"fishing Slow"

[Dylcook91]

With the weather going down hill, and many folks having to change their fishing habits to adjust for fall fishing, I have been seeing many post that say to fish SLOW. Now for some reason I just cant seem to fish slow, its like I cant keep my hands off the reel haha. letting a worm, jig, or swimbait sit for a minute to me feels like an eternity. But comparing my catch statistics now from that of summer, I have had a big decline at producing fish(none in two weeks). It got me thinking, what does everyone here individually consider slow? And how long is too long on any giving cast? What is your go to bait to fish slow, around cover and which for open water?

Any other tips or tricks that may help, I'd love to hear. I better try to get the hang of this, cause if I'm not doing to well in fall, then I might as well sleep all winter hahaha

[Bankbeater]

Once the bait is on the bottom I lift the rod from about 10 to 12 and then lower it back down to 10. A good way to do this is get a watch with a second hand on it. Count out how long it takes the second hand to move from 10 to 12. That is how long it should take you to raise the rod.

[Sam]

1. Google "dead sticking."

2. Use 5:1 baitcaster for crankbaits

3. Patience - Patience - Patience. Very hard to master.

As stated above, throw plastics; let sit for at least 10 seconds, more if possible, and move back to you very slowly.

If you are "dead sticking" let sit for at least 60 seconds. Keep finger on line at all times to feel for a bite. Just let it sit there. Give it a twitch after 60 seconds and let it sit again. Then go crazy!!!!

You also need to get a swimming pool therometer to check the water temperature. The lower the water temperature the slower you have to fish. For water between 40* to 60* think Rat-L-Traps and tight wobble crankbaits.

Good luck.

[LgMouthGambler]

Brush hogs T rigged work pretty good.

[papajoe222]

The speed of my retrieve doesn't slow down much until the water temps dip into the low 50's. What I do change is my lure selection, or should I say lure profile. Larger baits appear to move slower than smaller profile baits. Take a spinnerbait for example. If you switch to a larger blade or an Indiana or Colorado, on the same lure, it will appear to both you and the fish to be moving slower. Same goes for a crankbait. A larger, or fatter lure, with a wider woble will also give the appearance of moving slower.

Add the larger size factor into the equation and you have a win, win situation when it comes to choosing a larger bait in the fall. Almost all of a bass' forage has reached maturity going into the winter, so larger prey is the norm for a bass at this time.

Although my retrieve speed won't slow much now, I do pause more during the retrieve and most of my strikes come as I start the lure again.

Don't get me wrong. You can, and will catch fish by slowing down and going smaller. But covering water is as important now as any other season so, until the fish slow down, I don't.

As far as lure selection, for a 'slow' lure in cover, you can't beat a jig/pig combo and for open water structure, a crank will keep you at the depth you want to be with longer pauses than a spinnerbait which would be my second choice

[roadwarrior]

Hmm...

Cast, let your jig or soft plastic settle and sit for a minute or two, Move it slowly 6" or so and sit for

another thirty seconds or a minute. Repeat until you feel you are "out of the zone". One cast can

last ten minutes or more.

[scaleface]

This time of year the bass are active, I agree with papajoe. No need to slow down now. I set aside the worm rod in favor of the crankbait rod.

[CPBassFishing]

I was on the potomac for an hour today and caught two 1-pounders on a 5" Senko with a 1/0 hook, just letting it sink, reeling slowly for about 5 seconds, letting it sink again, and so on. I also tried a fluke, a wiggle wart, and a redeye shad, which all got nothing.

[EvanT123]

I feel your pain. All summer i worked top water cranks an t rigs and caught fish any way and everyday. For the last month it's been real tough and I have slowed down and realized you need to change spots especially for smallies and patience counts. Instead of looking for that top water explosion u wait for that bottom bite and that patience might help you in the long run

[Tuckahoe Joe]

As far as fishing slow, T-rig worms. Cast, let sit, twitch it on the bottom a bit, let it sit, twitch, sit, twitch sit, repeat. However, all I've caught on T-rigs the last 2 weeks or so has been pickerel. Never caught one before and then all of a sudden 4 in the last couple trips. My last few bass have all been on crankbaits that dive 4-8 feet.

[Dylcook91]

Thanks guys, tons of great info!

I haven't slowed my fishing down yet as I am incapable hahaha. Right now I am throwing mostly spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jerkbaits(hard and soft), topwaters(buzzbaits, spooks). But they have all seemed to stop producing fish, so I figured I gotta change something. I would love to try crankbaits but the water I fish has lots of vegetation that make it impossible. Maybe the waters I'm fishing are still going through transition and putting the fish off. I guess all I can do is to try and slow it down. I'm definitely gonna give dead-sticking with T-rigged worms a shot cause I'm at a loss. I just picked up some jigs/trailers so I guess I'll also work them in structure and see how that goes.

