Opinions on fishing S-L-O-W

[livin2fish]

I don't hate fishing slow, but much prefer not.  Can't fish slow and drag the bottom because of lingbya, that black stringy nasty smelling stuff that is in the body of waters I fish.  Could use a drop shot, but most times find myself reeling it like a deep diving crankbait.  Guess biorhythms have something to do with it, or I just like casting.  Seems like I'm doing something.  Not saying it catches fish, just keeps me busy.

[TnRiver46]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

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.

Well I figure there’s always fish around, there’s always something on the graph and it’s the TN river after all. It’s been there for a few million years! I just look at it like sometimes they are active and most of the time they aren’t 

[lo n slo]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

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.

i think this is the thing that trips up a lot of people. the hunting/searching aspect when they’re not dead set on a particular structure/cover deal. it can be maddening to be inching along when you have no real idea of where they’re at. it becomes a confidence issue and thats a big hurdle. 

 

as for me, i’m the tediously slow type. i fish my local waters that i am quite familiar with and work over my (mostly offshore) honey holes inch by inch, which is also a confidence thing for me. whenever i fish unfamiliar waters i try to apply my technique there as well. sometimes it works, sometimes it’s a waste. i can be hard headed to a fault. i had an old football coach who only ran a handful of triple option plays on offense, but we knew them like the back of our hand. i blame him.

[Miabucman]

I am not really a fan of fishing s-l-o-w even though I know it can catch fish at times.  I find that I have to make a concerted effort to make myself fish slow when the opportunity presents itself. I think that we get comfortable with a certain style (colors, presentation, lure types, speed) and have to force ourselves to be uncomfortable. It certainly helps when you catch fish while fishing a different style.

[Trox]

I never go out thinking "I'm going to fish slow/reaction/fast". Instead, I try to let the fish tell me what they want... For example, in a single cast, I can do all 3 (like w/ a jig, start with slow drag, dead stick a couple of times, then a few suddle hops into a few more agressive hops, then medium retrieve back). Or in 3 independant casts, I can vary the tempo until I get bit. Once I get bit however, I take note of what exactly I was doing when it happened and begin fishing whichever retrive got bit a little more frequently, but I don't disregard the other tempos until I can establish an actual pattern... disclaimer though, I don't do any of this until I actually find fish...

The reason I do this is because the bite can be on all 3, or just a single tempo in any given day... If I was to go out with the mentality of just fishing a single way, I could be missing out on a lot of good bites. The exception to this rule imo is when I am going out to "practice" a single technique.

[Sphynx]

Not a huge fan of it, that being said, if that's what will get me bit, I will do it. I usually don't get entire days to fish in the first place, so I will usually only have to suffer through a couple of hours of it at most. A couple hours of painful slow finesse stuff that catches a few fish is infinitely more interesting to me than burning the bank with a crankbait or a swim jig not getting bit.

[A-Jay]

Interesting topic with several thought-provoking responses so far. 

I think of 'fishing slow' more of a technique that the speed I'm fishing

Might be more about how much water I'm covering,

as well as how much action a certain presentation requires me to impart in the bait.

For instance a drop shot, I soak the thing and actually try not to move it at all.

(pretty much as if it were live bait)

A Hair Jig, Ned Rig, and a Spy Bait: all baits I'm moving 

and even covering some water, however these baits seem most effective for me when 

I simply reel them in slowly, perhaps with a pause, but that's about it as far as angler input goes. 

So that's SLOW fishing for me.

If you've ever tried 'stitching a worm' - Wow- the epitome of Fishing Slow. 

Only thing slower might be on the ice with a tip up ! 

Good Luck trying not to nod off, I couldn't.

Bottom line, I don't totally hate fishing slow but it's rarely my first choice if there's

another effective option available. 

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

A-Jay

 

[ajschn06]

Can't do it.... even when I'm fishing a jig it's not sitting still very long...

[Big Hands]

Most of the time, I like to fish:

S----------L-----------O----------W----------L----------Y 

or 

S----------------L-----------------O----------------W----------------E----------------R

 

I enjoy creeping a bait up, over, and through cover. Up one side, wiggle it a bit here and there, creeeeeping, feeeeeeling every little pebble, stick, grass, whatever. I love feeling the 'tick' of a bite as I'm creeping a bait around. I will make sure there are fish around the area first, but I can even sit on a spot anchored and fish the spot for a couple hours or more before moving much. Having to concentrate on keeping the boat in one spot with the trolling motor can be distracting when I am in that mode. I can really concentrate on whether a bait is moving because a fish has it, or because the boat is moving. 

 

I'm a little surprised to read that so many seem to actively dislike fishing a bait slowly.

[Guitarfish]

Big hands, you just described my saltwater rockfishing technique when there is no current and the boat is hanging in one spot.  I can still tease up some bites on a slow day.  I just tap,tap, tap until I get some action.  I move the thing so little it looks like I'm dead sticking.

[roadwarrior]

[A-Jay]

7 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

Hey I actually get that one !

A-Jay

[Big Hands]

29 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

Wow! I've never seen a sloth in sprint mode before ;~)

[J Francho]

I fish an area slowly, but I rarely leave my bait lying anywhere for longer than half a minute. 

