What’s your fishing style

[keagbassr]

Power junk force feeder. Id rather flame out pounding up shallow with a buzzbait or spinnerbait  than diddle a turd on a fairy wand as it much more suits my 'fishing personality'.

[detroit1]

Junk fishing for me. Most of the lakes i fish are between 200 to 700 acres, clear, and pressured. I like power fishing the most, but i finesse alot out of necessity. (maybe it's not?) I can count on one hand the number of trips in the last 10 years that i didn't fish a dropshot at some point during an outing. Same with a wacky rig. This year a bladed jig joined the group, replacing a spinnerbait. My rod box contains 5 bc, 3 spinning. I like to frog-fish and throw some pike baits on occasion but did neither this year. ☹️

[A-Jay]

31 minutes ago, keagbassr said:

Power junk force feeder. Id rather flame out pounding up shallow with a buzzbait or spinnerbait  than diddle a turd on a fairy wand as it much more suits my 'fishing personality'.

I hear ya and I will openly admit that I have Stayed With the Plan to the bitter end and ZEROED many times, just stubborn I suppose.

Pretty much all of 2020 infact.

I can definitely picture you doing this too.

Gringing your teeth the whole time, or maybe that's just me. 

A-Jay

 

[Shimano_1]

While I basically junk fish...there are techniques I prefer and others I don't for whatever reason.  I've caught fish on a drop shot most every time I've fished it yet I find myself very rarely reaching for it. Ned rig just doesn't feel right to me while I've caught fish doing it too. Dont much care for deep cranks.  Ill fish all those but usually after I've exhausted any other feasible idea and blanked. I think most of it is what we have confidence in. Used to hate jerkbaits and now they're in my top 2 confidence baits.  I work all week and if I'm lucky get 1 day to fish so its not really possible to throw everything.  I always tell anyone asking about fishing to basically find something to fish bottom, middle,and top of water column. Trying to add every single technique just over complicates things. If I fished for a living I'd have plenty of time to perfect and understand all the nuances of every technique. 

[king fisher]

I like to fish fast.  Yesterday I started the morning with a buzz bait, no luck,  slowed to a walking bait, with limited success and finally fished a popper which worked well.  I fished the popper faster than most, but was still slow for me.

      In the afternoon, I started burning crankbaits but had to switch to fishing a swim bait with a medium retrieve.  I know I need to learn to fish slow, but so much water, so many lures, and so little time.

[Team9nine]

I could best sum up my style with this David Dudley quote:

 

“To me, the reward is the bite. I don’t care if it’s 12 inches or 3 pounds. Getting a bite means I had the right pace and rhythm and right depth and right angle and right cast. That to me is money. That’s why I love crappie fishing so much.”

 

As for tackle, I have it all, but fish with a style I call the ‘sucker shot mentality.” I carry very limited equipment on trips, especially from the bank, and gear up specifically for what I expect the best bite to be on whatever water I fish that day. Could be all day Ned as easily as all day A-rig. This year, with so many bank trips, the scales were heavily tipped toward finesse and spinning gear...and like Dudley, I love crappie fishing (all artificials). My last 5 boat trips have been targeting them.

[DitchPanda]

I like to believe I'm versatile...that I can be a finesse and power fisherman at the same time adapting as needed. Some guys would say that's junk fishing but I think that's fishing the conditions.

I guess I'd really call myself a pattern fisherman...I like to figure something out and then duplicate that in other similar setup areas in the lake or pond I'm on.

[Cgolf]

3 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

I like to believe I'm versatile...that I can be a finesse and power fisherman at the same time adapting as needed. Some guys would say that's junk fishing but I think that's fishing the conditions.

I guess I'd really call myself a pattern fisherman...I like to figure something out and then duplicate that in other similar setup areas in the lake or pond I'm on.

 

I like this better than junk fishing. you're right that when you are dialing in a bite it looks a lot like junk fishing, but as the day(s) go on, you just make small adjustments depending on what the weather does to the fish once you have the pattern dialed in.

