Opinions on fishing S-L-O-W

[Koz]

So I went fishing for an hour today and as usual  my mind was churning. After a great spell of winter fishing the bite has been just about non-existent this past week. I tried fishing s-l-o-w with a ned rig the other day and I just could not do it.  So then I got to thinking why I hate fishing slow, especially in the winter.

 

My answers are based upon the fact that I bank fish in man made lagoons that have pretty much the same depth throughout. With the rotted vegetation along the shoreline the baitfish and bass have moved away from the banks and my assumption is that they are going to be clustered in the lowest parts of the basin, even if it is only a foot lower than the main basin. Unfortunately, that's out of casting range in most lagoons.

 

So my reasoning for not fishing slow is that I could spend two hours fishing a small section of the basin and I have zero idea if there's a bass anywhere near where I am fishing. If was in a boat and I had electronics and could confirm there were fish in the area I think I'd be more likely to fish it slow. But with not knowing if there are any fish near my casting area I feel I have a better chance at catching something by traversing the banks or moving on to the next lagoon.

 

In the summer it's a bit different. I can fish slow for a while because I know that the bass will be cruising the basin at some point in the day. Not so in the winter where they may stay pit for days before deciding the need to forage a bit for food. For me, I also think sitting or standing plays a role. Standing along the bank I fish like people use their trolling motor - I'm on the move covering water. However, today I did throw a portable camping stool in my trunk and I may give that a try while fishing later this week.

 

So, what do you think about fishing really, really slow? Love it? Hate it?

 

 

[Dens228]

I tend to fish moderate to fast.  I love using jigs, so I guess you can say I love fishing "Jig" slow, but I HATE fishing dropshot slow.......lol

[Team9nine]

Hate it! Have almost always just played the percentages and figured by covering a bit more water, I'm putting my bait in front of more fish, hopefully some of which will bite, and therefor offset the speed factor. In winter, using things like tiny blade baits sometimes pays off and allows me to fish at a much faster pace, relatively speaking.

[MN Fisher]

There are times I love fishing slow. Toss a Ned or Drop-Shot out - watch the line while sitting back. Sometimes the cast-retrieve-cast-repeat ad nauseam just turns me off. Occasionally I'll just put a bobber and hook on, string a worm on the hook and toss it out for crappie...meditative fishing.

[Hammer 4]

I seldom do finesse stuff. I do fish man made ponds/lakes often, and when I have to fish slow, it's either with a jig or a 2 oz or heavier swimbait, these baits allow me to cast Much further to where the pond is deeper if need be. Although out So. Cali temps don't get all that low, fish will still move to the deepest water, which I can reach with those to types of baits. I will fish those slow.

 

I'm mainly looking for a larger bite. Ya just have to adapt to conditions. 

[Boomstick]

I generally hate fishing slow as well, unless I know there's fish in the area, it's not so painful. If I see them on my fish finder, or if I've got a couple of fish in that area either prior or just the day prior, that's even enough to give me hope to keep going.

 

Trying to find fish is the worst part. I will usually mix it up a bit, fish slow and then fish moderately just to play my odds of covering more ground. If I get a fish or even a nibble, that's valuable information.

[soflabasser]

There are times a slow presentation is best and other times a reaction style presentation catches bass when nothing else will. When the bite is hot anything will work.

[Choporoz]

28 minutes ago, Koz said:

So my reasoning for not fishing slow is that I could spend two hours fishing a small section of the basin and I have zero idea if there's a bass anywhere near where I am fishing. If was in a boat and I had electronics and could confirm there were fish in the area I think I'd be more likely to fish it slow. But with not knowing if there are any fish near my casting area I feel I have a better chance at catching something by traversing the banks or moving on to the next lagoon.

I have gone through the exact same reasoning.   I have came to same assessment of my mental state regarding cold water jerkbaits.  I can throw a jerkbait with short pauses with no problem.   But two casts with really long pauses and I get anxious about the possibility of wasting time in unproductive water.  I know full well that my head can be my own worst enemy while fishing. 

[WRB]

Why would any body saturate an area without bass fishing fast or s l o w?

It’s hard enough to catch bass when you know they in the area. My first task is locate fish before fishing.

Tom

[Born 2 fish]

I fish a jerkbait slow in late fall/winter and do pretty well with it. From shore.

[bulldog1935]

The only way I like to fish slow is bottom-bouncing a Teeny sinking line (fly rod) on our flagstone rivers.  

I've brought up endemc bass in winter that were marble-white - didn't have the metabolism to turn on their aggression colors.  Trout fishing slow water with nymphs does nothing for me.  I'd rather bottom bounce them as I just described, and love finding chutes where I can swing wet flies.  

