Fishing Wisdom?

[Beverly Bassman]

Here's my Top Ten List of Bass Fishing advice/tips that have never worked for me. In most cases, these tips have not even worked a single time for me. I welcome eveyone's comments.

1) Windy conditions turn on the bite

2) Points are good fishing locations

3) Action picks up right before a front moves in

4) The intersection of several types of vegetation makes a good target

5) Spinnerbaits catch fish

6) After a cold front, downsize baits

7) If a bass blows up on a frog and misses, you can catch it with another lure

8) Fish bite well in the fall because they are fattening up for winter

9) Fishing deep structure is productive (because most people are pounding the banks)

10) If you get bit on one type of cover, that same type of cover will be productive around the lake

[jimmykm21]

Spinnerbaits?

 

You got to be doing something wrong if you aren't catching bass on a spinner.

Fishing deep works if you can find the fish,  deep diving cranks , Carolina rig or dropshot

Can't comment too much about fall fishing since I bow hunting during that time .

I agree with your comment about frog fishing , if I miss the strike I very rarely catch it with a wacky or another type bait.

 

Your comment on fishing points , I started using my electronics more so if I don't see fish I rarely bother  just casting blindly .

All though I will work the shore line but when it comes to deep water I trust my sonar to find fish.

 

I also hate fishing in wind , a breeze is fine.

[Tuckahoe Joe]

Windy Conditions - For me, this could go either way.  In the wind I either do really good or really bad.  I'd say it's about 50/50.

Points - I've caught a couple off of points but not enough to justify the way people rave about them.  But then again, I don't have too many points available as a bank fisherman.

Spinnerbaits - If you asked me last year, I would have been with you but I was crushing bass, pickerel, and even a yellow perch this past spring, say from about March til May.

Catching missed frog fish on another lure - I've never caught a fish with another lure after missing a topwater blow up but I have caught fish throwing back to the same spot with the same lure.  The other day I had a bass swipe at my Skitterwalk 3 times on 3 casts to the exact same spot before I hooked him.

Fall fish biting good - I did really well last fall.  Caught most of my fish squarebill cranks.

[SirSnookalot]

 

 

Here's my Top Ten List of Bass Fishing advice/tips that have never worked for me.

My question is.............When do you catch fish?

My adage for fishing is this and only this.........When the fish are "on" I'm going to catch them on about anything and when they're off, it's long day.  I don't read anymore into it, I'm going fishing anyway.

[Preytorien]

Here's my Top Ten List of Bass Fishing advice/tips that have never worked for me. In most cases, these tips have not even worked a single time for me. I welcome eveyone's comments.

1) Windy conditions turn on the bite - I agree to a point, I only have luck when it's just breezy, but a blowing wind makes me hesitant to fish. I don't like tangles and wind knots. I'd rather just stay in

2) Points are good fishing locations - I've had some luck with this, but I don't have a boat, using other friends' boat we do alright with this but not killing it or anything

3) Action picks up right before a front moves in - I've seen this work pretty good, but I've never heard of what timeframe. Hours before? Minutes before? Days before?

4) The intersection of several types of vegetation makes a good target - I find pretty good success with about any vegetation, regardless of intersecting types

5) Spinnerbaits catch fish - I have on and off success, but I have caught fish with them

6) After a cold front, downsize baits - This is true, and work them slow. The fish seem to get very inactive after a front, they're more likely to pursue small, slow moving baits at this time

7) If a bass blows up on a frog and misses, you can catch it with another lure - Never had luck with this. I've had more luck running a frog through there again than to switch lures

8) Fish bite well in the fall because they are fattening up for winter - Eh, inconsistent luck with this. It's not like the spring, but it seems better than the dog days of summer, particuliarly on a breezy overcast day with a buzzbait

9) Fishing deep structure is productive (because most people are pounding the banks) - Some luck, I guess it would depend the structure. Roadbeds, creekbeds, and such seem to be pretty productive on bluebird sunny days

10) If you get bit on one type of cover, that same type of cover will be productive around the lake - This seems to be true on the lake I usually fish. I normally fish weed mats and under docks, and seems that no matter where on the lake I'm at, the same techniques work

 

Above are my two cents' worth. I know the frusturation though. I'm really going through a dry spell this summer and trying every technique in articles and forums on this site with no luck.

