Targets while pitching

[BigAngus752]

I've read all the stickies and articles and I've spent weeks practicing my pitching out in the yard.  I've gotten to the point where I can reliably walk a Texas rig up and down the flowerbed from various distances and I can put it within 4 inches or less of my target each time.  I was feeling pretty successful with my practice but then I realized I don't recall reading anything about how to choose the target line.  I know what structure to pitch to, but if I'm working a line of grass or a dock from 25 feet away how much to I move my landing zone as I'm working through the area?  If I don't get a bite with a couple pitches to the same spot do I move a few inches?  A foot?  A few feet?  What's the strike zone for a bass?  Does if vary with the weather, water temp, season, etc. ?  I know I have a lot of practicing to do still but what else am I missing?  Thanks in advance. 

[scaleface]

Do it however you want too .  Sometimes I move the boat a long distance to get from spot to spot and other times I will fish it all .

[Montanaro]

Thats just a part of patterning the bass.

 

Gotta learn where they are and how many pitches till they bite.  If they are setting up in the ends of laydowns, then a second pitch a few inches left or right may result in a fish.  Or if they are set up on a grass line a second pitch close to your first may not be productive.

[scaleface]

 In weed lines for example  you will find cuts and juts and the bass may prefer one over the other . Cuts maybe a little deeper , juts might be a little shallower or the bottom composition may have changed  . Its hard to know what bass prefer on a given day without trying it all . Do I pitch inches apart , feet apart , yards apart or further  just depends on what I find that day . I will not pass by isolated cover be it weeds , wood , whatever  without giving  it  a thorough effort .

[BigAngus752]

15 minutes ago, scaleface said:

 In weed lines for example  you will find cuts and juts and the bass may prefer one over the other . Cuts maybe a little deeper , juts might be a little shallower or the bottom composition may have changed  . Its hard to know what bass prefer on a given day without trying it all . Do I pitch inches apart , feet apart , yards apart or further  just depends on what I find that day . I will not pass by isolated cover be it weeds , wood , whatever  without giving  it  a thorough effort .

That makes sense.  Thanks

3 hours ago, Montanaro said:

Thats just a part of patterning the bass.

 

Gotta learn where they are and how many pitches till they bite.  If they are setting up in the ends of laydowns, then a second pitch a few inches left or right may result in a fish.  Or if they are set up on a grass line a second pitch close to your first may not be productive.

I did a search on 'patterning' and found quite a bit.  I just didn't know the term for it.  Thank you

[fishballer06]

A fishes strike zone can vary upon mood and water clarity. If the fish are active, they might swim 10-20 feet to bite something. Other times, they might only move a foot. Water clarity is another factor too. In dirty water, a fish isn't going to swim 15 feet to something that it can't see, so you'll have to put it right by their nose. 

[DroneFisher]

Interesting, following.

[sully420]

Ish Monroe's theory is to go by water visiblity if you can see 5' down space youre pitches 5' apart and so on

[Sam]

If I don't get a bite with a couple pitches to the same spot do I move a few inches?  A foot?  A few feet?

 

It doesn't matter. What matters is that you keep the bait in the water by anything that looks out of the ordinary, be it changes in the grass, a drop off, a tree, bush, stickup, dock, pier, rocks and anything that could hold a bass.

 

You will make a short pitch followed by a long pitch and then everything in between.

 

That is the fun of pitching and flipping.  You keep on until you get a bite.

 

On rivers with current, let the current take the boat down the bank and use your trolling motor to avoid overhanging trees and hitting the shoreline. Keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. And then, pitch and flip to anything in the ordinary!!!!

 

This is bass fishing and there are no rules.

[Cranks4fun]

Often, fishermen are casting well but the bass are not biting at all or they are not biting what you are throwing. Bass get into moods: 1) chasing and eating; 2) chasing but rarely biting; 3) biting but refusing to move more that 3-4 inches; 4) not moving and not biting; 5) Swimming in full view of your boat on a sunny day but refusing to look at a lure; Etc. I have watched largemouth and smallmouth in clear water ignore baits they were chasing and biting an hour earlier. Sometimes you are casting right in the face of bass that will not cooperate. For whatever reason, they are not feeding actively. There are debates regarding whether bass can be angered into biting. I do believe that modifying your presentation helps sometimes. Casting the same way and hitting the same spots or within the same proximity can bring different results sometimes by just slowing WAY down or going finesse. Going MEGA helps too sometimes. I actually fished a large (10 acre) pond in Missouri where the bass we caught averaged 3 lbs.with several over 5. They would not respond to a 6-7  inch worm but hit 10 inch worms with some degree of regularity. We fished that pond several times with that same response. 10 inch worms were not the ONLY thing they bit though. They liked Stanley Ribbits too!  

