now,places where I'd get 3-5 nice fish in a hour or so after work just wont produce now,if it wasnt for a few babies or oddball perch/pickrel I'd be getting totally skunked.

If you're looking to build confidence I'd start with ponds,you can cover the ground easier to find what baits/techniques work for you,vs flying blind on a big body of water.Oh and also imho I'd personaly spend money on more gear before a fishfinder but thats just me.

[GoneFishi'n]

Well my dad bought me three spinner baits, all of them strike king, 12 packs of different gulp worms/plastics, 3 jigs with some pig stuff that smells terrible lol, chunks for trailers, 4 zoom brand super flukes, and a brand new set of pliers. And we have some decent rods and reels. PS- It was my birthday! But what I do If i'm not catching big bass I will actually fly fish with some poppin bugs and catch some small largemouth bass and some big bluegill and shellcrackers. Those big bream fight hard! I will usually catch about 10/14 fish every time I go, which is everyday because the lake is behind me. I usually go for about 5 or 7 hours lol, time flies by fast when your catching some decent fish.

[GoneFishi'n]

Like you were saying though about the blid casting, almost every time there are like four bass you will see swimming by and guess what, they don't hit. But luckily me and my dad are taking the boat out everyday this weekend and next week so i'm pretty sure we will catch some fish. Thanks for the advice. I'm also learning how to use a baitcaster.

[Sam]

"I would highly recommend that you begin reading the Fishing Articles on this site. There is an enormous amount of information there that will help you. And, welcome to our forums."

X2

Also check out www.woodaves.com and read every article he has posted.

Read, read and read some more.

[GoneFishi'n]

Thank very much. I have read some articles and watched some videos on hear and I finally learned how to jig haha. The video I watched explains it easily. And the articles are very detailed.