 

Just keep the line in the water, you can't catch em otherwise!

[smallieking]

If none of those things are true for you your doing something wrong. Wind doesn't turn on fish but it deff disguises your bait making the fish hit better, for example a spinnerbait. Points are the best fishing spots in my opinion. Fish use them to stage before and after the spawn and they also get on main lake points for summertime so they can swim from deep water to shallow water every quickly. As well as bait hold on points... In pa shad spawn on main lake points. Pre front conditions aren't nessarily good conditions but they are so much better than post front. And I've had a few days out on the water where the fish do get super active right before a front but that normally on last the last ten minutes prior to the front hitting. As far as a mix of grass types I find that to be important down south. On lakes that just have grass from one shoreline to the next the bass like to find something different to hold on. So intersections of grass are perfect. Spinnerbaits are amazing. I can't tell you how many times I've been out fishing and for whatever reason couldn't get the fish to eat anything but a spinnerbait. They won't work all the time but your crazy if you don't think they catch em .... Cold fronted cuz the fish to slow way down... So small baits will help get a lot more bites when this occurs. And frog fishing really? If a fish misses a frog in open water I catch them on a senko. Seriously I cannot think of a time where a fish will miss my frog and I toss in a senko or brush hog and didnt get them to eat it.... Fish do eat super good in the fall. It's my favorite season to fish. Why do they eat? Idk. Fattening up for winter is a good theory. Deep structure is amazing in the summer because the fish are more comfortable around it. With or without pressure the bass in the summer will move deep just because the water is cooler and there's more bait there. And the last one is ridiculous . How do u think tournaments are won? Patterning bass is the entire to bass fishing. If I catch one on a jig off a stump in 6 ft of water, you better believe ill be looking for every stump in 5-7 feet on the entire lake, at least til the fishing conditions change. My partner and I just finished second in a big tournament local when we figured out a pattern. He caught our first fish outa grass on a blue beaver. I got three more keepers on a rocky point on a watermelon jig. After an hour I thought to myself if he caught one outa grass on a blue beaver and I caught three small ones on a watermelon jig off rock what could be the pattern? Well after thinking that I switched to a black and blue jig and started catching them like crazy. We started targeting bank grass around a lot of rock and started catching giants. Finished with 17 lb.

[BrianSnat]

1) Windy conditions turn on the bite - Agree with you on this one. I never noticed considerably better fishing when it's windy. In fact some of my best catches were when the water was glass flat.

 

2) Points are good fishing locations - Depends on the point. If it continues as a shallower projection into the water with deeper water on one or both sides they can be  very good spots

 

3) Action picks up right before a front moves in -  I've never noticed a difference.

 

4) The intersection of several types of vegetation makes a good target - I think it's a good target but no better or worse than many other targets.

5) Spinnerbaits catch fish - I cant catch them on spinnerbaits either. 

6) After a cold front, downsize baits -  I think this one nonsense, but sometimes a slower retrieve helps

7) If a bass blows up on a frog and misses, you can catch it with another lure - I've caught many a bass that missed the first time, sometimes on another lure sometimes  with the same one.

8) Fish bite well in the fall because they are fattening up for winter - They do bite well in fall but I think it has to do more with water temps and becoming more active after the heat of the summer.

9) Fishing deep structure is productive (because most people are pounding the banks) - It's productive because the fish like to hang out there, particularly when the water heats up in summer

10) If you get bit on one type of cover, that same type of cover will be productive around the lake -  I agree that this one is nonsense. There are too many other variables.