[BassNJake]

When fishing as a co-angler I learned not to rule out any spots.

Often the "Pro" would be hitting the high percentage spots, leaving me to use a secondary or less obvious spot.

 

Many times I caught fish between dock posts or at the edge of an overhang instead of all the way under it

Other times he would hit the front of a lay down and I caught the fish because once I was able to flip to it my angle varied from his.

(On a side note sometimes I got smoked because the fish were at the high percentage spots and I just never had a chance to reach them first. #co-angler blues)

 

Once I determine that they are more aggressive/actively feeding, I will hit the high percentage spots moving pretty quickly

If I find they are less active I tend to dissect the cover from multiple angles using a couple different baits

 

[BigAngus752]

5 hours ago, fishballer06 said:

A fishes strike zone can vary upon mood and water clarity. If the fish are active, they might swim 10-20 feet to bite something. Other times, they might only move a foot. Water clarity is another factor too. In dirty water, a fish isn't going to swim 15 feet to something that it can't see, so you'll have to put it right by their nose. 

That is very helpful.  I just wasn't sure how much "cooperation" I could expect from a hungry bass.  

[ClackerBuzz]

I start out pitching very fast:  many pitches with 2-3 hops before reeling in and re-pitching to a different part of the cover.  The trick is to choose dramatically different targets in dramatically different depths:  timber, ledges, rocks, points, grass in 2, 6, and 10 ft of water.  if I quickly cast that kind of variety/depth and they don't bite I start the process over but slow down and let the jig marinade until it annoys them into biting.  this is target fishing so no need to work the lure all the way back to boat.  

[Hez]

Irregularities 

 

Look for something different.  If it is a line of grass...look for the part that sticks out...or dips in...look for the different vegetation...where 2 types of vegetations come together.  

 

That is where the bass should be.  Now, they don't always follow the rules...so they won't "always" be there....but that's where they "should" be

[Catt]

First quit flipping the grass & start flipping the structure under it!

 

The grass you can see will tell you a lot. Any area that is thin or looks like a trail has been worn through it could be a slight depression. It can mark a ditch or a bottom contour change of any kind. Start there and work your way in and out.

A glance at the land on shore will also give you clues as to what is under it. Look at the points and depressions and follow them out under the grass.

 

Once I get bit I'll kick a buoy marker over the side & work that area 360° in an ever widen circle.

 

Don't be afraid to make multiple cast to the same target from different angles.

 

 

[BigAngus752]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

First quit flipping the grass & start flipping the structure under it!

 

The grass you can see will tell you a lot. Any area that is thin or looks like a trail has been worn through it could be a slight depression. It can mark a ditch or a bottom contour change of any kind. Start there and work your way in and out.

A glance at the land on shore will also give you clues as to what is under it. Look at the points and depressions and follow them out under the grass.

 

Once I get bit I'll kick a buoy marker over the side & work that area 360° in an ever widen circle.

 

Don't be afraid to make multiple cast to the same target from different angles.

 

 

Actually last night I read your sticky on structure, printed a map of the lake we are going to this weekend, and sat and marked my spots while reading over your structure post.  I will keep this in mind also.  Thank you, sir. 

[CTBassin860]

I start with the holes in the pads. Hop it a few times then I reel on top and drop into other holes on my way back. I usually look at it as a grid and pitch into every square as I work around the cover. I'm am watching the pads at all times looking for moving pads to indicate a fish swimming through. If I see a fish jump I immediately reel in and pitch to that spot. Never pass up structure. Work your way all around it. Pitching has taken over frogging for me this year. The go to has been a pegged 1/2 oz weight with a Rage Bug in watermelon meat.

[WIGuide]

When you're pitching to cover or structure you can pick it apart fairly quickly. Something like a dock hit the posts, and some under the dock in the shade. If you feel confident that there are fish under it, you might want to spend a little more time on it and saturate it with more pitches than if you're just prospecting. If you pitching to something like a laydown, start around the outsides, and work your way in towards the heart of the tree. In grass, if you have a nice edge you can just work your way down the edge and be sure to hit any points or cuts in the grass. Keep an eye on the different types of grass and depths when you do get hit. On our natural lakes up here, we tend to have large submergent grass flats, with a mix of grasses. The bass tend to have a preference as to what type of grass they group up in/around so making note of what type of grass and the depth of it when you get hit can pay huge dividends. The last few days I was on vacation and was out on a lake that had such grass flats. Every time I'd get bit I put a waypoint down on my GPS while I zig-zagged up and down the breaklines. After a few catches, it was pretty clear that the fish were in the 7-10 foot range and they were in millfoil. Shallower was unproductive, deeper was unproductive, so I narrowed my focus on that depth range to avoid wasting my time fishing water that I was not likely to catch fish.