Super User Nitrofreak Posted January 29, 2013 Super User Posted January 29, 2013 I am no pro by any means but one tip I can give about using spinnerbaits is to work them! What I mean by that is don't get into the habit of just throwing them out and reeling them back in. Try to incorporate some pauses,jerks,twitches and such. Work them through cover not just around. Get into a habit of killing it at the boat before you lift it in, it is alot more work doing all of this but I promise it pays off with fish you may have never caught otherwise. Also, don't forget a trailer hook! Hope this helps! I love what he is saying here as to working them, Thanks for letting me add my 2 cents, keep in mind a spinner is nothing more than a fancy jig, when you are "working" a spinner bait and the same goes for crank baits, make sure you are in contact with what ever you are fishing, cover or structure, you have to make these things change direction to be more successful with them, bump them then pause, then run it into something else, yes you will get hung up from time to time, fish them like you intend to do just that, yes you will lose one or two, but if your not working them as Ranger said your not going to be as effective as you would just cranking them back to you in a straight line, you will get bit doing that but not nearly as much as if you work the bait. Hope that helps as well and thanks again Ranger !!! Quote
RODNEY Posted January 29, 2013 Posted January 29, 2013 How to use my electronics to better effect. Rodney Quote
tugsandpulls Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 x2 on jerkbaits thats my goal this year Quote
Super User Ratherbfishing Posted January 30, 2013 Super User Posted January 30, 2013 It's a somewhat silly goal but I want to catch at least one bass with every lure (or lure type) in my arsenal. Some lures have been "freeloaders" for years and I want to make them earn their keep. 1 Quote
mnbassman23 Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 Drop shot and shaky head. Drives me nuts to finesse fish.. Give me a jig and I can fish slow all day long and be happy, turn it into a finesse lure and I feel like i'm watching paint dry. Quote
Silas Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 Trying to learn to Pitch! Tried several combos and just today found one that seems to work pretty well. Daiwa Sol on a Diesel rod with 1/4oz tungsten and Pit Boss. While "practicing" I caught several bass. Nice to be rewarded for my efforts. I just need to get much better at it! There is SO much hard wood cover here that it would be foolish NOT to do it. I think I have the equipment: now I just need to learn "technique." Quote
Southfork Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 Based on the success I had topwater last year, I'm going to expand my tackle beyond buzzbaits, jitterbugs, and torpedos. The walking and twitch baits have gotten my attention lately, need to get a few of those to try. Until it's weather for those, I'll probably be throwing jigs, flukes, and jerkbaits just like I always have. Quote
TheKingFisher Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 Good topic... I'll be working on top water a bit, plus I'm broadening my horizons a bit and recently acquired a couple of baitcasters so I'll be busy learning to cast and work those. Of course I also have a terrible time fishing slow, so I'll be trying to slow things down a bit this year. 1 Quote
SudburyBasser Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 Not really. There are things I'd LIKE to become proficient at (cranks, spinnerbaits, etc.) but because i want to maximize my time on the water by catching, not just fishing, I tend to stick with my standards. Soft plastics. If I were fishing tourneys, I'd definitely spend more time on becoming more "rounded" in techniques. Exactly my thoughts. If you had asked me only a few weeks ago I would have said I wanted to get comfortable with drop shotting. Or Carolina rigs. Or split shots. Or. Or. I catch a lot of fish on crank baits and plastics. Yeah, it would be nice to learn all the other techniques but my time fishing is unfortunately limited because of a short season up here in northern Canada and my brother-in-law's availability (his is the boat) so experimenting/learning heavily just takes time from actual catching. Any learning I do this year will be with the new and first baitcaster I bought. At some point when I get my own boat and decide when I'm fishing perhaps I'll pick up some new techniques. 1 Quote
loodkop Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 Map study and electronics. At this moment I have a very expensive speedometer (HB 898 SI) on a not that fast boat. 1 Quote
Jaiden Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 Putting together a pattern on new lakes and spinnerbaits. Quote
