How Accurate Is Accurate?

[K_Mac]

I won't thrash, but I do think accuracy is an important part of the equation. Sure there are times when just hitting the water will do, especially when fish are actively feeding. When they aren't, it can make all the difference IMO. I have been out-fished more than once in the past when the only difference was my inability to consistently put my bait in the strike zone.

[Catt]

Ok I'll trash away with my opinion

 

I agree 100%!

 

You'll hear "hit the holes in grass"

 

Really! I fish 1,000 acre Hydrilla, Milfoil, & Coontail Moss beds, there are no holes! You either fish the edges or ya get in it!

 

I can't tell y'all how many times I've made a bad cast & caught a fish and you know what else? Make the exact same cast & catch another because there is more than on fish on that target.

[Lund Explorer]

Lot's of opinions on this subject, so here's mine.

 

If you want or think you need to improve accuracy, then nothing will beat practice casting/pitching/flipping in the back yard. 

 

My favorite approach to casting is a roll cast.  Keeps your lure low all the way to the target, and with that practice I mentioned, you can feather that cast to the point where the lure makes little if any splash.

 

Whatever type of practice you might do, place a small target out away from you at 10-15 feet to start with.  Once you've gotten to the point where you can consistently hit that target, move it farther away.  If you want to practice a soft landing, then fill that target with water and try not to spill any of it.

[J Francho]

 

Make the exact same cast & catch another because there is more than on fish on that target.

 

That's actually a REALLY important message, and where having some bit of accuracy pays off!  Good point, Catt.

 

I often fish behind others, and they catch a fish off something, and move on.  I'll fish right behind and sometimes catch several more, often bigger.  I doubt I made the exact same cast as they did, though.  Or the times that you pitch at a target 10+ times, and on the umpteenth cast you get her.  I always wonder if I did something different, or just annoyed her into the bite. But this still is a very small portion of fishing.  At least it is where I fish, or maybe it's the way I fish?  My buddy Jim is an remarkable target caster, better than me, and I'm pretty good after I knock the rust off at ice out, lol.  I catch as many as he does, and accuracy wasn't the formula.

 

I guess I'm struggling with the notion that if you have to put a bait within inches of a fish's face, that somehow accuracy plays a part.  What if the fish is six feet to the left?  Right?  How do you know?  You don't.  And you don't know they aren't there if you always putting the bait on visible targets.  I think it's our internal ego and our tendency to hang an explanation on it, and call it fact.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are days where you feel like you have to get to the shady side of an odd numbered dock piling made of wood, but I think more often it's less defined, and that's just our way of applying a pattern that isn't really there.  I don't think I've ever come to the ramp at the weigh in, and all the leaders were doing the same thing to catch their fish.  I know that goes a little beyond the "accuracy" subject, but it should tell a beginner a ton about this sport.

[WRB]

Sportsman shows or tackle shows always have a casting pool set up for accuracy, a 30" hula hoop at 50'.

Very few anglers can hit the hoop the first try!

Be honest with yourself and your casting skills.

Tom

[J Francho]

Coffee mugs at 30' are my cup of tea.

[ColdSVT]

Depends

Flipping and pitching docks and timber i believe it is super important...everyrhing else not so much lol

[RSM789]

Like so many things with bass fishing, it depends on the situation and/or the body of water.  On my home lake, inactive bass often set up under docks during the middle of the day, typically facing the seawall.  Casts around a dock in this situation rarely produce strikes, the bait must be skipped under the dock, the closer to the seawall the better.  I have hundreds of experiences where an okay cast that barely makes it under the dock is ignored and follow-up casts that skip under the dock & bounce off the seawall are hammered.  It sometimes gets the point where you can call your shot.

[Josh Smith]

MOA is acceptable, but try to do better.

[WRB]

I don't know anyone who can pick up a rod and make their first cast accurately, it takes a few cast to dial in where that particular rod, reel, line and lure is doing at whatever conditions and distance you are making that cast.

You might be close, you might miss by a few feet or more. Once you get the feel and tuned in, then making more accurate casts at similar distance with the same outfit is repeatable.

It's important not to be so inaccurate that you end up trouble and snag your lure or break it by hitting rocks or up in a tree. Otherwise missing a few feet just means you make another cast.

Tom

[Catt]

I fish  lot of deep water structure and even with Down Imaging/Side Imaging it's still a guess as where the target is exactly!

 

Pre-spawn I can dial em in pretty close when they're in Buck Brush

[F14A-B]

Not tea, JF, but seattle's best coffee! # 5

[F14A-B]

Accuracy is overrated, I subscribed to George Cochran's theory on casting, ( over cast a target and reel back into it) pitching & flipping, a quiet entry is worth more to me.

[Ratherbfishing]

In addition to being "spot on" it is also important to be thorough.  A friend and I will often cast to the same spot and sometimes only get bit after 5 or 6 casts (each).  This is easier to do when there are fewer targets to throw at but I think it's best to treat each piece of cover as though it's the last or only target in the lake.  This is especially true on cold front days or when you can't get reaction bites from aggressive fish.

[desmobob]

Accuracy only counts if you know exactly where the fish you want to hook is.  

 

 

I want to disagree with that, just a little....

 

I've had a couple of days this fall where I lucked into some nice bass hanging under very thin lines/patches of weeds growing along the edge of some rock riprap.  I was throwing a wacky Senko.  I found that if I was more than a foot or so short of the edge of the weeds, no bite.  If I threw a couple of inches too far, I'd foul in the weeds.  But every third or fourth or fifth cast that hit right at the very edge of the weeds... BINGO!  

 

Initially, I didn't know the fish were there at all.  But after I caught the first one with a cast that hit right on the edge of the weeds, I had a good idea.  And I didn't know where every fish was, but it didn't take long to find out exactly where the bait had to be to entice any fish that could be there.

 

I'm new at the bass fishing game and up until that day, I never (knowingly) came upon a situation where a cast had to be made so accurately in order to hook up.  At the end of the day, I was wondering to myself how many times I might NOT have caught fish because I wasn't so careful about getting so tight to the cover with my presentation -- in other words, accurate with my casts.

 

I guess I'd say extreme accuracy certainly isn't necessary to catch lots of fish, but it sure can help!

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[Catt]

Establishing your daily pattern is more than; are the bass holding on stumps or in grass?

 

It also involves casting accuracy, retrieval rhythm, rate of fall, etcetra!

[J Francho]

I once tossed a jig at my partner to try.  It landed right in the lake.  That's accuracy!

 

Here's a cool pic of me pitching a jig at my buddy.  It actually landed in his lap!

 

[Catt]

Awesome J, kinda looks like a Louisiana marsh

[J Francho]

That's part of the Lake Ontario watershed, off Braddocks Bay.  Fun spot to play in.

 

https://goo.gl/maps/pt37o

[K_Mac]

J, I would like to say I'm accurate enough to hit the water on every cast or pitch. Unfortunately  that would not be completely true...

[J Francho]

Trees count.

[K_Mac]

Trees count.

 

That would increase my percentage, although still not quite 100%. Cables, docks, rocks, and a variety of other objects sometimes manage to mess up an otherwise perfect pitch!

[J Francho]

Getting your line on that one proud nail head on a dock is worth two bonus points.

[WRB]

I once tossed a jig at my partner to try.  It landed right in the lake.  That's accuracy!

 

Here's a cool pic of me pitching a jig at my buddy.  It actually landed in his lap!

 

Hook up!