Getting strike mid-retrieve

[FCPhil]

I mainly fish medium size clear water size ponds in Colorado. The places I fish get a good amount of fishing pressure and they might just not be very good bass fishing on their own. I probably average one fish per visit. The vegetation on the bottom is thick enough I can't use any bottom fishing lures without dragging in a bunch of plants. 

 

In my experience I almost always get bites either at the very beginning of the retrieve (on the fall or as soon as the bait starts moving) or as the lure passes by cover. Occasionally I get strikes right at the end of the retrieve as I am about to pull the lure  out of the water. I almost never get bites mid way in my retrieve in open water. I mainly fish crankbaits, topwater, stick baits, swimbaits. 

 

It has gotten to the point that I feel a good chunk of my fishing time is wasted as I retrieve my lure. Unless they bite at the beginning or as I pass cover I'm just wasting time getting my lure back to make another cast. Anyone have any suggestions or similar experience?

 

Details:

I only have one rod. 6:3 baitcaster with medium heavy rod. Straight 30 pound braid. Lures: Strike King KVD 1.5, Mann's 1-, various lipless cranks, whopper plopper, jackall pompadour jr. and Mikey Jr, small swimjig, arashi wake crank, etc. I have tried some spinnerbaits but never gotten a strike. 

[J Francho]

3 minutes ago, FCPhil said:

I almost never get bites mid way in my retrieve in open water.

 

Most feeding or active bass are associating with structure and cover.

[FCPhil]

16 minutes ago, J Francho said:

 

Most feeding or active bass are associating with structure and cover.

Sometimes I get strikes in open water right at the beginning of the retrieve (On the fall or when the bait starts moving) but I don't get bites in open water after that point. I know there is cover out there because the bottom is covered with submerged grass.

[Megastink]

I've found 90% of my bites are on the initial fall or within the first 10ft of my retrieve. I'm a target-oriented angler, so once my bait is about 6ft passed a target, I'm already lining up my next cast. Knowing where my bites come, I play the odds. You'll never catch them all, and I don't try to.

[FCPhil]

Just now, Megastink said:

I've found 90% of my bites are on the initial fall or within the first 10ft of my retrieve. I'm a target-oriented angler, so once my bait is about 6ft passed a target, I'm already lining up my next cast. Knowing where my bites come, I play the odds. You'll never catch them all, and I don't try to.

If you can't fish on the bottom because of vegetation what are your most productive lures?

[Megastink]

If it's a CLEAR pond, toss a hard jerkbaits and work that thing fast. Also toss a topwaters walker, like a Strike King Sexy Dawg Jr. You can ALWAYS fish vegitation somehow. Try a small swimbait, like a 3.75" Rage Swimmer on a 1/4 or 1/8oz joghead slow rolled, ticking the grass. Any Texas rigged plastic would work. Maybe a weightless Caffine Shad Texas rigged? Allowed to float down into the grass and ripped out before floating down again. 

 

Where theres a will, there's a way. If you're saying that there's thick vegetation down there, the bass ABSOLUTELY live there.

[FCPhil]

1 minute ago, Megastink said:

If it's a CLEAR pond, toss a hard jerkbaits and work that thing fast. Also toss a topwaters walker, like a Strike King Sexy Dawg Jr. You can ALWAYS fish vegitation somehow. Try a small swimbait, like a 3.75" Rage Swimmer on a 1/4 or 1/8oz joghead slow rolled, ticking the grass. Any Texas rigged plastic would work. Maybe a weightless Caffine Shad Texas rigged? Allowed to float down into the grass and ripped out before floating down again. 

 

Where theres a will, there's a way. If you're saying that there's thick vegetation down there, the bass ABSOLUTELY live there.

Any suggestions for a really shallow running jerkbait? As in 0-1.5 feet?

[fishballer06]

17 minutes ago, FCPhil said:

Any suggestions for a really shallow running jerkbait? As in 0-1.5 feet?

 

The original floating Rapala. Tried and true.

[Megastink]

42 minutes ago, FCPhil said:

Any suggestions for a really shallow running jerkbait? As in 0-1.5 feet?

If it's that shallow, omit the hard jerkbaits. Throw a fluke. 

[Scott F]

I fish a lake with a large weedy flat that runs about 5 feet deep on average with dense vegetation on the bottom. The weeds grow within a foot or two of the surface. I drift the open water and have a lot of success with lipless crankbaits and wakebaits like the Mann's 1-minus.

[J Francho]

1 hour ago, FCPhil said:

I know there is cover out there because the bottom is covered with submerged grass.

