High Risk/High Reward

[Jaderose]

Ever thrown at a spot that was so gnarly that you almost hoped there WASN'T a bass there because you weren't sure you'd be able to get her out?  I spotted a little patch of water (maybe 3ft square) about 25-30 yards way out in a sea of stumps, standing timber and laydowns.  One of those little patches that I just knew was holding a big girl but I didn't have a clear path to get one out...including casting OVER a couple of logs.  But I'm also incapable of NOT taking the chance.  I plotted my course out and fired my Scumfrog out there.  BOOM!  I was right.  I set the hook hard and fast and managed to get her on top.  (Did I mention there was also hydrilla?)  I ski'd her around a couple of stumps, brought her over a couple of logs (submerged mostly so not that bad) and got her in.  Didn't have a scale but somewhere in the 5lb range.  She looked as surprised as I was!  I've declined to throw a few times when it was basically impossible, but if there is even a slight glimmer of hope, I'll always take the shot.  What about you?

[rtwvumtneer6]

Every single time ??

[DitchPanda]

Yep I always take a shot

[Skunkmaster-k]

No guts, no glory. 

[Catt]

I'm of the mind set, stick em first, figure out how to land em second. 

 

Even in our shallow water marshes I've been known to get out of the boat & wade to em.

[NoShoes]

Full send. If you ain’t first you’re last. 

[Capriceragtop]

Oh yea. Small pond, covered in pads, exceptionally easy to get to, and also very close by. Occasional refilled by a creek nearby that overflows.

 

Biggest complaint is you'll walk out with about 15 ticks making a buffet of you. 

[Ski]

Get em on then worry about getting em out.

[the reel ess]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I do try to use more weedless lures in a spot like that. Spinnerbait and jig. But I have thrown and retrieved my Whopper Plopper 110 right over laydowns. If a big fish gets it there landing it is low percentage. Not to mention I may lose the expensive lure.

[gim]

This happens to me occasionally.  I usually think twice about tossing in there but still give it a go anyways.  Most of the time there is nothing in there lol.

 

The exception to this is around docks.  Docks are private property and if there is no route to pulling a fish out, I refuse to toss in there.  I don't need a confrontation with a disgruntled property owner.  No fish is worth it.

[Mike L]

Never!

Living down here especially in the summer, that’s the kind of stuff I look for. 
As long as you got the right equipment you gotta hook em to land em. 
 

Just get her head up as soon as you can   
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Tennessee Boy]

I learned a lesson in 1992 that I will never forget.  I visited the new Tennessee Aquarium and they had a three story tank of Tennessee River habitat.   On the top level they had a lay down that was loaded with bass.  The biggest bass was at the base of the tree in the deepest part of the cover.  The bass were organized perfectly by size with the largest in the best cover and they got smaller moving out from the base of the tree.  There were small active fish swimming around near the top of the tree.  The lesson I learned,  the big ones usually require the most difficult cast you can make.  Every time I fish a lay down,  I think about that lay down in the aquarium.

[GreenPig]

The difficult to fish, find, or get to spots hold the bigger unmolested fish. That's what I target.

[PressuredFishing]

4 hours ago, Jaderose said:

Ever thrown at a spot that was so gnarly that you almost hoped there WASN'T a bass there because you weren't sure you'd be able to get her out?  I spotted a little patch of water (maybe 3ft square) about 25-30 yards way out in a sea of stumps, standing timber and laydowns.  One of those little patches that I just knew was holding a big girl but I didn't have a clear path to get one out...including casting OVER a couple of logs.  But I'm also incapable of NOT taking the chance.  I plotted my course out and fired my Scumfrog out there.  BOOM!  I was right.  I set the hook hard and fast and managed to get her on top.  (Did I mention there was also hydrilla?)  I ski'd her around a couple of stumps, brought her over a couple of logs (submerged mostly so not that bad) and got her in.  Didn't have a scale but somewhere in the 5lb range.  She looked as surprised as I was!  I've declined to throw a few times when it was basically impossible, but if there is even a slight glimmer of hope, I'll always take the shot.  What about you?

oh all the time, and Its my biggest demise because i HATE braid, I use it for frogs and stuff dont get me wrong but most the time I just take one medium heavy rod with 12lb copoly and cut and retie on my shorter fishing trips (because im very busy and don't have time to go all day) and Ill throw into the nastiest of stuff and get bit but loose them frequently. Yes I know its a gear issue but for me when im only going to be fishing for an hour or two hauling around multiple rods can be annoying. Dont get me wrong I do it from time to time if I have a frog rod or if im fishing a body of water where I also really need a spinning rod but, for me once I get the fish really dialed in on a body of water I just take one rod and use techniques that worked because they usually carry over for that entire season. I will say though when flipping and pitching NARLY cover and you do have 12lb line and a medium heavy baitcaster, when you do get that fish in its a real treat, and it was an amazing fight!

[Bankbeater]

The biggest bass are in the thickest cover.

