Where the hell are the fish! ?

[Catt]

2 minutes ago, Sword of the Lord said:

The ole definition of insanity adage

 

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”

[WRB]

14 hours ago, Ksam1234 said:

Actually I did try a lot. I tried , crank bait, wake bait, Texas rig baits , senkos t rigged and wacky. Spinnerbait, jigs, swimbaits , swimjigs. Buzzbait , whopper plopper, underspin, lipless crankbaits, deep diver, shaky head, .. that's all the tackle I pretty much own so.. everything at my disposal I used. Oh and jerk baits and punch rigs. Weightless and with weight... might be missing a few things but that's all I own 

Lures are not the key to catching bass, location and timing is. You only need 3 or 4 different lure types to fish the entire water column, changing constantly tells me you don't have a clue where to start or what to use.

I don't know if you are a shore angler but dought that with all the different lures you tried to use. Fall the bass are moving and they are not where they were, you need to use the most important tool you have and is located between your ears. Use your sonar if you have one and look for bird feeding on bait fish with your eyes. Determine what depth the bait is at and meter that depth where the bass should be located before tying on any lure.

Tom

[Sword of the Lord]

36 minutes ago, WRB said:

Lures are notvthevkeybto catching bass, location and timing is. You only 3 or 4 different lure types to fish the entire water column, changing constantly tells me you don't have a clue where to start or what to use.

I don't know if you are a shore angler but dought that with all the different lures you tried to use. Fall the bass are moving and they are not where they were, you need to use the most important tool you have and is located between your ears. Use your sonar if you have one and look for bird feeding on bait fish with your eyes. Determine what depth the bait is at and meter that depth where the bass should be located before tying on any lure.

Tom

Basically. Since I bank fish and hike a lot I go out with 2 setups and 3 baits. 2 bags of Senkos, 2 Whopper Ploppers, and 2 spinnerbaits. 2's for different colors. Rarely get skunked. Rarely have over 10 bass per trip too. But I go light, cover everything, and have fun.

[Ksam1234]

51 minutes ago, WRB said:

Lures are notvthevkeybto catching bass, location and timing is. You only 3 or 4 different lure types to fish the entire water column, changing constantly tells me you don't have a clue where to start or what to use.

I don't know if you are a shore angler but dought that with all the different lures you tried to use. Fall the bass are moving and they are not where they were, you need to use the most important tool you have and is located between your ears. Use your sonar if you have one and look for bird feeding on bait fish with your eyes. Determine what depth the bait is at and meter that depth where the bass should be located before tying on any lure.

Tom

I fish from my canoe and I am somewhat new to bass fishing but I also do know some stuff. I did look for baitfish and birds feeding on them and went in that area. Fished the water colum, I know fall is here and bass are moving.  The lake has no creeks or anything deep running into it so I tried healthy weed areas with no success. I have a portable fish finder I used and found some fish but no bites there either.  I heard lots of bait fish scattering about but just couldn't get anything that day.. could have been an off day .. I didn't start off just throwing random stuff.  I had a plan it just didn't work so decided to try all of what I had .. that's all

[deep]

The fish are either in the shallows, or in the deep water, or somewhere in-between lol. Treat it as a new reservoir that you have no prior knowledge of.

[geo g]

13 hours ago, DINK WHISPERER said:

Very true here in FL. But, they can't hide anywhere from my 8 ft punch rod! I love this time of year because heavy cover fishing is my favorite way to fish. 

That may be true for lakes with borders.  But down here with the everglades, bass are so far out in the glades feeding on all the bugs, frogs, snakes, and everything else that lives in there, you can't get to them in a bass boat, an air boat maybe!  Fishing four, or five hours, in the this heat, for one or two scattered bass just isn't my cup of tea!  I know guys that will do that, and I respect them for their perseverance.

[DINK WHISPERER]

3 hours ago, geo g said:

That may be true for lakes with borders.  But down here with the everglades, bass are so far out in the glades feeding on all the bugs, frogs, snakes, and everything else that lives in there, you can't get to them in a bass boat, an air boat maybe!  Fishing four, or five hours, in the this heat, for one or two scattered bass just isn't my cup of tea!  I know guys that will do that, and I respect them for their perseverance.

Sadly I am one of those guys! Haha, I'll get the push pole out in a hurry on Okeechobee or Istokpoga. Much of those lakes also don't have accessible banks. Sometimes for only a couple of bites (usually big). I'm glad cooler weather is near though. 

[BassB8Caster]

When we start changing up lures, especially once we get past 4 or 5 baits, we start to get anxious. Things start getting in our heads. Lots of times we then start speeding things up. A fast erratic retrieve may work great some days. That one day you were out may not have been that day. If you are going to fast, it doesnt matter what you throw. Some days you just chalk it up to the skunk master. If i find myself going a decent amount of time (say 2 hours) without a bite, i will force myself to slooooowwwww down. I may stop a few minutes and collect my thoughts. There will be times where we think we are going slow, when in fact we still need to slow down more. 

 

Like it was said above, you better get used to some skunk days. it happens. But learning from these poor days may be the biggest improvement to your future success. So what did you learn?

[HookRz]

A lot of the smaller natural lakes here in NW Pa turned over early. Almost embarrassed by the number of bass I caught a week or so ago using jigworms on the deepest, greenest, weedlines I could find. Light heads, snap it off a stalk then let it slowly fall. Everyone else was complaining. Since then the warm spell has Fish moved shallow, almost like a second Spring. 

This post got me thinking. You rarely read about turnover in bass media. Probably cuz  reservoir impoundments with current don't really turn over in the classic sense. Recognizing turnover and post turnover used to be 101 basic, for fishing for any species. It's the tyranny of bass pro mentality. At this time of year, they generally fish somewhere warmer, in impoundments,  or on huge natural lakes that turn over late. 

[Gundog]

What?.... Nobody owns any dynamite? Shees..kids these days. Back when I was a yungun, if those bass didn't hit a purple colored worm we just blew'em up. If that didn't work then we tried a whopper plopper. 

[Ksam1234]

45 minutes ago, HookRz said:

A lot of the smaller natural lakes here in NW Pa turned over early. Almost embarrassed by the number of bass I caught a week or so ago using jigworms on the deepest, greenest, weedlines I could find. Light heads, snap it off a stalk then let it slowly fall. Everyone else was complaining. Since then the warm spell has Fish moved shallow, almost like a second Spring. 

This post got me thinking. You rarely read about turnover in bass media. Probably cuz  reservoir impoundments with current don't really turn over in the classic sense. Recognizing turnover and post turnover used to be 101 basic, for fishing for any species. It's the tyranny of bass pro mentality. At this time of year, they generally fish somewhere warmer, in impoundments,  or on huge natural lakes that turn over late. 

Yeah I think the Kate turned over as well. We had a huge storm with high winds plus cold. And it's small lake so might have happene d

[DogBone_384]

With the luck I've had lately, I'd say they're in Plymouth, MA ....