Strong Points and Weak Points

[Koz]

Weak everywhere and I don't care! I just like to fish.

 

Fishing exclusively from the banks limits a lot of different techniques as well as areas that I can fish. So I take what I can get and I'm happy enough and land more than my fair share of 4-5 pounders throughout the year.

 

That being said, I do have a hard time fishing slow. If I was sitting in a boat or sitting on a chair on the bank I could probably do it but I'd rather cover ground looking for fish than fishing slow. That's probably why I hate winter fishing so much.

[keagbassr]

Since I often say I have no use for deep,or clear, or cold or weedless water I'd say those are my weaknesses. My strength would have to be catching them when they're willing to bite what I want to throw.

[Bankbeater]

Bottom contact baits, and moving baits would be my strengths.  Stop and go baits would be my weakness.  I just can't seem to get the correct retrieve when I'm working one.

[Spankey]

Great post. Finesse fishing soft plastics and crankbait fishing are my stronger points. Been replacing some of my rods for both, that has made it better also. 

 

Not it that is a weak point but this upcoming season I need to get into punching, pitching and flipping. I just never exposed myself to it. Weak not knowing anything about it. Feel that I’m passing over some quality fish by not doing it. It will be a whole new ball game. 

[EWREX]

my strengths are definitely shallower water fishing from 1 ft. to 12 ft. with soft plastics and jigs. it's mainly just a confidence thing. i really want to improve my offshore fishing deeper water and structure, and fishing crankbaits more effectively and make myself believe i can catch fish consistently doing that

[WRB]

There are very few lures I don't use because I enjoy learning new presentations and new lures. The lure I use the least is a jerk bait and little use for a Ned rig.

Tom

[Russ E]

my strong points are soft jerkbaits, bottom bouncing soft palstics  and jigs. 

 

 

In the last few years I have forced myself out of the comfort zone to try new techniques.

the ned rig is one bait I have added to my arsenal. I still don't use it a lot. Most of the time it is when all other baits fail.

 

My weak point is probably deep diving crankbaits. I use them if necessary, but I personally don't care for chunking and winding the depths. Plus, on most of the lakes I fish, bass don't go all that deep. If they do I would rather pick apart structure with the soft plastics and jigs.

 

 

[N Florida Mike]

My Strong point is soft plastics and skipping. I also can read structure and figure out where the fish are.

Im moderately good with spinnerbaits and certain topwater baits.

I am not good with crankbaits and jerkbaits. I also dont do well with jigs. There, I said it. Jigs.

I like to catch fish and soft plastics are the ticket to that around here. Why fix it if it aint broke ?

 

[Mobasser]

I'm not surprised that most of us are not expert at all teqniques. Some just don't work for all areas. Confidence plays into this also. We tend to get good at what we like, and what works best for us. If someone said they were expert at ALL the teqniques, I might not believe it.Admitting that you need work in some things is the first thing towards getting better at it. I appreciate all the honest responses here

[GReb]

My weakness is still understanding bass migration and movement in river current, tidal situations, and during Shad schooling. I’ve gotten much better but still have days where I get my butt handed to me. Once I find the fish I can usually put them in the boat. 

[scaleface]

53 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

I'm not surprised that most of us are not expert at all teqniques. Some just don't work for all areas. Confidence plays into this also. We tend to get good at what we like, and what works best for us. If someone said they were expert at ALL the teqniques, I might not believe it.Admitting that you need work in some things is the first thing towards getting better at it. I appreciate all the honest responses here

I dont do a lot of traveling to fish . If I was to suddenly move to the Ozarks I would surely fish differently than I do now .  45 years of fishing stained to muddy waters I have  a good idea how to do that .  I'll fish them deep too and not afraid to pickup a Dredger 25.5 and do some deep cranking .

[Mobasser]

2 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I dont do a lot of traveling to fish . If I was to suddenly move to the Ozarks I would surely fish differently than I do now .  45 years of fishing stained to muddy waters I have  a good idea how to do that .  I'll fish them deep too and not afraid to pickup a Dredger 25.5 and do some deep cranking .

