Strong Points and Weak Points

[Mobasser]

After more than 35 yrs of bass fishing, I've still not mastered all the teqniques of the sport. I don't think I need to either. My own personal strong points are soft plastic fishing, mostly plastic worms. 3 ways I fish them- Texas rig, shakey head/slider, and split shot. Second up would be jigs, followed closely by spinnerbait/trap. Cold water-plastic grub or blade bait.My own weakest point is crankbait fishing. I don't throw them nearly as much as other baits. This is simply what's worked the best for me. What are your strong and weaker points? Have you mastered all the teqniques?

[Bluebasser86]

Deep water/offshore fishing would be my weak point. I think that's largely due to the fact our lakes don't fish well offshore because if I go somewhere with an offshore population of fish like Table Rock or Bull Shoals, I can usually catch them. 

[TOXIC]

Everybody is going to have a "preferred" way to fish but a lot of times the preferred way isn't what the fish want depending on season and current conditions.  While I consider myself a slow adapter, meaning I'm not jumping on every new technique, I always look at new baits and techniques to see if they really are "new" or just a modification of something that already exists.  You do yourself a disservice by not being open to and trying all of the "proven" techniques to some degree.  I used to hate cranking due to my love for plastics but found that I wasn't doing myself any favors by not learning and using cranks when that's what the fish wanted.  

[CroakHunter]

My weak point is fishing lippes crankbaits. We have a lot of grass in our lakes and pits so its tough to throw a crank and get it to dig without 10lbs of salad. Strong point would be fishing wood. Wether its a deep brush pile or shallow standing timber I feel that if there is a catchable bass aitting on it I can catch it. 

[Sam]

Smallmouth fishing in the middle of lakes.

 

If you know where the humps, trees, rocks, road beds, drop offs,  bridges, boats, etc. are on the bottom of an open area you can go out there and do well for both largemouth and smallmouth.

 

Takes a lot of practice and experience to be a strong smallmouth guy and I would rather stay close to the bank and fish for largemouth.

[Harold Scoggins]

Strong at pitchin and punchin. Weak at skippin, and now that I fish mainly from a yak I doubt I'll ever master it.

[scaleface]

My weak point is trying new stuff .  There are so many techniques now days  I dont put in the fishing hours to try everything .  Texas rigs , crankbaits , spinnerbaits , buzzbaits make up over 90 per cent of what I use and I'm happy with that . I can fish all cover and depths i encounter effectively  . There are times where other lures come into  play and I'm open minded about using them but my main  four usually get first preference .

7 minutes ago, Harold Scoggins said:

Weak at skippin

That and back-handed casting for me .

[Mr. Aquarium]

My strengths are fishing, slow on  bottom and top. Jigs, Texas rigs, chatterbaits, flip'n pitch'n, swimbaits and spooks. I can also skip pretty good
 

My weakness are fishing in coldwater, jerkbaits and fast baits, Like crankbaits, spinnerbaits, buzz baits. 

[A-Jay]

I do not have the opportunity to do much 'punching' through super thick surface stuff to access fish.  Just not much of that type of cover here.  As a result, the few times I in counter this deal - I often struggle to feel like I'm being as effective with my presentation as I could be.  Plus - I'm rarely whacking them much do it.  But I'm working on it.

 

Skipping a bait (any bait) is still a work in progress for me.   The anglers who have it mastered certainly make it look easy.  However, I don't fish much shoreline cover - so I'm not really looking to do it a whole lot.

 

The vast majority of my angling occurs on or near off shore structure.  It's been that way for a while and I really do enjoy 'the hunt'.   Keeps me any from 'the crowd' (relative term) and usually offers me the best opportunity to catch the bigger adult brown bass I'm most often in search of.   So if I had any strengths -  anything associated with this, would be it. 

I'm also at least average when it comes to driving a boat.

A-Jay

[Catt]

My strength is understanding what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively.

 

My weakness is bed fishing, just don't care about it!

