Confounding areas that produce and dont .

[scaleface]

I know an area on this  elec motor only  lake that has a lot going on .  Creek channels , ledges , depth changes .I have studied it, went  back and forth with the depth finder , fished the best looking areas with little success . I catch a  fish or two  now and then but it seems like there  should be a spot that consistently holds fish   . Its not fishing pressure , I'm the only person  using a depth finder  that I know of .Same lake , nothing looking flat bank and this place produces time after time . I guess the best explanation is Bass dont always play by the rules .  You guys have similar experiences ?

[galyonj]

What's the forage situation? Find the food, you find the bass.

[TnRiver46]

Fish love flats! 

[A-Jay]

22 hours ago, scaleface said:

I know an area on this  elec motor only  lake that has a lot going on .  Creek channels , ledges , depth changes .I have studied it, went  back and forth with the depth finder , fished the best looking areas with little success . I catch a  fish or two  now and then but it seems like there  should be a spot that consistently holds fish   . Its not fishing pressure , I'm the only person  using a depth finder  that I know of .Same lake , nothing looking flat bank and this place produces time after time . I guess the best explanation is Bass dont always play by the rules .  You guys have similar experiences ?

I can relate to this, especially lately ~

It's something I deal with quite a bit.

Seems to grow with the size of the waters fished 

(Dis-proportionally IMO) 

I'll take the bold type above a step further by saying that

the more I bass fish, it seems the less I feel like I 'know'.

(And this can apply to most all fishing)

Bass live, eat & survive by a set of 'rules' that as a human,

are virtually impossible for me to completely comprehend.

While I have some limited success at times, we all do, 

the situation @scaleface relates above is all too familiar

to most all of us who have been doing this for a while. 

I'm almost certain @Catt has dropped his version of this on us several times.

So while I cherish the days when the bite is on, 

I am so equally thankful when 'I learn something'.

However, that's where the frustration & challenge of bass fishing comes in.

Just when I believe deep in my gut, that I've finally figured it out.

When the hours of trial & error have lead to something that could be repeatable success

down the road . . . . .

Something changes . 

Happens at most every multi-day tournament, at every level

and a sizable chunk of the field will struggle as a result.

It can not be predicted with much success, it's so hard to account for and that why the 'adjustments' needed to be made can be so perplexing. Hard to adjust when we don't know what we're adjusting to or why.

Regardless, we all keep fishing.

Each and every basshead out there; we can't help it.

Because even though we may not know it, or care to admit it, that's the good part.

It's the aspect of this sport that makes the successes so satisfying.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

A-Jay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scaleface]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Fish love flats! 

They sure do . One of these days I might figure out what sets this 100 foot area apart from all the rest of similar areas . There is something there that I am blind too , that draws the bass to it .   I'll call it "Dark Structure" .

[Choporoz]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

I can relate to this, especially lately ~

It's something I deal with quite a bit.

Seems to grow with the size of the waters fished 

(Dis-proportionally IMO) 

I'll take the bold type above a step further by saying that

the more I bass fish, it seems the less I feel like I 'know'.

(And this can apply to most all fishing)

Bass live, eat & survive by a set of 'rules' that as a human,

are virtually impossible for me to completely comprehend.

While I have some limited success at times, we all do, 

the situation @scaleface relates above is all too familiar

to most all of us who have been doing this for a while. 

I'm almost certain @Catt has dropped his version of this on us several times.

So while I cherish the days when the bite is on, 

I am so equally thankful when 'I learn something'.

However, that's where the frustration & challenge of bass fishing comes in.

Just when I believe deep in my gut, that I've finally figured it out.

When the hours of trial & error have lead to something that could be repeatable success

down the road . . . . .

Something changes . 

Happens at most every multi-day tournament, at every level

and a sizable chunk of the field will struggle as a result.

It can not be predicted with much success, it's so hard to account for and that why the 'adjustments' needed to be made can be so perplexing. Hard to adjust when we don't know what we're adjusting to or why.

Regardless, we all keep fishing.

Each and every basshead out there; we can't help it.

Because even though we may not know it, or care to admit it, that's the good part.

It's the aspect of this sport that makes the successes so satisfying.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

A-Jay

Well said.

 

As Catt also points out so often, the most important tool in bass fishing  is between your ears.   But when a bass fishing outing or situation gets particularly challenging....and I can't reason my way through it....the tool between my ears gets short circuited.  PMA erodes and can go so far as give me what I tend to refer to as a 'crisis of confidence'.

 

Helps to take a step back and blame the bass instead...

[A-Jay]

17 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Well said.

 

As Catt also points out so often, the most important tool in bass fishing  is between your ears.   But when a bass fishing outing or situation gets particularly challenging....and I can't reason my way through it....the tool between my ears gets short circuited.  PMA erodes and can go so far as give me what I tend to refer to as a 'crisis of confidence'.

 

Helps to take a step back and blame the bass instead...

Good term.

A-Jay 

[TriStateBassin106]

I fished from the bank this past weekend at a local lake we have property on, this specific spot is apart of a cove that has a bunch of dead algae on the bottom, for some odd reason this spot holds fish that usually suspend or hang out under our watercraft. All weekend long I was catching fish of this size by fishing flukes. 

 

Just as the bite got good there it quickly died at the turn of weather, just goes to show how dominating the skies can have on the fish.

 

The fish were there, and they're still probably there, but as mentioned above the skies will always dictate them.

[Sphynx]

There's times they eat, and times they don't for sure, guess it's the same thing that makes getting up in the middle of the game to go grab a slice of pizza so natural, you wouldn't have wilted away to wait for the bottom of the inning break, but you got up anyway, same thing with fish sometimes, they are hungry and will eat if the opportunity is there, but then you got the times that you can dangle worms or Ripbaits or anything you want in their faces and they just sit there and don't care a bit about it, they probably don't know why anymore than we do, probably why it's so dang hard to figure them out at times

[Tatsu Dave]

On 8/17/2020 at 7:17 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Fish love flats! 

Lot in that three word statement! I stop and fish a flat where two rivers come together every time, my son looks at it with boredom, no structure no pads, nothing........ but its a bass magnet and always will be. The other day we went by and I stopped to give it a couple casts, son had his phone out texting or something. I had been meaning to push the line as it was twisting up some but hadn't, shot out a cast and tangle at the spool  I sat there for a couple minutes straightening it out and wishing I had addressed it earlier, started to reel in and felt the fish already on and unaware of what he had sucked in! Long story short it was 3 1/2 lb smallmouth that was cruzing that flat. Now I notice he is alert and casting as we pull up to that flat, an experience is worth a thousand words  

[Bluebasser86]

One of my favorite spots on a local lake is a big mud flat. Only thing it has going for it is water willows all along the shoreline, but the rest of the lake has water willows also. The rest of the lake is rocky, laydowns, just much better looking, but that mud flat with it's weed bank has fish on it without fail and usually some better than average ones. I believe it doesn't hold more fish, it's just that the ones that are on it don't get the pressure because they live in a less appealing looking spot.