Me too. I tend to fish the same lakes, so I use the same things that have worked. We try to go to the Ozarks once a year if we can. If I were to spend more time there, I'm sure I'd be making a change up too

[MN Fisher]

My strong points have always been crank and jerk baits with the occasional plastic worm on a T-Rig or drop-shot. It's always produced, but in the 1#-2# range with the occasional 3#. My PB was caught years ago on an inline spinner up in northern MN.

 

This next year, I'm going to work on my weak points. With a new rig, and a better quality replacement rig, I'll be pitching and flipping into growth...a place I've never fished before - always steered clear of major weeds. I'll also be trying Ned-rigs on my ML-rig as well as spinners, chatters and buzzbaits on my President BC-rig.

 

Maybe changing things up will net me bigger fish - what I've been doing hasn't done that.

[Way north bass guy]

I would say I’m fairly versatile with most baits and techniques, but like most people, I have several tactics I fall back on most of the time. 

One of my biggest strengths would be finding fish in new bodies of water. 

Seems like every time I go to a new lake, the first time there can often be very productive for me, not saying I’d smoke everyone else there in a tournament, but I always manage to get on some decent fish. I think it has to do with the fact that I’ve been a multi-species angler since I was a little kid, and we have so many different types of water around here that I’ve had a lot of experience with different techniques for different habitats. 

I’d love to give the mlf type of deal a try on a new lake against some real good fisherman, just to see how I’d hold up. I always find it fun to try to figure out a new lake. 

[Mike L]

My strengths are anything I can do with a piece plastic.

I'd rather punch hydrilla and sight fish all day than any other technique. 

Also anything on top especially a frog and Spook. 

 

 My weakest area is fishing ledges. At a BFL Regional a few years ago on Kentucky Lake I was completely lost. 

Talk about being out of my element!

 

I also despise any light line finesse fishing. 

Neko, shaky, wacky etc. 

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

 

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

My Strong point is soft plastics and skipping. I also can read structure and figure out where the fish are.

Im moderately good with spinnerbaits and certain topwater baits.

I am not good with crankbaits and jerkbaits. I also dont do well with jigs. There, I said it. Jigs.

I like to catch fish and soft plastics are the ticket to that around here. Why fix it if it aint broke ?

 

From what I have fished in Florida, the only thing you want to use with treble hooks is a rattle trap or topwater . I don’t see how in the world you could use a crank bait there unless it was a Mann’s baby 1 minus

[papajoe222]

I really don't think I have a strong point, although I consider myself versatile. I do have a weak point (besides the one between my ears) and that's finesse fishing. I mean true finesse fishing using spinning gear, light line and lures designed to be used as such. It's a mental block. I just don't like using spinning gear even, though that's exactly what I used when starting out.

When conditions are tough, I'll downsize my offerings and go to a lighter action combo. Heck, I even built a casting rod using a spinning blank in order to use some of the baits. 1/8oz. hair jigs and the last couple of inches of a floating worm. Yep, that's me.

[N Florida Mike]

A lot of places I fish are too weedy for rattletraps and too shallow for cranks. I have fished some deeper, clearer lakes you can fish those on though. Ive done a little better with cranks than r.traps . Trolling cranks across deep holes at night has produced some big bass. A friend got a 11 pounder like that on a baby bass c.bait in a deep, clear lake.

[Mobasser]

This is why I like weedless soft plastics the best. The lakes I fish have moss, milfoil, and some smaller pad areas. It's just to hard to fish a crankbait through most of it. Texas rig is still hard to beat, and to a lesser extent jigs.

[ohboyitsrobby]

I'm pretty good at finding offshore fish on the shallower river end of the lakes I fish. Not so much the deeper clearer ends. I'm also pretty good at cranking and throwing a c rig. Not so much jerkbaits.