Is it normal to not catch anything?

[the reel ess]

17 hours ago, Columbia Craw said:

With 1200 views on this post, others must really want to know. I am the original skunk dawg.  It happens.  Evaluate where you're fishing and when and take a look at the lure selection. Experiment. You will get it. Many years ago I put in five eight hour days in the early spring. It was cold.  Not one bite. It made me more determined than ever. Try to learn from every outing. It's fishing.

Late winter/early spring can be really tough around here. Often you're fishing for one bite from a big gal. I go with my buddy that time of year because it's too cold to take the kayak and risk unintentionally going swimming. He usually gets the one bite. But it's a cure for cabin fever.

[flg2010]

On 8/2/2017 at 8:10 PM, Rollincoal420 said:

 So,  I'm relatively new to fishing and have started going every day after work since I get out a couple hrs before my girlfriend.   We sometimes go in the evenings after she gets home, and usually at some point during the weekend.   Here recently. Last month,  month and a half, I started to get serious about it due to restrictions that arose for me in my other hobby/addiction whatever u wanna call it.  It's pretty common for us not to catch anything for days,  even over a week.  

 

We do all our fishing from the bank,  like parks,  lakes,  rivers,  usually a boat ramp or some other highly pressured access point for fishing. We wear out Google earth and usually spend roughly a day in the weekend checking spot off the list. 

 

The success I do have is all from info taken off the internet, and applied as best I can since all of our friends are jeep friends, not fishing friends.  No one to turn to for advice, if u know what I mean.  

I see posts on social media, YouTube, and other fishing or "news feed" type apps of people always slaying fish.  Whether from shore or boat, don't matter.    I get a boat give u all kinds of access,  and things like fish finders offer a huge advantage,  but I usually strike out.  Doesn't really slow me down, I still enjoy the fishing part even without the catching part, but I'd like to see better results.  

 

Today and yesterday, for example,  Fish wr busting out of the water everywhere.  As close as I couldn't see through the water n e more, to all the way across the lake.  Tried everything, and got nothing.  So I'm here to try and improve on that.

 

Sorry for the long winded post.  I usually avoid creating them.

 

 

This happens to me a lot, especially when I move to a new body of water, I only got back into serious amateur fishing about a year or so ago after a mult/many-year break.  However back during the last decade and before I can tell you that when I moved to a new lake, pond, river, or stream, it would take multiple trips.. sometimes months... to get a good idea of what will work to consistently catch fish.

 

Example:  Lake Candlewood in CT:  Spots I go to long plastic worms, Over 5 inch (any brand/color) or earthworms live bait works for bass.

                Wallkill River:  Spots I got to short plastic worms, 3-4 inch (any brand/must be transparent, green, or bronze color) or earthworms live bait works for bass.

 

It WILL be somewhat different at each location in each Body of water.

 

To be clear I am talking about Large and Small Mouth bass fishing..this also includes their relative species.  Even bait fishing will be specific and different depending on where you fish.

 

My advice:

 

1.  Ask other anglers at the body of water you are targeting about what works.  Most will be helpful.  Listen to them.

2.  Have a wide collection of Spoons, Crank Baits, Plastics, Hooks, and Weights.  Try them all.

3.  Learn to rig the artificial and live baits.  

4.  Learn to rig Plastic worm/creature baits well.  Grab a variety of brands...

5.  Learn to find and cultivate your own worms for live bait.  They are the bait to use (live) when you want to know whats in a body of water.  If your not catching anything on them the fish aren't there.

 

All the above is my opinion.. I'm no expert..

 

Oh.. and make sure you have a license and know the rules/law.

 

 

 

 

[bigbill]

I fish from shore.

1. Read the water conditions.

 

clear water it's smaller sized, natural colored baits fished faster.

 

stained water conditions it's medium sized, a combination of natural colored baits and brighter colored baits fished slower.

 

muddy water conditions its larger sized, brightest color baits fished the slowest.

 

2. Location, look for points, droppoffs, flats, holes. I use a cast out hummingbird fish finder to learn the bottom structure. Look for smaller ponds, old man made dams that were used for water power 150+ years ago. There's a drop off at the dam. Some dams are rocky with a man made road on top. Never pass up a body of water that looks too small. I've caught my biggest bass in smaller places.

 

3. Timing, when to go fishing,

 

I find the fish are closest to the shore in dark to low light conditions.(4:00am to 10:00am) As it gets lighter they move to there deeper haunts and hiding places. I fish from dark to dawn. One must be very stealthy. Don't make any noise at all, don't talk. Handle your tackle quietly. The bass are at the shoreline and any noise will spook them. Don't slam the car door. I open and close the bail on my spinning reel by hand again no noise. In the dark I use a small AA FLASH lite. Keep it low to your tackle box. In the mornings as it gets later near 8:30/9:00am as the bass move out to deeper water I switch to a Carolina rigged plastic with a 1/8oz weight with a 24" leader. I use a senko, brushog, 6" worm.

 

Evenings are another good time to fish. (5:00pm to 9:30pm) they move from their deeper haunts to the shore to feed. 

 

Lunch time,

 

another good time to fish. The plants give off plankton which the bait fish feed on. The baitfish get active and the bass will turn on to feed.

 

morning and evening changing light conditions. The baitfishes eyes adjust slowly to the changing light conditions. The basses eyes adjust faster to the changing light conditions so there feeding on the baitfish.