[DitchPanda]

1 minute ago, cgolf said:

 

I like this better than junk fishing. you're right that when you are dialing in a bite it looks a lot like junk fishing, but as the day(s) go on, you just make small adjustments depending on what the weather does to the fish once you have the pattern dialed in.

Exactly...and once I get it dialed in if the weather holds up ill often times back off on how many combos and options I take with me. Its not uncommon for me to have 4-6 combos with me. When I'm dialed its 2...those are the days I live for.

[OCdockskipper]

I was struggling to define my style until I read DitchPanda's post & realized I too am a pattern fisherman.  Growing up reading Bassmaster magazine in the 1970's, everything was about finding the pattern.  Junk fishing is done as a way to dial in a pattern.

 

I prefer moving baits and that is the way I typically start most days, but I am more than willing to slow down and downsize depending on what the results are.  I enjoy a day where I dial them in on squarebills as much as a day where I'm catching them on a Ned rig.

 

The only time I ditch the idea of finding pattern and do just one thing is when I have gone 4 hours or so with only a few bites.  If I am out of ideas where they may be and what they may be hitting, I sometimes just say the heck with it, and skip a wacky rig or small jig under every single dock on the lake.  I know I will catch a few, but feel like the fish beat me that day because I didn't figure them out.

[roadwarrior]

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

...and like Dudley, I love crappie fishing (all artificials). My last 5 boat trips have been targeting them.

My favorite crappie fishing is someone else catching,  cleaning and frying them.

Fishing for these fish, even Southern Slabs, is just not my thing. But I do love 

eating them!

 

 

[Mike L]

I consider myself a “Strength” angler. 
For me that includes anything over, through or underneath any and all vegetation. 

If it’s growing I’ll punch it first then crawl hop or drag the plastic of their choice. 

I don’t Drop, Ned, Wack or Shake.
I don’t use spinning sticks or mono line or tie leaders. 
I never felt the need to do any of those to catch a fish. Those aren’t my strengths or in my comfort zone 
 

Some folks will think that I put myself at a disadvantage because of the success that the majority of anglers have doing and using what I don’t. 
Maybe at the rarest of times I do. 

But I don’t believe in labels. 
I use heavy weights with heavy lines on heavy sticks and have proven results more times than not. 
 

Call me what you will. 
 

 

Mike


 

 

[NoShoes]

I’m a 1/4 oz Texas rigged trick worm or ol monster until the cows come home guy...

 

ill mix in weightless flukes, senkos, craws etc, but 99% of my fish come from the my main stay. 

 

Trying to diversify though, mixing in some jigs but only one bite  ?

[roadwarrior]

27 minutes ago, Mike L said:

Call me what you will. 

 

Hard headed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Team9nine]

31 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

My favorite crappie fishing is someone else catching,  cleaning and frying them.

Fishing for these fish, even Southern Slabs, is just not my thing. But I do love 

eating them!

 

 

 

When I was first showing Wheeler (Jacob) offshore structure fishing and using your electronics, a lot of our trips were crappie trips. There were only a couple lakes in our state with a good enough bass population to target offshore fish and actually do well, so we did a lot of crappie which were easier because they group up so well offshore. The same basics of electronics, finding, fishing, depth and speed control, etc. are involved, so it makes it simple to make the leap to bass after you're caught hundreds and hundreds of crappie 'going through the motions.' Builds your confidence quickly. Needless to say, he's a wicked stick on the slabs now, too; not just the bass.

[plawren53202]

You guys talking about crappie fishing, that strikes a chord with me. Earlier this year my dad got a camper at Kentucky Lake. The KY Lake crappie fishing is currently a mere fraction of what it used to be in the "good old days." As a result I've been working all summer at learning how to fish for them on the Livescope...my poor dad has little hope of learning it at this point of his life LOL. I've finally started to get a clue about it, last weekend for instance we put a good number in the boat, with quite a few over 1 lb...but the bummer is, I am not a fan of that style of fishing. AT ALL. Having to be surgically precise with the livescope and drop a jig right on their nose. Spending all morning or afternoon hunched over the screen like an evil scientist. Just not my deal, but I sure do enjoy seeing my dad's face when he sets the hook on one of these, or says "I haven't had that much fun in years."