As for pickerel, I did fish some Zoom flukes today and the pickerel were exploding on them, thankful they somehow managed not to get hooked.

[thehooligan]

Im in south jersey and its been slow for me as well. I went from catching a dozen bass a night on topwater, to 1 or 2 here and there on random cranks and dropshot. I think the water is turning over and its making the bass super lethargic.

Im going to continue throwing lipless cranks, squarebills, topwater, jerkbaits, dropshot, and spinners. I gotta throw senkos, t-rigged worms, and swimbaits cause there the only baits i havnt used in a while...

[wisconsin heat]

I went our last weekend for a few hours on both sat and sunday. I primarily used a BOOYAH pad crasher frog. I casted parallel to the bank about 10-20 feet off the shore, and worked that frog SLOWWWW. It was exactly like fishing a suspending jerkbait, except you could see your lure. cast, let sit for 20 seconds. 1 twitch 10 seconds 2 twitches 15 seconds 1 twitch 10 seconds. I got a bite within my first five casts on saturday and caught one an hour or so later that day. I also got a hit sunday, but that was it that day. Fishing slow can be lots of fun too.

[Shewillbemine]

I prefer to start off with "fast" lures and fast retrieves because if the bass are hitting, I feel the most productive and involved.

The slowest retrieve I've tried (and been successful with) is RoadWarrior's suggestion to count to 10 between cranking the reel on a Senko or worm.

To deal with my impatience, I try to distract myself mostly by talking to clients on the phone. That way, I can apply dead sticking without focusing on how little activity I'm practicing.

[CPBassFishing]

I also listen to music because fall fishing can get pretty boring sometimes.

[Jim_M]

The slow thing has been the single most difficult aspect of angling for me no question.

It has also yielded my best numbers and weight. If results are important it must be mastered.

As mentioned the use of a wrist watch has helped me.

[Clint C.]

I agree, fishing slow is near impossible for me. I'm going to start bringing a wrist watch. Great idea!

[BassAssassin726]

I agree with some of the other posts here in that its only fall and theres no need to slow down. This time of year I use my crankin and spinnerbait rod more than anything else. Fall is spinnerbait time!

[Alpster]

It's a struggle for me to fish real slow also, but like others posted above, it will get you bit if you have the patience. I will some times eat a snack or even a sandwich to bide my time.

Ronnie

[Dylcook91]

Well, skunked again

Went out fishing today after work, tried everything from my usual habits to dead sticking. I started off with a Zoom fluke around lilly pads, in both shallow and deep water. I cast it out, let it sink really long and slow with a twitch every now and then...nothing. Then switched to a single colorado blade spinner, threw that into and around cover then in open water varying speed and depth...nothing. Then jerkbaits...nothing. Rigged up a weightless t-rig, let it sink and sit for 60 seconds(stop watch lol) move it and then wait again, once out of the zone(which is non-existent at this point) reel in and repeat. Still I got nothing. Its to the point I'm not even looking to catch fish, I just want to feel a bite so I can be reminded they do exist. I'm gonna pick up some jigs and trailers then try again tomorrow, but I feel as if I know how that's gonna go hahaha

[Jim_M]

Take one rig with you next trip. Fish that one lure or bait type for a few hours. Your brain wont be wondering off thinking about some other lure or presentation. Cant, cuz u ain't got one . Spend the time feeling the bait on the bottom or wherever it is in the water column. Prepare yourself in advance to work that bait in all the ways it can be. Experiment.

[deep]

Fishing ultra-slow is a very productive technique, BUT, I have to have confidence/ know that there's fish where I'm fishing..

[Ratherbfishing]

Fishing slow can mean different things. Sometimes I will "jiggle" a soft plastic for a few moments and then let it sit still for awhile, repeating this as often as is necessary to get a bite (or until I'm satisfied that there isn't an interested fish there). It doesn't necessarily mean you just cast a bait out and let it do nothing-although sometimes that works too.

[Dylcook91]

I give every lure I fish at least 30 minutes before I call it quiets and switch to another. I went again today and tired using only one as suggested. I went with a spinner bait, as its what I was using when I last caught a bass. Fished for about 2 1/2 hours, all through out the water column, slow roll, fast, stop and go, and even as a jig hahaha. I bet you all can guess my results.

Not gonna stop till something gives, and thankfully I have off work tomorrow so I'll be out there all day

[Dylcook91]

Went out today for about 3 hours, but I picked up a bag of 5" Senkos before hand. T-rigged them weightless and just let them do there thing, AND I finally caught a few bass though they were only dinks. Tried a few other lures, but only the Senkos produced. Now I can sleep a little better tonight with high hopes of better fish in the future.