Recent Trip Questions

[joshuaray83]

Hey all. Doing another After Action Review on a recent trip I had to my local spot. It was a sunny, windy 60ish degree day. I don't have a thermometer, but I would assume water temps were in the 40s as it's been cool recently and the last few days were the first consistent 50ish degree sunny days we've had for a couple weeks. Anyway, I went out for about three hours with plans to fish the jerkbait, lipless, and Ned rig (first time with the Ned). After two hours using those baits, I changed to my confidence bait - the T-rigged craw/creature - using a green pumpkin craw because waters were clear. I also moved to a shaded, wind-blown bank. I hadn't moved there because I assumed that the fish would like the sun for warmth, but on my first cast near some wood, picked up a 2lber. Had decent luck on this same shady bank for the next 30 minutes. I haven't been able to get anything going on moving baits this fall.

 

I'm fishing a jerkbait with quick, successive jerks and will increase the length of time between jerks if I don't get a bite. No luck.

 

I tried the lipless at a consistent speed and by raising the rod, letting the bait fall, and then reeling slack before raising the rod again. No luck.

 

Is it just passed that time or am I fishing them wrong? I know there were fish in the area because I would sometimes spook one close to shore and I saw darting bluegills that I assumed were being chased by bass.

 

 

[scaleface]

Who knows . I went yesterday in Northern Mo. The water temp was  47 . I caught 22 . 17 came on a spinnerbait 5 on a jig from shady banks . Not a single bass was caught on sunny banks .

[DitchPanda]

I went out today and caught a nice 3lber on a frittside crankbait on a nice rocky shoreline then got a crappie on it 2 casts later..then proceeded to blank in that spot for an hour. It was a warm day so I moved across the lake to a shallow cove and caught probably 30 dinks in a couple hours on a weightless worm in a foot or two of water. I tried dropshot and finesse jig around brush...also slow rolled a chatterbait and worked a jerkbait around rock...those 4 produced a whopping 1 fish. I don't get it either.

[joshuaray83]

I'm trying a new lake this weekend and the weather is going to be a little warmer than last weekend was. We've had a few days this week that have been record highs, including one 80 degree day. Crazy... I'll try the shaded banks and see what happens. Heck, I might even throw a frog if there are pads or some tall grasses. Catching a frog fish in November would be a first for me.

[Bankc]

Last Sunday I threw everything I had at them, and they ignored it all.  Then, I tied on a KVD 1.5 chartreuse squarebill and targeted some small schools of baitfish (no idea what kind), and the bass wouldn't leave it alone!  I wasn't even bumping it into cover.  Just a moderate steady retrieve in both shallow and deep water.  I did have some trouble finding those schools of baitfish, as they seemed to move quickly, where quite small in both size and number, and didn't seem to have much of a pattern as to where they'd go.  But whenever I did find one, that lure always seemed to snag at least one 2-3lb bass, which is a decent sized fish for the lake I was in.  So I just circled around, looking for signs of those schools, and as soon as I saw one, cast into it and reel in bass.  Then the disturbance from the catch would disperse the school, and I'd have to wait to either find a new school, or for that school to reform somewhere else.  I was landing one about every ten minutes.  

 

A cold front had just passed through, so I thought it would be tough fishing for sure.  But it turned out to be one of the better days of the year, once I found the one lure they wanted.  Funny how it works sometimes.  

[joshuaray83]

I just hate using crankbaits from the bank because I always seem to lose them. I do have decent luck with really shallow running ones, however. I have one that I'll try this weekend if I see baitfish.