 

So, fish a Texas rigged worm or a skirted jig with a plastic craw.  I guess I don't understand why the vegetation is a problem.  99% of my fishing is in weeds.  There's a million types of baits out there, and several weedless rigging options.

[Scott F]

16 minutes ago, J Francho said:

 

So, fish a Texas rigged worm or a skirted jig with a plastic craw.  I guess I don't understand why the vegetation is a problem.  99% of my fishing is in weeds.  There's a million types of baits out there, and several weedless rigging options.

 

I can't comment on the water the OP is fishing but on the lakes I fish, a skirted jig, if it hits the bottom, disappears in a 12 inch or thicker layer of muck and vegetation. The lure comes up coated in this decayed material.

[mllrtm79]

if you have about 1-1.5 ft from the surface to vegetation you could try a bladed jig (chatterbait) running fast enough to keep it just above the grass or just touching it from time to time. Or really slow down a floating crank to keep it above the grass. 

I'm assuming that you are bank fishing, but try to cast out more parallel to the shore. You say some of your bites are right at the end of your retrieve, so trying to keep the whole retrieve within ten feet of the bank may work.

[FCPhil]

14 minutes ago, Scott F said:

 

I can't comment on the water the OP is fishing but on the lakes I fish, a skirted jig, if it hits the bottom, disappears in a 12 inch or thicker layer of muck and vegetation. The lure comes up coated in this decayed material.

this is my problem too.

[NHBull]

I get to fish with some old tournament guys and they bring it back fast after passing over the strike zone.  A fast reel makes it even better.

 

They end up spending far more time over the cover than I do, as I tend to fish it back to the boat

[J Francho]

Use a lighter jig head.  Slider heads are good for this.  You can also rig it weightless.  It's not a unique situation - one that many encounter, myself included.  Here's a fish I caught on a 3/16 weedless wacky jig and flick shake worm.  Anything heavier than 1/4 oz. disappears in the mud.

 

[blckshirt98]

If you're fishing ponds I'm assuming you're fishing from shore.  With crankbaits I get a lot of strikes within 10 feet of shore right when I'm about to finish my retrieve and pull up my lure for a re-cast.

[Deleted account]

swim jig!

[chadmack282]

weightless  soft jerk bait (fluke) with a heavy wire offset round bend 4/0 hook on spinning rod 

[Angry John]

I second the fluke idea as they are reacting well to it right now.  I have made it my lure to learn this season.  The best i have found for not hanging up is a 2/0 ewg on a normal fluke and 5/0 ewg on the super fluke.  The smaller one seems to do well for me in weeds and just lays on top.  The superfluke has a worm like fall and i get bit a lot just after the cast but no so much on the smaller fluke.  They are cheap and fun to learn so might be worth a shot.  A keitech easy shiner 4" on a 3/0 weighted swim bait hook is a great shallow water bait as well and can be kept shallow very easy and still worked slower.

[FCPhil]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try some of these and report back if I can remember. One challenge I face is I am shore bound and have to be able to cast decently far to reach the submerged weeds. 

[tcbass]

It seemed that a lot of topwaters like KVD Sexy Dawgs and buzzbaits got hit on the initial splashdown and never after that. But after a lot of fishing I've caught them on the retrieve a lot too now. 

[wdp]

How are you fishing the shallow cranks? When the water warms up in late spring & summer, I have my best luck burning a shallow crank with sporadic pauses. Something about burning the bait for 2-5 cranks then pausing for *** seconds can really trigger strikes. You gotta mix it up too. Crank the handle super fast for 2 revolutions, then pause. Super fast for 5 revolutions, then pause. And so on. They hit it on the pause, and sometimes they absolutely hammer it. I've had em knock a few ft of slack in my line. 

 

I've had really great success doing this in 2-5 ft of water in the middle of summer on some grassy lakes I fish. And it's accounted for my 2 biggest fish in the past yr. Works great with a Baby 1-, KVD 1.5, BPS Egg, etc. All cranks that only go 1-2 ft deep. These super shallow divers stay outta the grass mostly and don't get fouled by the weeds nearly as much. 

[scaleface]

Kill the lure , pause it , rip it ...  

[FCPhil]

So I wanted to report back about after hearing the advice giving. I went fishing early this morning and tried a walking topwater, a large jerkbait, a fast stop and go retrieve on a crankbait, a few swimjigs and a paddle tail swimbait on a light keel weighted took. I didn't have much time to thoroughly test them all so I'm going to keep at it.

 

The only producer was the walking topwater (Ima Skimmer). Hooked one small bass on it but he shook free because of a bad hook. Next time I'm planning on trying some soft plastics and a smaller jerkbait.