How do yall approach “Let the fish talk?”

[RHuff]

 

I have heard that phrase many times over and was curious about how you guys approach this..

 

For example.. let’s say you roll up onto a lake you haven’t fished in a while and you look at all the variables (time of year, water temp, clarity, weather, map study) and you pick out a place to start as an educated guess on where the fish should be. You throw a chartreuse squarebill around shallow bank brush and catch a nice fish.. 50 yards up the lake you catch another one... then another one...  

 

Do you then tie on all sorts of similar size and color squarebills to start dialing it in?

 

Do you tie on a variety of squarebills in different colors to see if anything works better? 

 

Do you think “well if they‘re tight to cover I better start flipping a jig or slow roll a spinnerbait to get better quality fish?? 

 

When you get that first sign of “letting the fish tell you what they want,” how do you go about taking it to the next step? Tournament guys, too.. 

[Fred Mertz]

Crank baits-- If the fish hit the crank bait and you miss the fish or fish is hooked outside the mouth or back hook in front lip, change colors.  The right color will make the fish "eat" the bait. Same for spinner baits with a trailer hook.   Soft plastics, look for bite marks or small tears that indicate a tail pick up or is the fish just butting it.

 

Same thing with every other type of lure you use.  Color does make the difference.

 

Time of year, wind, weather, water temp, amount of sun light types of available cover will govern where the bass are likely to be.

 

Its a definite science, but also a learned process.   Trial and error.  Remember also, fish all over the US do exactly the same thing and are governed by exactly the same outside influences.

 

That is how tour pros can go to Florida one week, and Maine the next and catch fish.

 

[Catt]

59 minutes ago, RHuff said:

Do you then tie on all sorts of similar size and color squarebills to start dialing it in?

 

I keep chunking what they eating!

 

[Smells like fish]

Good info Fred! Btw, do you still live beside Ricky and Lucy? 

[BrianMDTX]

4 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

I keep chunking what they eating!

 

Don’t change horses in midstream! 

[Mobasser]

If I catch a good one on a sqaurebill, I'll throw it a few more cast, then work the area over with a t rig worm. Not all the bass may be hitting the sqaurebill, and it's paid off for me to fish the area slowly before I take off, with either a jig or trig.

[A-Jay]

I fishing what they're eating with one possible exception.

If I think there's perhaps a nice size class of fish in the mix,

or if I'm looking for a 'kicker',

I might just switch out to a bigger profile offering.

And when it comes to brown bass, the increase doesn't have to be much.

(often better if it's not)

Like going from a 1.5 to a 2.5 size square bill. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

[Mike L]

9 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

I keep chunking what they eating!

 

Ditto

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[E-rude dude]

1 hour ago, Fred Mertz said:

Crank baits-- If the fish hit the crank bait and you miss the fish or fish is hooked outside the mouth or back hook in front lip, change colors.  The right color will make the fish "eat" the bait. Same for spinner baits with a trailer hook.   Soft plastics, look for bite marks or small tears that indicate a tail pick up or is the fish just butting it.

 

Same thing with every other type of lure you use.  Color does make the difference.

 

Time of year, wind, weather, water temp, amount of sun light types of available cover will govern where the bass are likely to be.

 

Its a definite science, but also a learned process.   Trial and error.  Remember also, fish all over the US do exactly the same thing and are governed by exactly the same outside influences.

 

That is how tour pros can go to Florida one week, and Maine the next and catch fish.

 

^^^^^^^ wow first paragraph loaded with info. Read it over and over. I did

[the reel ess]

2 hours ago, RHuff said:

Do you think “well if they‘re tight to cover I better start flipping a jig or slow roll a spinnerbait to get better quality fish?? 

I keep these two tied on for the most part. One exception is I'll sometimes start off with a buzzbait before changing to a spinnerbait. 

[fishingtx]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

 

I keep chunking what they eating!

 

I know that is what I should do, but I think to myself, if they are eating this, they must be eating this too

[Catt]

4 minutes ago, bass4life.... said:

I know that is what I should do, but I think to myself, if they are eating this, they must be eating this too

 

Good luck with that ?

[fishingtx]

go figure they are never eating what I think they should be

Just now, Catt said:

 

Good luck with that ?

 

[WRB]

Keep giving what they until they don’t want it. Be happy you made the right choice, it’s usually trial and error. 

With all that said a good bite is a good time to try new lures if fun fishing.