slowpoke274 Posted January 31, 2013 Posted January 31, 2013 Drop shot and shaky head. Drives me nuts to finesse fish.. Give me a jig and I can fish slow all day long and be happy, turn it into a finesse lure and I feel like i'm watching paint dry. me as well ive yet to catch a fish on either technique so finesse will get alot of attention this year im just gonna have to leave all the other baits at home and really focus on the post frontal days Quote
jbone177 Posted February 1, 2013 Posted February 1, 2013 My goal this year is to catch fish! LOL Last year was the first time had gone fishing since I was a little kid and now Im hooked! Didnt have much success but my confidence has grown a lot thanks to this site and Gene's videos. I have to really try a few new techniques figure out which one(s) I like and focus on those. My overall goal for this year is to out fish all my friends and Im confident I will be able to. Just ordered my first baitcasting rod and will soon get a reel as well. Hopefully I'll have a good amount of practice under my belt by the time early spring comes around. Quote
iceman11 Posted February 1, 2013 Posted February 1, 2013 Every day I go fishing I try and work on a new technique. Even though I usually go back to what I know works rather than trying to make a new technique work. Quote
Super User MarkH024 Posted February 1, 2013 Super User Posted February 1, 2013 Drop shot and shaky head. Drives me nuts to finesse fish.. Give me a jig and I can fish slow all day long and be happy, turn it into a finesse lure and I feel like i'm watching paint dry. I'm the same way. We should fish together. lol. I have a hard time fishing slowwwwwwww. I like to cover a lot of water. Drop Shotting is my primary focus this season. 1 Quote
Super User Jigfishn10 Posted February 1, 2013 Super User Posted February 1, 2013 Rangerphil, on 29 Jan 2013 - 16:55, said:I am no pro by any means but one tip I can give about using spinnerbaits is to work them! What I mean by that is don't get into the habit of just throwing them out and reeling them back in. Try to incorporate some pauses,jerks,twitches and such. Work them through cover not just around. Get into a habit of killing it at the boat before you lift it in, it is alot more work doing all of this but I promise it pays off with fish you may have never caught otherwise. Also, don't forget a trailer hook! Hope this helps! NitroFreak I love what he is saying here as to working them, Thanks for letting me add my 2 cents, keep in mind a spinner is nothing more than a fancy jig, when you are "working" a spinner bait and the same goes for crank baits, make sure you are in contact with what ever you are fishing, cover or structure, you have to make these things change direction to be more successful with them, bump them then pause, then run it into something else, yes you will get hung up from time to time, fish them like you intend to do just that, yes you will lose one or two, but if your not working them as Ranger said your not going to be as effective as you would just cranking them back to you in a straight line, you will get bit doing that but not nearly as much as if you work the bait. Hope that helps as well and thanks again Ranger !!! Quote
Super User Nitrofreak Posted February 1, 2013 Super User Posted February 1, 2013 Every year it seems we have a thread like this, I love seeing that all of us want to get better at something, either a technique or a study of some sort, like a map. We have all of the information here at our fingertips to make us all better anglers, all we need to do is get out there and practice, practice, practice, it sounds so easy. What is it that holds us back from being better anglers and accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves? It's much like a new year resolution isn't it, my goal is to loose 25lbs, how many of us start off great and end up dumping the program because it is simply not working out? Same here, whats the main reason it does not work out? the reason is different for each and every one of us, oh that plan stank, or I am just too lazy, my dog ate my...., Think about it, all they are, are excuses. My point is if you want to be better at doing something or have a goal, then one thing that we all know is that it takes commitment, commitment to doing something over and over and over again until we get it right is, lets face it, boring as he## !! Make things easy on yourselves, if you want the drop shot to work for you, or you want the crank or spinner baits to work, you have to find the fish first, stop throwing those baits in hopes a bass will bite, don't just look at a spot and think, man there just has to be a bass in there somewhere, stop thinking in single digits, think big !! Make yourself do something different, make your baits do something different, make it all work for you by knowing when the right time is the right time to use the baits you want to get better at, take the time to read and understand what you are attempting to do with the baits so that it works out for the best for you and your new technique, without finding the fish first, the technique is going to be useless to you and you will just toss it aside like that failed weight loss plan, get off the couch and get off the banks and allow yourself the opportunity to achive the goals we set for ourselves and become the successful and skinny anglers we want to be. Good luck and be safe !!! Quote