 

Due to their biological urge to reproduce you know where they're at, when they're there, & they don't really wanna leave.

 

Kinda like deer hunting over a feeder ?

[A-Jay]

14 minutes ago, Catt said:

My strength is understanding what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively.

 

My weakness is bed fishing, just don't care about it!

 

Due to their biological urge to reproduce you know where they're at, when they're there, & they don't really wanna leave.

 

Kinda like deer hunting over a feeder ?

 This  ^^^^^

Times a Bajillion . . . . .

A-Jay

[Allaroundfishing]

i was the same way at the start of last year, I LOVED and still do love throwing a lizards or senko on a t rig or wacky rigging a senko . I was enlightened to the way of the square bill in an early april tournament when my partner promptly put 4lbers in the boat on back to back casts. This year i fished my highschool tournaments alone and every single fish i caught has come on a squarebill. (except a 3lber i caught skipping a dock) Now i would say power fishing with a squarebill and spinnerbait are my go to's. Alot of people i know swear by a chatterbait but i cant catch a fish in a barrel on it. i use my 1.5s and spinnerbaits and get just as good of results. I think this is mainly because i can have absolute confidence in my technique which makes it 150% easier to focus on the actual fishing. Stepping outside of a comfort zone pays off sometimes but knowing what your doing and being confident will result in a better turn out all the time. I can think of no one who has "mastered all techniques" but i know there are many who are confident in fishing most techniques.

[Fishingmickey]

36 minutes ago, Catt said:

My strength is understanding what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively.

 

My weakness is bed fishing, just don't care about it!

 

Due to their biological urge to reproduce you know where they're at, when they're there, & they don't really wanna leave.

 

Kinda like deer hunting over a feeder ?

Right there with ya Catt, if I catch a bedding bass it's by accident. I feel if you pull a bass off of the bed your likely to allow the bluegills to feast.

 

FM

[TOXIC]

36 minutes ago, Catt said:

My strength is understanding what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively.

 

My weakness is bed fishing, just don't care about it!

 

Due to their biological urge to reproduce you know where they're at, when they're there, & they don't really wanna leave.

 

Kinda like deer hunting over a feeder ?

I'm not trying to be a smart alec here but do you stay off the water completely during the spawn?  Because if you don't, you are more than likely still catching spawning fish even though you are not targeting them.  They spawn deep and shallow during the season.  I don't like catching bed fish either and on our annual trip the St Clair we will stay off shore and throw cranks and jerkbaits  more but one of my good friends who grew up on the lake laughs and says that if we think we are not catching bedding fish we are sadly mistaken.  

[Mobasser]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

My strength is understanding what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively.

 

My weakness is bed fishing, just don't care about it!

 

Due to their biological urge to reproduce you know where they're at, when they're there, & they don't really wanna leave.

 

Kinda like deer hunting over a feeder ?

This one is #1! If you can learn to identify and fish structure well, for me the presentations are second to this.

[Catt]

Like @A-Jay mentioned the hunt is just as satisfying as the catch or kill.

 

@TOXIC I don't specify target bass on a bed; the whole pre-spawn/spawn takes place in waves. On Toledo Bend I can fish pre-spawn bass from late January through April. Once the bass in an area start "locking" on beds I move areas.

 

@Fishingmickey There's scientific research that shows bed fishing does not effect the spawn. I'm more concerned with mishandling big fish than loosing a few eggs to bluegills.

 

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, Sam said:

Smallmouth fishing in the middle of lakes.

 

If you know where the humps, trees, rocks, road beds, drop offs,  bridges, boats, etc. are on the bottom of an open area you can go out there and do well for both largemouth and smallmouth.

 

Takes a lot of practice and experience to be a strong smallmouth guy and I would rather stay close to the bank and fish for largemouth.

Open water smallmouth are my favorite!