[Scott F]

I don't know about windy conditions turning on the bite, but I fish the windy shorelines where the wind has been pounding for a while. It works often enough for me that I usually look for it. Same thing for fish turning on before a front comes in. It has worked for me many many times. Deep water can be very productive IF you know which deep water is holding fish. Most of the things that don't work for you, do work for me except for; 4) The intersection of several types of vegetation makes a good target.  I never heard that one before. 

[TC235 <*))))><]

Im a believer in the wind. On shallow clear water lakes it can really pay off. Last fall i caught two back 2 back LMB on a super windy point that were both 5+! The rest of the day was just a frenzy of big bass,pickerel,jumbo perch. I think it honestly makes those clear water fish less finicky. As others say some of the best fishing on my local lakes has been on some intense windy fall days.

[YoungProdigy19]

1,2,9, and 10 are true... in my books. 9, everyone beats the banks! Even non bass fisherman its easy, you catch a drift and make a visual cast. No one wants to sit in 20 feet of water with a dropshot or shakey head, I will because that is what it takes to win! 10, I can't stress enough. If you are are getting bit on a rockpile in 11-14 ft of water, why fish lily pads, find more rockpiles in 11-14 ft of water and duplicate the pattern!

[Beverly Bassman]

Thank you to everyone who replied. The wide ranging answers you gave was kind of the point. These points of wisdom may work for some situations, some of the time. In other cases, not at all. But they work enough to survive as wisdom. It's like all the old wives tales about whether a pregnant lady is going to have a boy or a girl. The wives tales are right half the time, so they survive as predictors. The fact is, some points are good, some not. Sometimes wind or fronts turn on the bite, sometimes not. In some lakes the bass hit a particular lure well, but not others. Deep structure works well in man made reservoirs, but perhaps not so well in mucky natural lakes? You see the point. We all have to find out what works where we fish, and use it. I catch plenty of fish, but those rules I listed have been no help to me. They wasted a lot of my time. In a certain lake, i can throw a spinnerbaits for three hours and catch nothing, but can clean up on other lures. What good is the wisdom? Not much.

[Zach Dunham]

Thank you to everyone who replied. The wide ranging answers you gave was kind of the point. These points of wisdom may work for some situations, some of the time. In other cases, not at all. But they work enough to survive as wisdom. It's like all the old wives tales about whether a pregnant lady is going to have a boy or a girl. The wives tales are right half the time, so they survive as predictors. The fact is, some points are good, some not. Sometimes wind or fronts turn on the bite, sometimes not. In some lakes the bass hit a particular lure well, but not others. Deep structure works well in man made reservoirs, but perhaps not so well in mucky natural lakes? You see the point. We all have to find out what works where we fish, and use it. I catch plenty of fish, but those rules I listed have been no help to me. They wasted a lot of my time. In a certain lake, i can throw a spinnerbaits for three hours and catch nothing, but can clean up on other lures. What good is the wisdom? Not much.

 

None of those points of wisdom were ever meant to be 100% of the time. When it comes to points, you have to look at why certain points are better (how steep are the drops around it, what kind of cover exists up on the shallower parts that would hold bait, etc). Spinnerbaits serve their purpose (as you can tell they are my favorite thing in the world), but they aren't meant to be used all the time. They are the best when the bass are ultra active; you can cover a lot of water and you can fish a spinnerbait so many different ways (burning it, slow rolling, jerking it around, medium speed, etc.) You should look at these things in order of importance:

 

1. Fish location - if you can't find them it doesn't matter what you are throwing. Yes, it is different in different lakes, but the main ideas are somewhat the same. You take the main items you stated above and work from there. It won't usually be drastically different.

 

2. What do they eat? The forage is different in different places. If the bass are super active, it may not matter what their normal food is. If its a day where you actually have to work at them, matching what their normal forage consists of can help a lot. In the lakes I fish alewives and crayfish are definitely the two biggest food sources.

 

After that just experiment and learn. Sometimes it just seems like there is nothing you can do. Personally, I can't accept that. I always think there is something I can modify slightly to change things and I will never give up, lol.