Super User Nitrofreak Posted February 1, 2013 Super User Posted February 1, 2013 Would you mind if I add to this? Who are you asking ? If your asking me then have at it !!! Quote
Super User Jigfishn10 Posted February 1, 2013 Super User Posted February 1, 2013 Who are you asking ? If your asking me then have at it !!! You asked for permission, I was just following your lead...which is dangerous...LOL The only thing I can add to what Nitro and Ranger posted about spinnerbaits or any horizontal presented lure for that matter, would be to keep depth and speed in mind along with the techniques already mentioned. Case in point was my trip to Disney last week. I brought down some MegaStrike StrikeBack spinnerbaits to try out. We launched at 7:00 am and the lake was pea soup fog. I was using the spinnerbait and my guilde was using a worm. I started off working it shallow, meaning a foot or so in the water column, with a slow retrieve speed, trying to locate fish. No luck. I fished a little deeper (about 5 fow) and again, slow and finally located them on the edge of thick grass. I kept this "pattern" up until the sun came up and then the "pattern" changed. After an hour or so, I decided to fish the same depth, but sped up the retrieve. Bam, I'm back on the "pattern". The sun evidently activated/changed the fish's behavior as the bite was more agressive, so I had to change to what was presented to me. So again, keep depth and speed in mind as well as retrieve techniques. Quote
Super User Nitrofreak Posted February 1, 2013 Super User Posted February 1, 2013 You asked for permission, I was just following your lead...which is dangerous...LOL The only thing I can add to what Nitro and Ranger posted about spinnerbaits or any horizontal presented lure for that matter, would be to keep depth and speed in mind along with the techniques already mentioned. Case in point was my trip to Disney last week. I brought down some MegaStrike StrikeBack spinnerbaits to try out. We launched at 7:00 am and the lake was pea soup fog. I was using the spinnerbait and my guilde was using a worm. I started off working it shallow, meaning a foot or so in the water column, with a slow retrieve speed, trying to locate fish. No luck. I fished a little deeper (about 5 fow) and again, slow and finally located them on the edge of thick grass. I kept this "pattern" up until the sun came up and then the "pattern" changed. After an hour or so, I decided to fish the same depth, but sped up the retrieve. Bam, I'm back on the "pattern". The sun evidently activated/changed the fish's behavior as the bite was more agressive, so I had to change to what was presented to me. So again, keep depth and speed in mind as well as retrieve techniques. Nice, really good job !!! If you can't fish these after all that then.........use dynamite, it never fails LOL !!! Quote
skeetercraig Posted February 1, 2013 Posted February 1, 2013 Map study and electronics. At this moment I have a very expensive speedometer (HB 898 SI) on a not that fast boat. you arent the only one , this is where im focusing some time into also Quote
Big Bassman Posted February 3, 2013 Posted February 3, 2013 Learn new sonar unit which will be an all year thing! Drop shot and fish more plastics. When I think back on all the years I have bass fished I realize I have concentrated on one or two lures & techniques each season. In other words, one season more spinnerbaits, another maybe more jig&pig or plastic worm. I have always either had more success with a particular type of bait or just fished that bait more regularly in a specific season or year. Last year it was spinnerbaits, killed fish all year! Not sure why, but whatever bait I'm tossin at the time if I start nailin fish I generally stick with it until it becomes less productive and then I try something else. Quote
Bass Junkie Posted February 3, 2013 Posted February 3, 2013 I always set goals to learn a specific technique and then end up learning new techniques throughout the season, but rarely are they the ones I originally intended to learn... 1 Quote
Super User Jigfishn10 Posted February 3, 2013 Super User Posted February 3, 2013 I always set goals to learn a specific technique and then end up learning new techniques throughout the season, but rarely are they the ones I originally intended to learn... I can't tell you how many times that happened to me as well Bass Junkie...Not all bad...In my case, I suffer from A.D.D....well not really, just a mind of a 5 y/o...LOL Quote
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