[TOXIC]

@CattWe try to avoid the parade line of boats fishing the same beds over and over but I was surprised to think that even our deeper fish, well off of the shallow beds, were still (more than likely) bedding fish.  Yes we catch more pre-spawners on their way in to the bedding areas and some post-spawners leaving (depending on the weather while we are there) and that's why we plan our trip when we do because we "can" catch them in all phases and it opens the door for many more techniques.  Last year we saw some out of staters (we are as well), throw a buoy out a small group of beds and sit there all day long catching the same fish over and over.  

[Catt]

I would rather catch a bass I can't see in 30' of water than one in 3' of water I can see.

 

Like I said it takes the "hunt" out of it ?

[Tennessee Boy]

I've always felt like it was better to master a few techniques than to be novice at many.  Denny Brauer comes to mind as someone that went to the top by being a master of some very specific techniques.  I love fishing offshore structure and feel like I still have many ways that I can improve doing so.  That will be my focus for the foreseeable future.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, TOXIC said:

I'm not trying to be a smart alec here but do you stay off the water completely during the spawn?  Because if you don't, you are more than likely still catching spawning fish even though you are not targeting them.  They spawn deep and shallow during the season.  I don't like catching bed fish either and on our annual trip the St Clair we will stay off shore and throw cranks and jerkbaits  more but one of my good friends who grew up on the lake laughs and says that if we think we are not catching bedding fish we are sadly mistaken.  

I just never sight fish for them. 30 minutes of aggravation to catch one seems silly. I like the thought of catching a 15 lb limit in 30 minutes a lot better 

[TOXIC]

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

I just never sight fish for them. 30 minutes of aggravation to catch one seems silly. I like the thought of catching a 15 lb limit in 30 minutes a lot better 

On St Clair with Smallmouth, it's about 10 seconds.  Put a bait anywhere near their bed and they will attack it instantly if they are "Locked-on".  Release and repeat same fish over and over.  Not very sporting.  

[TnRiver46]

5 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

On St Clair with Smallmouth, it's about 10 seconds.  Put a bait anywhere near their bed and they will attack it instantly if they are "Locked-on".  Release and repeat same fish over and over.  Not very sporting.  

It's nothing like that in my neck of the woods, although the classic competitors may prove me wrong next month. When the smallmouth nest up on the rivers near me, you might as well fish for something else like white bass and skipjack . They usually spawn in mid April and all of my shallow water buddies success goes from plentiful to zero once they lock onto beds. This is in shallow shoals on big rivers, where prop boats can't go. I've never even seen a spawning bass in our reseevoirs, then again I haven't really hunted them 

[Dwight Hottle]

4 hours ago, Sam said:

Smallmouth fishing in the middle of lakes.

 

If you know where the humps, trees, rocks, road beds, drop offs,  bridges, boats, etc. are on the bottom of an open area you can go out there and do well for both largemouth and smallmouth.

 

Takes a lot of practice and experience to be a strong smallmouth guy and I would rather stay close to the bank and fish for largemouth.

 

Sam if you grew up fishing lake Erie you would probably be an expert smallie fisherman. The reason why is you know how to fish what you know. It's the unknown that throws everybody off. I learned to fish for smallies on lake Erie & it was a pretty quick learning curve for me. That's because I wanted to catch them and I concentrated on expanding my early successes. If we all practiced and studied that which we don't know we would get better at it pretty quick. Think why you are good at what you do & try mimicking that success with something you don't do well because it's too hard or you haven't really tried. 

[FCPhil]

I wouldn’t say I have mastered it but I love fishing topwater and feel pretty confident with just about every style of topwater lure. Weightless worm fishing also is something I’m pretty confident with. 

 

I feel like I’m starting to get a feel for fishing glidebaits, which has been a multi season learning curve. 

 

I feel the most at a loss fishing Texas Rigs and Spinner baits. I don’t fish bottom contact presentations much because of the conditions I fish in and I have never had much luck on spinnerbaits and set them aside since. Going to work on the T-rig this season though.