[Beverly Bassman]

You would think that if points are such a good location or spinnerbaits are such a great lure, that once in a while, I would have some luck with them.  It's not as if I can't catch plenty of fish.  I catch them other ways.  I think I have caught two fish in my life by working a crankbait, spinnerbait or a football jig along a point.  In the five or six lakes where I fish, points don't hold fish.  I know those lakes as well as anyone who fishes them.  I talk to everyone out there.  Noboby catches fish on the points.  And some of those points do drop off into deep water.  Like everything, I think the answer is "it depends".  Sometimes points are good, sometimes not. Which means, there is no rule to help you out that much.  Figure it out for yourself.  That is what I do.  Bass use the best cover they have access to.  If a point is the best thing they have, they will use it.  But if there is better structure or cover, they won't be on the points. 

 

I keep detailed notes on my fishing.  I do MUCH better on calm days than windy days.  And I do fish in the wind.  I don't give up.  I have tried what KVD says.  I go to the windiest shoreline, and fish it ten different ways.  Throwing baits into the wind, so they will drift naturally with the current.  If I had success with it, I would say so.  I don't.  Almost never.  So what good is the rule?

 

So if I had to make a bunch of rules, based on my fishing experience, here it is:

 

1) Calm days are best (the more the wind blows, the worse the bite)

 

2) Late spring is the best time of the year, followed by early summer

 

3) Partly cloudly days are best - clear sun is the worst

 

4) Good spots are generally good and unproductive spots are unproductive - it's not worth "patterning"  a certain type of cover - on my lakes, a few docks are good and the rest are bad, etc., you actually have to know the "good" spots to catch good numbers of fish - trying to establish a "pattern" will cause you to fish lots of unproductive areas

 

5)  Lilly pads are the best cover, as long as they are near at least 3 ft of water and are not too thick

 

6) Texas rigged, weightless 5" senkos catch the most fish in shallow cover situations (green or brown in clear water, junebug is best in stained water)

 

7) Drop shot Gulp products are 2nd most productive, in water from 6 feet to 20 ft

 

8) Fishing deep water (15' or more) is a waste unless you can see cover and fish on your sonar/side imaging (it takes a long time to find this - often an hour of searching for one fish)

 

9) In warm weather (but not too hot), think low 80's air temp/high 70's water temp, the crankbait bite sometimes turns on - best success is with deep divers from 10' to 15' near a few well chosen ledges

 

10) Flipping a jig with a craw trailer into the pads will sometimes catch larger fish, as will flipping an unweighted 7" senko (cigar size)

 

11) Frogs fished slowly and carefully over vast weed bays will get a few hits in an hour - about one third of those hits  will be vigorous enough to take the frog down so you can hook the fish

 

12) A 3' or 4" grub on a simple open hook jighead will catch a few smaller fish in rocky areas - but it's not that productive

 

13) The following lures have been a waste of time:  spinnerbaits, swimbaits, hard jerkbaits, poppers, jitterbugs, shakey head worms, large power worms, most lizards (unless they have chartreuse tails), sweet beavers, plastic toads, any type of carolina rig

 

 

I'm sure all of you could make this list and we would see many different lists.  It probably depends on region, water body, luck, etc.  But any list of fishing advice you see, view it as nothing more than a starting point.  Much of it is probably dead wrong for your lakes or rivers.  You have to learn how to catch them yourself.  Experiment until something works, and keep notes on what does and doesn't  work.  That's the only thing that has helped me.

[Zach Dunham]

2) Late spring is the best time of the year, followed by early summer - this is the best because it is the easiest time to catch them shallow, they have either just moved up to spawn, are spawning, or have just finished spawning. For people who like to fish deeper and offshore right now is great and getting better. Some guys on my local lake have been wacking huge bags of smallmouth finesse fishing deeper right now.

 

 

3) Partly cloudly days are best - clear sun is the worst - clear and sunny just means if there is a bite it will probably be deeper, especially in clear water. Cloudy makes a shallow bite more likely. My personal favorite is overcast and a small breeze, but that doesn't mean there aren't ways to catch them when it is clear and sunny. If you're good at fishing cover, a sunny day should help you as the sun comes up and gets brighter the fish are usually pinned closer to cover.

