Fish it all the way in

[Koz]

I spend my time bank fishing and one thing I have learned is don't give up on the cast and always fish the lure all the way in. I see too many people that I fish with start ripping the lure back in when it's 15 feet or so from shore. Today was a good example.

 

We fished a really murky lagoon. Visibility maybe a foot at most. So I tried some noisy baits like chatterbaits, buzzbaits, and whopper ploppers. Nothing. Switched from darker colors to lighter colors. Nothing. Tried a frog. Tried a jig. Tried a Senko. Zip. Zilch. Nada. One hour in and not a strike.

 

Next was a KVD white and grey spinnerbait. I started my fan casting pattern with a few casts progressively further from each shoreline and still nothing. So next I tossed it deep and fished it in. The sun was in front of me so my shadow was not on the water. When the spinnerbait got about 2 feet out I saw the great beast glide out of the murky depths and it hit the bait 18 inches from shore. He hit it enough and I reacted enough that with my rod tip already down I just slid him onto the bank.

 

OK, it wasn't exactly a great beast but it weighed in at 5.6 pounds and that's a good size for our area. Although - last week I was showed pictures of a 12 pounder and two 7 pounders taken near my father's house nearby. I'll be fishing there this weekend.

 

So the moral of the story is if you're bank fishing, never give up on your retrieve. Fish it all the way to the bank. That should be a no brainer because we know bass feed in close, but sometimes - especially when the fishing is slow - we forget. T

[Cak920]

There are spots I fish were 90% of the time they bite within the last 10 ft. I fish almost all baits all the way back

[senile1]

Nice fish and good story!

[Bluebasser86]

I imagine fish think the bait is about to escape to the safety of the shallows and react quickly. I've caught lots of fish while shore fishing within the last few feet of the bank. 

 

Nice fish and a good reminder for those that give up and reel in quickly instead of fishing the bait through one of the most productive parts of the retrieve. 

[Dorado]

Great reminder and the truth is in the puddin’

[JustJames]

When I fish small pond that where I caught the most within 5-10' from shoreline. 

[CroakHunter]

2 years ago We got on one heck of a buzz toad bite. I'm talking guaranteed 22-25lb bag for about a 2 weeks straight, everyday. We were fishing from the bank. So when tourney weekend rolled around we thought we'd be laughing all the way to a paycheck. Well we didn't get a single blow up on tourney day when we were fishing from the boat. I 100% agree with @Bluebasser86. I think the fish believe the bait is escaping onto land and they take the opportunity. Because what silly frog just goes buzzing out into oblivion out into 20 feet of water lol 

[Todd2]

Yup..my PB from the bank was on a white spinnerbait right at the bank right when I was ready to lift it out.... many years ago.

[Paul Roberts]

Bluebasser's and Croakhunter's assessment is spot on. Angles matter.

[SDoolittle]

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 7:37 PM, Cak920 said:

There are spots I fish were 90% of the time they bite within the last 10 ft.

In that case, I believe that I'd make shorter casts!

[Cak920]

10 minutes ago, S. Doolittle said:

In that case, I believe that I'd make shorter casts!

That’s not where the fish are. It’s a river below a waterfall where it’s solid rock and They sit by a ridge in about 4 ft of water and follow the lure up to a shallow ridge about 8 ft from shore that’s just a little stone ridge that goes from 1ft to maybe 8 inches deep and they hammer it right before it hits the shallow point.

[Koz]

2 hours ago, S. Doolittle said:

In that case, I believe that I'd make shorter casts!

I don't know about that. Unless they are cruising parallel to the shoreline bass usually hang out in deeper waters (i.e. dropoffs) or off shore in cover then corner prey near the shore.

 

In my case they weren't cruising the shore or in cover along the shore so I cast deeper hoping a bass would follow it in.

[Bankbeater]

I have fished a lot of times when you had to get the bait right on the water line, or the bass wouldn't bite.  I think sometimes that the bass are stacked up a few feet off of the bank just watching to see if something they can eat enters the water.

[Fairtax4me]

Adding to the "fish it all the way" idea:

After you've reeled the lure all the way back to you, Make sure to give your lure a pause before lifting it out of the water. You only have to watch a couple of 5lbers swim away to get the full impression of why you should pause. Sometimes that pause is just enough to get a following fish to commit and inhale the lure. Even if you don't SEE a fish following, that fish may be just out of sight and ready to attack. 

[TOXIC]

The age old conundrum.....Boat fishermen try to cast as close as they can to the bank and bank fishermen try to cast as far out into the water as they can.   

[Team9nine]

From the bank, absolutely. From a boat, not so much...

[Mobasser]

Yes. From the bank all the time. I've had many hits close to shore, with topwaters especially.