 

Even at the coast, imitating shrimp below a popping cork is too slow for me, though I've rigged up friends with them and they've caught fish slow-trolling.  The good thing, our shrimp migration usually coincides with finger mullet.  On cold no-sun days at the coast, we paddle over redfish hunkered down in the grass like they're napping.  

[jimmyjoe]

   For two days before it froze up here, I had exactly the same situation you did. I fished a sand quarry, from the bank, shelf on one side about 8 feet deep, and the rest of it just a bowl about 20 feet deep in the center.

   I don't know whether it's wise or not, but I usually start with shallow retrieves and gradually move down and down in the water column. These two days I knew that the water was cold (there had been skim ice that melted), but I still started shallow and moved down, gradually circling from the deep side over to the side that was only 8 feet deep.

   I had a L/MF spinning setup with 4 lb. mono on a 2500-size reel, so that I could cast wa-a-a-ay out there with lighter lures. When I finally let lures drop to the bottom, I lost a spinner and a miniature spinnerbait.

   So I put on a 1/4 oz Dardevle Spinnie in chartreuse, and I let that drop. When I tried pop-n'-drop, I thought I felt something. So despite my misgivings (remember: I had just lost 2 lures) I let the spoon sit a bit .... maybe 10 seconds. Then I pulled it in SO DADGUM SLOW THAT I THOUGHT IT MUST SURELY BE DRAGGING.

   It wasn't dragging. It got hit. In 45 minutes, I walked out of there with 6 bass. Nothing big, but they were 6 more than anyone else there that day got. The next day I went back, and in 25 mph winds and temps falling to freezing, I did the same thing, and got another bass. Like the day before, I got him SLOW, as in SUPER SLOW.

   So I'll bet that the fish were there. I'll bet that the fish saw your lure, and that you were just moving it, like I was, too fast.

   Of course, I have a separate set of spoons that are really thin, that will have action at the slow-est of speeds, that I can use in situations like this.

 

   Try it. I bet you'll get surprised when you think that surely nothing is going to happen, and then a hit comes right out of nowhere.

 

   Good luck! Hope you slay'em ...... slowly!   ?     jj

  

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

Been soaking jigs for the past two weeks getting a not a single fish.  Switched it up today with a jerkbait worked at ludicrous speed. So much for slowing down.

[DitchPanda]

I live in Iowa so I have cold water half the year...so yeah I can do slow. Although let me ad that even in cold water that's not always the deal. This past April I fished a jig and shaky head one day painfully slow without a tap. Switched to a lipless on a straight retrieve and caught a 7lb largemouth.

[plawren53202]

Totally agree with OP. When I'm out on the boat, with electronics to at least see that fish are present, I have no issues with fishing slow. E.g. fishing for crappie with the Livescope, I can sit and hardly move a jig for minutes. Even if I know there is structure or cover in a spot (see it on the electronics), where I think a fish should be even if I don't see them, I'm perfectly fine to drag a jig or Ned rig for bass.

 

But fishing ponds from the bank, it is tough for me as well to fish slow. Mainly because I have no idea if there are fish there, and many ponds I fish, I have no idea other than a very wild guess as to what the structure/cover situation is.

 

Couple all that with, lately I've been hearing people I trust talk about fishing winter exactly the opposite of the slow/deep I've always heard. Fishing reaction baits fairly fast, and fishing shallow because the water warms faster there.

 

In short, this winter fishing has me all confused. Can't wait for the prespawn.

[the reel ess]

I grew up fishing for bluegills, shellcrackers and crappie with cane poles, mainly. When I got into bass I enjoyed the pitching and winding of it. I really dislike fishing slowly. I know slow techniques work and I will employ them when absolutely necessary. But my idea of fishing slow means pausing the Pop R between pops or bumping the frog across the pads.

[ThatZX14Fella]

I guess I'm the odd man out. I enjoy finesse presentations more than power fishing. Which, to be fair, I only began to enjoy fishing slow about a year ago.

[the reel ess]

51 minutes ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

Been soaking jigs for the past two weeks getting a not a single fish.  Switched it up today with a jerkbait worked at ludicrous speed. So much for slowing down.

The lipless crank and spinnerbait seem to always work better for me on a fast retrieve vs a crawl, even in colder water. Mind you I don't live above the M-D Line.

[TnRiver46]

I fish slow every time out, but I don’t catch tournament winning bags very often so I wouldn’t recommend it. However I do get a big smallie every once in a while

 

honestly I do better slow dragging in summer and reaction bite in winter. Go figure? 

