Skunking streak. Night crawlers look real good right about now.

[Rora]

So I have been on a skunking streak. I am off a high from last week. Catching 4 including my PB. but man this week has been ROUGH. starting to think I need to take my daughter to the pond so I can use her as an excuse to fish with night crawlers.

[Sphynx]

It is just part of the process of fishing unfortunately, once I establish a pattern and get weather consistent for a week or so I can go out and smash them all day, but once something changes the old skunk comes back and hangs out until I figure out what the new pattern is, the best way to get through it I have found is use it as an excuse to try new baits that you have but don't usually throw, or if they simply aren't where you are or have a bad case of lock jaw use it as an excuse to work on flipping, pitching, skipping, off handed casting, all those other skills that can and will improve your ability to accurately and quietly present baits to targets, I grant you it's not as much fun as catching fish, but it is productive use of time on the water and will keep you occupied until you can establish the new pattern. Keep grinding!

[Bankc]

That'll happen.  

 

I often fish on my lunch break at a nearby pond.  A few weeks ago, I caught one decent bass every day for a week and a half.  That's with only about 15-25 minutes to fish.  Not too bad for bank fishing a lake with very little bank access.  

 

It's been almost 3 weeks since I've had a bite now.  I understand that it's hard to catch a fish when your time and where you can fish is so limited.  Still, it's frustrating getting skunked every day for 3 weeks in a row. 

 

There's nothing wrong with trying live bait.  I know a lot of bass anglers will poo-poo it, but it certainly ain't cheating (unless you're in a tournament).  Though I've often found it to be less effective than using lures, once you've gotten good at using artificial lures.  Live bait has it's own set of skills.

[Mobasser]

Some days are diamonds, some days are stones. I had a good run two weeks ago, the last two trips havnt gone well. Part of life for a fisherman...

[Skunkmaster-k]

Nothing wrong with live bait in the summertime ! 

[scaleface]

Pond fishing can be tough. They only hold so many fish and the pond you are fishing might not be that good to begin with . You said you caught 4 last week . Thats not much . Are there are any larger public waters nearby ? You dont need a bass boat to catch numbers of bass . I fish from a canoe , plastic bass baby , jon boat and a deck boat . There are a lot of public waters within 70 miles of me available that hold good populations of bass .

[Bubba 460]

 

It's been tough in this hot, dog days weather. I'm basically a power fishing guy but there comes a time when you just have to slow down if you want to catch more fish. I usually go to Texas bottom rigs and slower top water baits. When I say bottom rigs I'm talking anything from a small Ned rig to a 12" worm. Top water consist of poppers, crawlers and walk the dog sticks and frogs The other day I went out early and caught 17 bass before it got to hot. Nothing big but did get three at 16", seven at 15" and the rest were 14" on down. Mostly caught on a 10" worm but did get five on a popper, couple on a deep wacky.

 

The majority were in deeper water (10 to 12 feet, off points or on drop-offs). The top water bites were in 5 foot or less around grass. Going to be nearly a hundred degrees today... If I get some cloud cover I might go this evening. Just to hot with blazing sun otherwise. 

[DitchPanda]

 Fishing is just inconsistent this time of year. Got out yesterday for 2 hours caught 10 largemouth a white bass and a drum. Went back out today same conditions same areas...caught 2. Also I haven't found a good evening bite all summer its been all morning stuff. But I had a buddy out crappie fishing Tuesday evening said he saw bass pushing shad against the shore and busting on them almost constantly for over an hour.

  What have you been throwing?

[gim]

55 minutes ago, Bubba 460 said:

If I get some cloud cover I might go this evening. Just to hot with blazing sun otherwise. 

 

My last 4 outings have been extremely productive specifically because of this.  Its no coincidence that June and the first half of July were difficult because it was blazing hot, sunny, and dry all the time.  Since about July 20, every time I have gone it has either been cloudy for a portion of the trip, or raining.  Water temperature has also dropped from 80+ to 76 degrees.  The fish have been noticeably more aggressive and almost all of them have come on a moving lure.  I much prefer to catch them using this power fishing approach too, but unfortunately its just not always effective.

 

My last outing 5 days ago it was raining the whole time and the fish were hammering a black spinner bait.  Even piled into a bonus 37 inch tiger muskie too.

[SRQAlex]

I went a week without a single bite last week I couldn’t put a pattern together to save my life. Then I caught 5 in 15 minutes Monday and put a pattern together. Chin up, the fish are there just gotta figure out what they want to eat. 

[Bankbeater]

If you can find submerged vegetation like coontail or milfoil fish it.