Tom

[schplurg]

3 hours ago, bass4life.... said:

I know that is what I should do, but I think to myself, if they are eating this, they must be eating this too

 

I've caught fish from the same spot within 45 minutes with three different color crank baits. I don't think they care about color as long as they can see/find it. It's a reaction strike. I think color is the last thing to worry about with most baits. That's my experience, so far  

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Keep giving what they until they don’t want it. Be happy you made the right choice, it’s usually trailer and error. 

With all that said a good bite is a good time to try new lures if fun fishing.

Tom

 

This too ^^^ I did it the other day. Saw some micro Rebel crank baits in my backpack and figured what the heck. Caught a couple micro bass lol.

[txchaser]

If they are fully eating the crankbait I'd be likely to leave that part alone. But now that I know where they are and at least one speed and depth they'll eat, I'll probably try to dial in what else works, sometimes it is a big upgrade.

 

I don't know if this is BS or not, still experimenting, but for me bigger fish and healthier fish tell me more than little fish (inexperienced, eat anything) and skinny fish (can't hunt well, unless they are pretty long, in which case they've been around a long time and I listen up). Anyone have any clues on this??

 

Example from this weekend - white belly frog both fast and slow, no bites. Pretty sure there's going to be something here so I go to black belly. Got one halfway bite at it. Hmm. Black toad, immediately started getting swipes and bites, but mostly the former, and the bites were smaller fish. Ok so I know where they are (not in the weeds, in the open water, with more shallow side than deep. Went through a chatterbait (midcolumn, great in weedy areas), a t-rig with a space monkey, and a senko. Those all worked and picked up more fish. Bigger fish were biting slower presentations, t-rigged (weightless) senko was far and away the winner for the day, even after downsizing the t-rig weight to 1/8. There was a bunch of other stuff I tried in between all that though, like a topwater popper in black and a keitech that got me nothing at all. I didn't mess around with bottom presentation colors - the senko was pulling adult fish out in numbers, and I didn't think there was much to dial in after that.

 

Every one of those casts was giving me information, since them showing themselves on the topwater told me where they were, I just needed to figure out what they wanted to eat and at what speed. 

 

Took me about 90 minutes. At that point it was just repeating... some days it takes most of the day to get there, and some days I just feel lucky to get one fish in the boat because I happened to throw it right in its face. 

 

ps: I wouldn't have expected a senko to work in heavy rain /shrug

[cdlittle]

Start with loud reaction going down to small finesse. My flow is usually one from these categories, moving downwards.

 

Glide bait or spinnerbait or chatterbait

 

Crankbait or jerkbait or lipless

 

Swim jig or swimbait

 

Drop shot or jig

[Deleted account]

A lot of good information, as well as some horrible above. One could write a book on the subject, and I am sure some have. I don't think anyone believes more on "listen to the fish and let them decide" than I do. That having been said, the hard part is having enough data points, as well as the experience and skill to interpret it and put it to good use. The tools may vary, electronics, eyes, ears, search baits, etc, but the goal is to narrow down what works and what doesn't, and just as importantly or more so, where. Once that is done, you can fine tune to from what works to what works better. This is a dynamic variable, and it may change in minutes, hours, or days. It's like a puzzle really, and some are those kiddy 8 piece ones, and some are those you dump on the hardwood floor and think "no way".

[J Francho]

I probably force feed more than anybody. It's more important to me to make the observations that lead me to fish that will bite than it is to somehow imitate what they're eating right now. That isn't to say I ignore the local forage, though. 

[Kenny Yi]

Sometimes, I'll be throwing my swim jig and catch nothing.  Make another cast with it and backlash the reel.  After I pick it out, I start reeling and feel some weight, set the hook and land the fish.  That tells me to immediately throw a bottom bait. 

 

That's my simple version of "Let the fish talk"

[Darth-Baiter]

Makes zero sense.  I am certain if a fish could talk, the last thing it would tell me how to catch it.  I imagine more cussing and name calling.  Maybe haunted ghost sounds to frighten me away  

[papajoe222]

I 'listen' by trying different depths, changing speeds, going from horizontal to vertical and as a last resort, changing color or profile. When I get a hit and no hook-up or barely hook a fish, I'll switch something, usually speed first.  I'm always listening because they constantly change their minds and say something completely different two hours later.

I've been married 50yrs. Women are good teachers it speaking without saying a word. That makes it a little easier to hear the fish.