 

That ties in to my bass style as well. I'm glad to learn the term "pattern fisherman," I think that fits me. I would much rather be burning the trolling motor throwing a spinnerbait or crankbait and covering water. Once I locate them and have some confidence there's fish in the area, I have no problem slowing down and throwing a jig, a shaky head or even a Ned rig. But I hate the feeling of throwing one of those with no confidence that it will work. 

[Mike L]

44 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

Hard headed

Yep!

 

 

 

 

Mike

[OCdockskipper]

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

I consider myself a “Strength” angler. 
For me that includes anything over, through or underneath any and all vegetation. 

If it’s growing I’ll punch it first then crawl hop or drag the plastic of their choice. 

I don’t Drop, Ned, Wack or Shake.
I don’t use spinning sticks or mono line or tie leaders...
 

Call me what you will. 
 

 

Mike

 

 

Considering you live in Florida, I'd call you smart.  Those are proven, successful methods in the waters of your state.  

 

Now if you came out to some Western lakes with 20 feet of visibility and no vegetation in sight and still used those methods, then we might call you something else  

[Mike L]

13 minutes ago, OCdockskipper said:

 

Considering you live in Florida, I'd call you smart.  Those are proven, successful methods in the waters of your state.  

 

Now if you came out to some Western lakes with 20 feet of visibility and no vegetation in sight and still used those methods, then we might call you something else  

As you should!

 

But that’s my point. 
Fishing down here for 41 yrs I’ve gotten to the point where I can tell where and when and how to fish what I need to, to be successful. 
And at the same time have enough confidence in my abilities I don’t feel the need to change. 

If I’m ever fortunate enough to live and fish predominantly in waters you describe using techniques other than what increases my success rate, then yeah, I’d be more than just hardheaded. 
 

 

 

Mike

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Some of the local lakes around here are hit so hard power fishing doesn't pay off unless the conditions are right.  I had to rely on finesse to catch fish the majority of the time and that's how I learned to fish.  That made me bias towards the finesse and power finesse side of things even for power fishing. 

I typically start with power fishing and if I cant get bit after an hour I scale down until I get into some fish.

 

We all know the people who say, " sissy sticks suck, I only have casting gear in my boat."  I've fished with quite a few of them.  I've found that a good number of those people either don't have the confidence or patience to finesse fish or they just straight up don't have the skill to do anything but chuck and wind.  Its also common to see guys who spend 4 or 500$ on a casting combo, but wont spend more then 100$ on a spinning combo.  Then they complain about it being junk and a waste of money, you get what you pay for.   

 

[NYWayfarer]

Catch as catch can.

 

That’s my fishing style. I’ll dig up a night crawler if I have to.

 

 

[Mobasser]

I fish both casting and spinning gear, and I throw what I feel will work on any given day. I carry less tackle now than I ever have, and catch my share of bass still the same. Favourite bottom bait is a T rigged plastic worm. Favourite topwater is Heddon Zara Spook. But, I like like most things in between too.

[BassinCNY]

I guess I'm a junk fisherman. A large percentage of my fish come from a skipped cast. I love skipping so maybe I'm a skipper. Docks, boats, trees or bushes with stick baits, jigs, tubes or frogs.

[Catt]

We're all pattern fishermen, that is if you're successful.

 

On somedays junk fishing is the pattern ?

[keagbassr]

7 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Gringing your teeth the whole time,

@A-Jay no doubt this year was a struggle more often than not. Many days where I looked down and saw the skunk sitting in the front of my boat snickering at me. Was able to fend him off all but once,however, i cant even begin to count the 1 or 2 dink days I eeked out.