Thrown Everything In My Tackle Box And No Bites, Now What?

[chriswesnofske]

Today a warm front came through and so did rain but it cleared in the afternoon. The air temp was 65 and the water was 54 on the Cumberland river. I fished for 5 hours throwing everything in my tackle box and did not get a single bite. I covered alot of water and still nothing. So what do i do now? What do i throw? Where do i go?

[flyfisher]

Post front conditions are usually a difficult bite, at least for me they are.

In general in that temp of water I am throwing reaction type baits and if that doesn't work I slow down and go with a bottom bouncer of some type.

[Bigbarge50]

Keep your chin up, have your refreshments of choice, and try again next time.  Think that has been the case since the first man tied a string to a stick and tried to catch a fish.  

[Shewillbemine]

I've read that bass love consistent weather and that 3+ days of no change will entice them to be more active. Sometimes, you just get skunked. But the key is to keep coming back.

[Bluebasser86]

Shake it off and try again next time. It's those days when you catch the skunk that keep you driving to learn and do better next time. This time of year if you really want to ensure catching fish I'd suggest live bait, otherwise I'd be expecting to blank more often than not. 

[WRB]

Your problem isn't about lures it's about location and feeding activity, know one can catch bass that are inactive. Some believe you can tease a bass into striking and that rarely occurs outside of guarding a spawning bed or home territory. When bass are inactive or resting they have no interest in eating anything.

You can put a live minnow or crawdad in front of the inactive bass and it will ignore it. Bass in the wild often have baitfish swimming within inches of them with no fear or interest, the prey recognize the predator is inactive.

When the bass starts to become active the prey disappears, or hides, they sense danger.

If you are trying to catch bass when they are inactive for whatever reasons, you will fail. However being at the right place when those bass become active, then you should succeed. Yes, you need the right type of lure that the bass are looking for, presented at the right depth, so they have a chance to strike, but several lures usually work when bass are active.

River bass are not as affected by weather changes as bass in lakes. The water is moving, the bass can't go extremely deep, the water temperature remains fairly consistant unless very cold run off enters the river.

You are better off using high % cold water lures at the right depth then changing to everything in the tackle box.

Tom

[Shewillbemine]

Btw, I had the skunk for 5-6 fishing trips in a row. Yes, it's brutal and I had to check my man card every time I left the water. 

 

I stayed motivated and although I haven't broken the skunk in regards to bass, I decided to try some easy trolling to convince myself fish were still in my lake. I've caught a 3.5 and 5 lb. trout in the last outings while losing an even larger one that broke my line due to a tightly wound drag. 

[Sam]

Dynamite. Try dynamite!!!

Oops, you aren't in Mississippi so dynamite is out of the question.

Have you considered a chartruse flat sided crankbait?

Take a whack with the flat sided cranks and see if you don't get a bite. Just be ready to miss some as they are probably lethargic and if you do catch them on the flat sided crank the hooks may be in the front of their mouths so bring your needle nose pliers to remove them.

[tholmes]

Bait Monkey sez "Put more stuff in your tackle box!

 

Tom

[Broke bass fisherman]

You could try to throw the tackle box. If its big enough you might hit a fish.

I feel your pain. Threw everything in my box this morning and only caught a cast net someone discarded and a nasty cut on my hand. Hope it changes for your next outing. Keep on em.

[A-Jay]

Try Live Bait ~

 

A-Jay

[Hyrule Bass]

i agree to try live bait. i know many here prefer to fish artificial only, and thats fine, but i think they're limiting their options at times. this time of year fishing for bass can be tough, and its true even live bait wont gaurantee you catch fish, but i think it certainly should be an option if the fish arent hitting any artificials in your tackle box. its just another technique of fishing, i think some people just get bored soaking bait as opposed to the norm of chunking and winding while keeping their foot on the trolling motor.

 

personally i love live bait, i like catching multiple species as well.

[roadwarrior]

Drift the biggest minnows you can buy on a split shot rig.

This is Prime Time on the Tennessee River. I'll bet you

can find a few brown fish, too! 

[Bankbeater]

Around here right before a front comes through, you will either catch a ton of fish or the bites will shut down completely.

[LgMouthGambler]

Dynomite!

[Arv]

What I do in these situations... buy more lures, go out and get skunked again. Getting skunked is all part of the game. Just keep at it and you'll be fine. I don't know anyone that has caught at least one fish every outing.

[Gunner59]

I fish 2 local lakes that I get skunked on a regular basis.

Remember a bad day of fishing is always better than a good day at work.

Also that's why it's called fishing instead of it being called catching!

[tomustang]

I fished for 5 hours throwing everything in my tackle box and did not get a single bite. I covered alot of water and still nothing. So what do i do now? What do i throw? Where do i go?

Only thing you didn't try was throwing the box

[Gotfishyfingers?]

SLOW DOWN! What ever technique your doing. Fish smaller baits, shakey head.

[WRB]

If you have a boat with sonar you can locate fish and spoon them with a gold 1/4 to 3/8 oz kastmaster. Both trout and bass will strike the soon and gold is a good off color water choice. Nothing wrong with catching trout out of cold water, they are strong and great table fare. Bass prefer the spoon to flutter down vertical in lieu of retrieving horizontal. Cast, let fall on a tight line, jig it a few time and retrieve. Bass on the fall, trout on the retrieve sounds good to me!

Tom

[Big Bassman]

WRB +1