[Koz]

3 hours ago, TroxBox said:

I never go out thinking "I'm going to fish slow/reaction/fast". Instead, I try to let the fish tell me what they want... For example, in a single cast, I can do all 3 (like w/ a jig, start with slow drag, dead stick a couple of times, then a few suddle hops into a few more agressive hops, then medium retrieve back). Or in 3 independant casts, I can vary the tempo until I get bit. Once I get bit however, I take note of what exactly I was doing when it happened and begin fishing whichever retrive got bit a little more frequently, but I don't disregard the other tempos until I can establish an actual pattern... disclaimer though, I don't do any of this until I actually find fish...

The reason I do this is because the bite can be on all 3, or just a single tempo in any given day... If I was to go out with the mentality of just fishing a single way, I could be missing out on a lot of good bites. The exception to this rule imo is when I am going out to "practice" a single technique.

I not only vary retrieves on different casts, but I will employ multiple techniques within a cast. For example, I may cast a chatterbait and let it fall to the bottom, then maybe drag it, hop it, or lift and drop a bit, then crank it for 10 or 15 feet, let it fall, and do somethink else between cranks. I may let it site for 5 or ten seconds (I actually count), but I simply can't dead stick it and let the bait sit for minutes at a time.

 

 

[jimmyjoe]

   When I hear you guys talking about "deadsticking", I gotta agree with you. I hate deadsticking. But what I do when I say s-l-o-w is more like shakeyhead techniques. This video by Scott Martin shows about what I do with a slow bottom-oriented retrieve. Of course, with a spoon I get more lift than someone fishing a jighead.

 

  

 

   I hope this makes some things at least a little clearer.       jj

[Catt]

Movement without movement ?

 

I impart "movement" without my lure actually moving forward. 

 

Letting my lure sit motionless is something I seldom do.

[Sam]

Since I am ADD, fishing slow drives me up a wall.

 

But "dead sticking" in cold water seems to work.

 

I told this story before and I will share it with you again: About 20 years ago an Historic James River and Chickahominy river fishing guide, Jim Kerr, and I became good friends. We fished the Historic James River, the Chickahominy River and Chickahominy Lake.

 

One cold March day we were in the back of Johnson Creek by the old wooden bridge used by duck hunters to get to and from their blind, when Jim lit up a cigarette, casted his Zoom finesse worm towards the bridge, and he just sat there, not moving. Nothing. Just sitting there with his finger on the line coming off his baitcaster.

 

I was throwing a Zoom trick worm on a spinning rig and casting and casting and casting as Jim just sat there smoking his cigarettes. 

 

I asked him what he was doing and he said, "just wait."

 

Sure enough, all of a sudden he set the hook hard over his head and he was in a battle with a two-pounder, as I kept casting, and casting, and casting until I got the net.

 

This was the first time I had actually seen "dead sticking" although I had heard of it prior to this adventure.

 

Jim explained that by letting the finesse worm just sit there a bass was sure to see it and due to its curiosity it would pick it up. And he was right!

 

Jim died from lung cancer due to his smoking two packs a day but I learned a lot from him, especially dead sticking.

 

So do I dead stick today? Yes, but not as long it would take to smoke a cancer stick. Maybe two minutes at the most. Remember, I am ADD and can't sit still very long. But it works so give it a try.

[Catt]

I don't care if it's winter, spring, summer, or fall we have to figure out rate of fall, retrieval rate, rythm, cadence, or whatever y'all wanna call it.

 

Last week I've been fishing a bayou that runs through a marsh, it's affected by tides. The key to getting bit was to throw the Texas Rig to the inside bend & let the current move the rig with absolutely no input from the angler. The imparting of any action by the angler resulted in zero bites.

 

One mistake most anglers make is after getting a bite or catching a fish they can not tell what the lure was doing. Oh they can tell ya if it was on top, in the middle, or on the bottom. But they can not repeat the rythm/cadence cause they wasn't paying close enough attention.

[Dwight Hottle]

I prefer to fish faster techniques but will occasionally slow it down. My most success fishing slowly has been dead sticking a jerkbait placed in a rod holder while drifting. It's pretty easy to do & not boring because you can be casting or long lining another jerkbait working it as you prefer. Just keep an eye on the rod holder rod & when it loads up your in business. Very effective presentation for multiple species on the great lakes. Lots of six pound smallies caught with this technique. 

[J Francho]

I do the same with a Mini Slammer.

[Dwight Hottle]

30 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I do the same with a Mini Slammer.

 

I also got my PB steelhead & biggest lake Erie lake trout using the same technique. It's funny because both steelies & lake trout usually like fast retrieves or changing speed to trigger bites. 

[J Francho]

The steelhead catch is interesting.  I've always found that if they get a close look at whatever you're fishing, they won't bite it.  Once in a while they slurp it up.  

[N Florida Mike]

On 1/4/2021 at 7:08 PM, Koz said:

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?

 

 

I love fishing slow when they bite that way!

When they aren’t active due to cold , I try to slow down even more. 

You can never tell how they’ll bite though. Cold fronts really slow things down here, but I caught a 6.3 blazing a spinnerbait along my bulkhead on a christmas day in .december .

I caught one the other day pulling a senko over a grass bed . The bite has been slowwww the last 3 weeks or so.

[Alex from GA]

I learned how to bass fish in So Cal where if you wanted to catch a bass the only way was slow finesse fishing.  In 1999 I moved to GA I met some locals and usually out fished them.  After a few years they caught up.