[JustJames]

I don’t mind fishing S L O W (dead sticking) but not really prefer it. All the bottom contact, I keep moving bait sometimes fast sometimes slow. My theory as bank fisherman is, I fish for roaming bass not stationary or suspended school.
On the other hand fishing fast moving lure is not really my confidence thing. I tried with some success but still cannot get a hang of it.

Just yesterday as my usual outing “Neko Rig” with just one setup and just one hook and one plastic. Turned out I forgot to add nail weight before I left the house. As lazy as I am, I continue to fish wacky style 6” Roboworm. I cannot target deeper water as I wanted, so I stay around 10-15’. I have to slow down my presentation by a lot and cannot cover a lot of water. Luckily I caught 3 small bass in about 1.5 hour before I call it early quit. Went home and still have enough light to hit about 50 golf balls.

 

[Bankbeater]

I've dead sticked bottom contact baits in the summer, and burned crankbaits across deep weed beds in the late fall, and early spring. You have to let the bass tell you what they want.

[Koz]

2 hours ago, jimmyjoe said:

   For two days before it froze up here, I had exactly the same situation you did. I fished a sand quarry, from the bank, shelf on one side about 8 feet deep, and the rest of it just a bowl about 20 feet deep in the center.

   I don't know whether it's wise or not, but I usually start with shallow retrieves and gradually move down and down in the water column. These two days I knew that the water was cold (there had been skim ice that melted), but I still started shallow and moved down, gradually circling from the deep side over to the side that was only 8 feet deep.

   I had a L/MF spinning setup with 4 lb. mono on a 2500-size reel, so that I could cast wa-a-a-ay out there with lighter lures. When I finally let lures drop to the bottom, I lost a spinner and a miniature spinnerbait.

   So I put on a 1/4 oz Dardevle Spinnie in chartreuse, and I let that drop. When I tried pop-n'-drop, I thought I felt something. So despite my misgivings (remember: I had just lost 2 lures) I let the spoon sit a bit .... maybe 10 seconds. Then I pulled it in SO DADGUM SLOW THAT I THOUGHT IT MUST SURELY BE DRAGGING.

   It wasn't dragging. It got hit. In 45 minutes, I walked out of there with 6 bass. Nothing big, but they were 6 more than anyone else there that day got. The next day I went back, and in 25 mph winds and temps falling to freezing, I did the same thing, and got another bass. Like the day before, I got him SLOW, as in SUPER SLOW.

   So I'll bet that the fish were there. I'll bet that the fish saw your lure, and that you were just moving it, like I was, too fast.

   Of course, I have a separate set of spoons that are really thin, that will have action at the slow-est of speeds, that I can use in situations like this.

 

   Try it. I bet you'll get surprised when you think that surely nothing is going to happen, and then a hit comes right out of nowhere.

 

   Good luck! Hope you slay'em ...... slowly!   ?     jj

  

This winter I’ve been bringing two rods, one with a 6.x reel and the other with a 7.x reel and with the 6 I’ll slow roll some moving baits. I like baits like chatterbaits that I can swim, lift and drop, or drag. But the dead stick stuff drives me nuts.

 

Now that the gators are inactive in the cold weather maybe I’ll throw something under a bobber tomorrow. 

 

I did catch a dink on a beetle spin today so it wasn’t a total loss. But that dink was swimbait size and I was tempted to use it as bait.

[Bluebasser86]

No point to fishing painfully slow unless you're certain there's fish around. I guess maybe you'll impress some crawdads or something? Only time I'm every fishing extremely slow is if I get on a concentration of fish and that's the only way they'll bite but I have to be 100% sure there's fish around before I'm counting rocks.

[BayouSlide]

Don't have the patience to fish real sloooow. Makes fishing boring for me. Fortunately I get to avoid fishing the coldest months, spending December through January bird hunting behind German shorthairs or stalking wild hogs, nothing boring about that ?. When I start fishing again, the spawn is underway.

[Spankey]

I don’t hate it. It’s just a necessary way to draw that bite. I like fishing soft plastics, that might be a help. I’m always questioning myself if I fished slow enough. Most time I feel I didn’t fish slow enough. 
 

I find that when I’m in that hard bait/crankbait/jerkbait mode it’s hard to slow down and fish slow enough as soon as I pick up that soft bait stick. For me it takes a bit of a transition time to get slow enough. Put I sure it is mind over matter in my case. I’m sure in early spring it will be one of two ways I’ll catch my first bass. Rat-L-Trap around a piling or structure or fishing a 3” Curley  Tail Grub jig as slow as possible. Much like your NED Rig. Good luck, hang in there, have fun, at least you are able to get out.