[T-Billy]

I make a habit of fishing the stuff most folks won't throw into. My local lakes get a TON of pressure. 90% percent of people won't throw into the thickest most tangled cover. Those same people generally make a cast or two to the obvious more easily fished stuff, and move on. Slowing way down and picking every inch of it apart, and making repeated casts to the high percentage spots pays off. 

[the reel ess]

8 hours ago, gimruis said:

This happens to me occasionally.  I usually think twice about tossing in there but still give it a go anyways.  Most of the time there is nothing in there lol.

 

The exception to this is around docks.  Docks are private property and if there is no route to pulling a fish out, I refuse to toss in there.  I don't need a confrontation with a disgruntled property owner.  No fish is worth it.

In some states, SC included, docks are not the property of the people that built them unless they are above the "high water mark". They are the property of the lake authority, like Duke Energy. People can actually get out of their boat onto your dock and you have no legal recourse except to ask them to leave. My dad and I went over to our place on Lake Wateree once and there were a couple fishing from our dock. My dad calmly went down and started rigging up. They walked out. Now, they had trespassed on our lot to get to the dock and they knew it.

[Big Hands]

The first time I went to Lake Fork back in the mid 90's, there's a cove called Double Branch that was nothing but trees that were still standing, and timber that had snapped at water level and was still floating. It made pockets that created a kind of honeycomb of sorts on the surface that covered almost the entire area. 

 

Back then, a lot of bass boats had hand controlled trolling motors on the front of the bow that could easily be lifted as needed as you crawled over the floating laydowns by getting moving at them (passenger at the back) and then pulling the tm UP just as you got to the log. The bow would cruise over the log about halfway, then the passenger would move to the bow and the boat would teeter-totter over the log and on to the next one as we made our way toward the back of the slough.

 

The bass were holding in these pockets, and were eating black buzzbaits (with the clacker especially). But you would usually need to cast two or three pockets away, and then drag them up and over the timber. Drag locked completely down and heavy line and rods. You just had to bust them hard and keep them water-skiing across the surface. If you gave them an inch, you were going to have big problems in a hurry. That was one of the things that made me fall in love with fishing in Texas. Of course it has never been that way since, but I keep hoping to find another similar situation somewhere. . .

 

Maybe Bois d'Ark will get like that at some point before I meet my demise. It will have to fill, and then have time for the trees to rot and fall. Not sure I have that much time left, but I remain hopeful.

[Bankc]

About half of my lures are ones I bought to try out and see if I like them.  More often than not, I like what I already have better.  But these lures are great for these types of situations.  So I have plenty of stuff that I can throw into places where I'm totally okay with not getting my lure back.  At worst, it gives me an excuse to buy and try something new.  At best, I get a nice bite.  

[scaleface]

I fish some really gnarly brush piles . I work the outside first before going in .  

[BustedSwimbait]

Big girls are always in the thickest of stuff. Gotta risk it for the biscuit.

[gunsinger]

If you ain't getting hung up, you ain't fishing.  I'll put a bait wherever I think i can get it and worry about getting her out after the hooks are in.

[papajoe222]

Okay, I'm in the minority as I have passed up those spots. Unless I'm punching, I rarely use a heavy power rod, or braid heavier than 40lb. It's a situation where I know there's likely a nice fish there, but I also know my chances of getting it out after hook up are slim. I'm sure I've passed up some nice fish along the way, but I'm okay with that.

[thediscochef]

Yes indeed happened today

 

This morning I went to the spillway and caught someone's million-frickin-pound braid that was wrapped around a bush near a little ledge. Broke two chatterbaits off on it but kept getting huge strikes there. Made my way across the river and tried to pull them up but they slid off the braid and away they went. 

In my anger I decided to call it a day as I had stuff to do. At least I got a half pound weight off it. 

 

My buddy and I went back this evening and since I had pulled all the braid out of the water I didn't hesitate to cast back to that spot. Second cast hung me on a boulder. I was using my dad's (RIP) old spinning rod and I was hung so hard it snapped the rod. I hadn't brought a second rod but my buddy let me borrow his stock Zebco Roam. Still I kept seeing wake over in that spot. I cast a 1/8oz chatterbait with a white lightning finesse TRD on it (stained from being stored with green pumpkin baits) and pulled out my new PB largemouth on the first cast! I didn't have a scale but based on size we estimate about 5.5lb. (All time PB is still a striper)

 

Made all of the frustration worth it. We thought that little zebco roam was gonna snap lol

[Jaderose]

34 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

Okay, I'm in the minority as I have passed up those spots. Unless I'm punching, I rarely use a heavy power rod, or braid heavier than 40lb. It's a situation where I know there's likely a nice fish there, but I also know my chances of getting it out after hook up are slim. I'm sure I've passed up some nice fish along the way, but I'm okay with that.

I understand.  I WILL pass up those shots if I just can't see any way to get those fish out.  I wanna at least have a chance.  If I see NO way, I'll pass it by.  No sense hooking a fish only to leave it wrapped around a log or something like that