 

4) Good spots are generally good and unproductive spots are unproductive - it's not worth "patterning"  a certain type of cover - on my lakes, a few docks are good and the rest are bad, etc., you actually have to know the "good" spots to catch good numbers of fish - trying to establish a "pattern" will cause you to fish lots of unproductive areas - there is a reason why some of those spots are good. The certain docks that are good aren't just random. Nothing is ever just random. There is always a reason why (nearby weeds, bottom contour, etc). That is why you can pattern it. If you have a lake where you know certain spots are good, find something in common, I guarantee you there is a reason.

 

12) A 3' or 4" grub on a simple open hook jighead will catch a few smaller fish in rocky areas - but it's not that productive - there are much better ways to catch fish in rocky areas, and I'm assuming you're talking smallmouth here. Hair jigs and tubes are amazing.

 

13) The following lures have been a waste of time:  spinnerbaits, swimbaits, hard jerkbaits, poppers, jitterbugs, shakey head worms, large power worms, most lizards (unless they have chartreuse tails), sweet beavers, plastic toads, any type of carolina rig - jerkbaits are the best thing in the world when the water is 40-50 degrees in april. You can't just rule out all baits like that. Just because you haven't figured out a situation to use them yet doesn't mean they don't work. I haven't learned how to swimbait fish well at all, I don't particularly like them, but I know they work amazing if used at the right time and place.

 

 

I didn't comment on every single point, just the ones I thought noteworthy. Everything is about a time and place. If all of the diff baits didn't have their time and place, they wouldn't be used. Excuse the bold font, I wanted to differentiate without writing inside a quote. TIGHT LINES!!

[Beverly Bassman]

Agree with you that there is a reason why cover is good or not.  That is why you cannot pattern.  The pattern would have to be so specific that it is not useful.  "Fish only docks that are extensive in layout, adjacent to both weeds and deep water".  That leaves three docks in the whole lake.  The lake where I fish most is a 200 acre natural lake with several 20 foot deep spots.  It has about 30 boat docks in the entire lake.  I have been fishing this lake for 12 years.  Only 3 of the docks EVER hold any fish.  There is a reason.  Those docks are more extensive, and are closer to deeper water.  So what?  I see guys who don't know the lake come in and fish all the way around the lake, wasting a lot of time fishing docks that don't hold fish.  What good is the pattern?  Same thing with lilly pad beds in the same lake.  There are several of them that hold fish and the rest don't.  They are too shallow, though that is not easy to judge until you have really fished them.  So if you happen to come into the lake and catch a fish on a dock or in pads, then you try to pattern that, you will waste tons of time.  That is my point.  There are reasons why fish do what they do, but the so called rules of thumb are generally not worth much. 

 

The old standby that jerk baits work in cooler water - completely useless on lakes I fish.  i have tried.  I want it to be true.  I want to catch fish in that way.  I have a box of those lures.  I bought an In Fisherman video on how to work jerk baits.  I read about them in Homer CIrcle's book.  They don't work here in my lakes in 40 to 50 degree water. Drop shoting several different baits DOES worked in that situation, over and over again.  It might be due to the forage.  Not sure.  I hate fishing drop shot but it catches fish.  By the way, tubes are another one of those "great" lures that does not work in rocky areas where I fish. A few weeks ago, I spent about three hours fishing a rocky, cliff-like area with 15 foot depth close to shore. It looks like a smallmouth area, but actually, it only holds largemouth (but there are plenty of SM in the lake).  Again the rule is that smallmouth should be on the rocks, but they are not.  Anyway, I had two spinning rods rigged up with 8 pound fluorocarbon.  One with a KVD coffee tube in various colors.  One with a yammamoto grub.  No bites at all with the tube.  Two small fish with the grub.  Finally gave in and switchted to the drop shot.  Caught 7 fish in 30 minutes.  This happens to me over and over again.  The conventional wisdom is not much help in catching fish.  Trying out different things and finding out what the fish want works better, and trying to learn from that. But it often conflicts with the wisdom. 