 

Dont be afraid to change lure size and colors. Throw different style of lures till you get action.

 

Casting,

 

i do do what I call Skip Fan Casting from shore. I fan cast but skip to the right and left so I don't spook the fish by putting my casts side by side to each other.

 

scents, I use a bass attractant, a regular bass scent and I carry a few different flavors. If no action is happening with a bass scent try changing to a garlic scent.(example)

 

color of your clothes,

 

dont wear bright colored clothes. If you can see the bass they can see you. I prefer camo or darker colored clothes nothing bright.

 

in the evenings there are more numbers of bass caught but their smaller up to 5lbs but many 2 to 3 lbers. In the mornings with no one else around the bass are in lesser numbers but there bigger. My pb10lbs was caught at 5:30am 2 feet from shore at a drop off. Again it pays to be stealthy she was close to me in the water I made a cast parallel to the shoreline.

 

shore fishing isn't hard once you learn the bottom structure. The more we learn the less we get skunked. It's skill that catches fish not luck.

[bigbill]

Try fishing one rod with live bait, minnows. Use another rod setup with lures. Just to start out. As you learn more on how to use lures with different presentations the lure setup will out catch the livebait setup. That's what happened to me.

[Rollincoal420]

6 hours ago, bigbill said:

I fish from shore.

1. Read the water conditions.

 

clear water it's smaller sized, natural colored baits fished faster.

 

stained water conditions it's medium sized, a combination of natural colored baits and brighter colored baits fished slower.

 

muddy water conditions its larger sized, brightest color baits fished the slowest.

 

2. Location, look for points, droppoffs, flats, holes. I use a cast out hummingbird fish finder to learn the bottom structure. Look for smaller ponds, old man made dams that were used for water power 150+ years ago. There's a drop off at the dam. Some dams are rocky with a man made road on top. Never pass up a body of water that looks too small. I've caught my biggest bass in smaller places.

 

3. Timing, when to go fishing,

 

I find the fish are closest to the shore in dark to low light conditions.(4:00am to 10:00am) As it gets lighter they move to there deeper haunts and hiding places. I fish from dark to dawn. One must be very stealthy. Don't make any noise at all, don't talk. Handle your tackle quietly. The bass are at the shoreline and any noise will spook them. Don't slam the car door. I open and close the bail on my spinning reel by hand again no noise. In the dark I use a small AA FLASH lite. Keep it low to your tackle box. In the mornings as it gets later near 8:30/9:00am as the bass move out to deeper water I switch to a Carolina rigged plastic with a 1/8oz weight with a 24" leader. I use a senko, brushog, 6" worm.

 

Evenings are another good time to fish. (5:00pm to 9:30pm) they move from their deeper haunts to the shore to feed. 

 

Lunch time,

 

another good time to fish. The plants give off plankton which the bait fish feed on. The baitfish get active and the bass will turn on to feed.

 

morning and evening changing light conditions. The baitfishes eyes adjust slowly to the changing light conditions. The basses eyes adjust faster to the changing light conditions so there feeding on the baitfish.

 

Dont be afraid to change lure size and colors. Throw different style of lures till you get action.

 

Casting,

 

i do do what I call Skip Fan Casting from shore. I fan cast but skip to the right and left so I don't spook the fish by putting my casts side by side to each other.

 

scents, I use a bass attractant, a regular bass scent and I carry a few different flavors. If no action is happening with a bass scent try changing to a garlic scent.(example)

 

color of your clothes,

 

dont wear bright colored clothes. If you can see the bass they can see you. I prefer camo or darker colored clothes nothing bright.

 

in the evenings there are more numbers of bass caught but their smaller up to 5lbs but many 2 to 3 lbers. In the mornings with no one else around the bass are in lesser numbers but there bigger. My pb10lbs was caught at 5:30am 2 feet from shore at a drop off. Again it pays to be stealthy she was close to me in the water I made a cast parallel to the shoreline.

 

shore fishing isn't hard once you learn the bottom structure. The more we learn the less we get skunked. It's skill that catches fish not luck.

Very nice post.   Thanks for breaking all of that down to the next level.   Many of this I've heard many times,  but never broken down to that level.   Very helpful for someone like me who always over analyzes everything.

[baldbassguy33]

I've had this happen in the past as well and something that really helped me was talking to some of the regulars and 'old timers' that I would meet while out on the water.

 

There is one park lake close to me that I had been visiting for months and have NEVER been able to even get a bite at.  I'd tried everthing.  Jigs, weightless senkos, topwaters, cranks, jigs.  Nothin.  Not even a nibble.

 

I met a guy while fishing one time and he told me that the secret was the color red.  The fish wouldn't bite anything that was any other color.  He told me to slow reel a red senko across the bottom and it would drive the fish nuts.  Sure enough, went and got some red senkos and caught my personal best on the second cast.  Now that I know what the fish like, I've never left without landing something.
 

[JustJames]

It happens man it happens. I just got Skunked yesterday meanwhile a young friend of mine who never catch any bass before and wanna learn, caught 3 all on Senko.

[CTBassin860]

I get skunked all the time in the summer. I'm looking for the big ones. If i run into 3-4 dinks so be it. No fish doesn't bother me that much. I'm still on the water and doing what I love doing.