 

Fishing deep structure is another one.  I have spent so many hours driving around my lakes searching out and marking deep structure and looking for baitfish and game fish.  I put in two Humminbird side imaging units a couple of years ago for this purpose.  I have located all the deep structure that is out there.  I will admit, I have caught a few fish that I would not have caught otherwise. But the time spent versus fish caught is very poor.  My lakes don't have shad.  The bass don't school up in deep water chasing baitfish.  That does not happen.  Sunny days do not produce a deep bite with any consistency.  I would love it if they did.  I have spent time on it.  Sometimes a few fish on deep diving crankbaits.  Never a consistent, hot bite.  If it works where you fish, that's great. 

 

By the way, we are talking about smaller,  fairly highly pressured lakes, in a major metro area.  That's all I really have access to unless I want to drive two hours, or fish on the salt water for striped bass.  If people fish larger, less pressured lakes that are outside of metro areas, all this is way easier.  I vacaction up in northern minnesota at a lake house my in laws own.  Catching bass is so easy up there.  Any lure you throw, in any location, has a decent chance of catching fish.  Not where I live and fish.  Bites are hard to come by, and many of the "good" techniques just do not work.

[Zach Dunham]

Agree with you that there is a reason why cover is good or not.  That is why you cannot pattern.  The pattern would have to be so specific that it is not useful.  "Fish only docks that are extensive in layout, adjacent to both weeds and deep water".  That leaves three docks in the whole lake.  The lake where I fish most is a 200 acre natural lake with several 20 foot deep spots.  It has about 30 boat docks in the entire lake.  I have been fishing this lake for 12 years.  Only 3 of the docks EVER hold any fish.  There is a reason.  Those docks are more extensive, and are closer to deeper water.  So what?  I see guys who don't know the lake come in and fish all the way around the lake, wasting a lot of time fishing docks that don't hold fish.  What good is the pattern?  Same thing with lilly pad beds in the same lake.  There are several of them that hold fish and the rest don't.  They are too shallow, though that is not easy to judge until you have really fished them.  So if you happen to come into the lake and catch a fish on a dock or in pads, then you try to pattern that, you will waste tons of time.  That is my point.  There are reasons why fish do what they do, but the so called rules of thumb are generally not worth much. 

 

 

Yeah that changes everything. In a lake that is only 200 acres there isn't enough room for there to be a lot of spots. On small lakes you end up "junk" fishing a lot of the time. I was incorrectly assuming big lake size. I've noticed the same thing about any of the small lakes I fish. When pros, or people, are talking about these general "rules" of fishing, I think it mostly refers to lakes with enough size to have different types of cover and depth available in quantity.

[Beverly Bassman]

Believe it or not, they actually hold bass tournaments on this 200 acre lake with 12 two-person teams.  I do not fish tournaments, but I have gone down there to watch. Half the teams do not weight in a 5-fish limit FOR TWO PEOPLE.  This year, the winning team had 12 pounds.   I am not saying I could catch a 12 pound limit so easily, but the waters around me are not so easy. 

[bigbill]

Old fisherman's wise tale if the wind is out of the south, forget it, stay home for that second and third cup of coffee.

I fan cast the Rocky points, by casting my lure past them so I don't spook the fish. I work my lure slowly up to them.

When a weather front is approaching try fishing hours before the rain starts the bass put the feed bag on at this time. Try fishing during the light rain too.

With a frog and misses, with any topwater or lure with misses, add a pause to your presentation or a longer pause. Then I change colors first before changing lure sizes.

Remember timing is the key as to where the fish are at. In the early mornings there at the shoreline ambushing the baitfish. As it becomes lighter they move deeper to cover. In the evenings as the light gets lower they move closer to shore again, the cycle starts all over again.