History Lesson

[TnRiver46]

6 hours ago, scaleface said:

I dont have to worry about that . Camping out on a spot waiting for bass has never worked for me . I'll give it a Laurel and Hardy effort then move on .

 

5 hours ago, A-Jay said:

 

 I am totally staked out in the polar opposite camp.

IME, when the bites over or off where I'm at, many times it's off most everywhere.

At least for the plus size fish I'm targeting. 

I have had little to no success running all over the place 'looking for bites'.

Burned plenty of petrol trying. 

But positioning myself somewhat near or slightly away from, 

where I believe she'll eventually be, has paid off handsomely.

Might not fish the whole time, might even have a sandwich.

And then move in & out as needed, quietly of course.

If a couple of good spots are close to each other,

I will often go back & forth.

Works especially well for me early/late season.

Takes patience, but . . . . . .

A-Jay

 

 

 

I’m with @A-Jayon this one, I camp out on good spots all the time. I know the fish are there, eventually they get hungry. Maybe it’s a smallmouth thing ? I don’t know 

[Team9nine]

15 minutes ago, OldManLure said:

Buck Perry may have ‘popularized’ it (if you believe it is popular) by including it in his book, but by no means did he coin it.  I heard that phrase as a child in the 60s.

 

Turns out to be a pretty old term, even way before even you heard it mentioned. I did some quick searching and found it used in a 1914 "Outdoor World & Recreation" issue, though it was in a duck hunting story. Also in a 1913 story pertaining to baseball. The first fishing account reference I could find was in a 1927 newspaper letter about fishing on Reelfoot Lake in TN. Buck used it quite frequently in his book and articles. Just one you don't hear much anymore it seems. No telling how much older than those dates it might have appeared. Always fun tracking this stuff down though and learning a little about the history. Thanks for the comment.

[OldManLure]

It is likely I heard it first from my dad, and it is just as likely he heard from his.  It is interesting how idioms and other sayings are passed through generations.  Cool find!

[slonezp]

Topic is relative. My home water is roughly 10,000 acres with an average depth of 4ft and a max depth of 30ft with a mostly silt/muck/soft bottom. The bass aren't in 30fow. Typical northern IL lakes are what they call "soup bowl"

The bass relate to cover because of little structure. There are plenty of spots I fish "history" because, more often than not, they hold fish. BUT, I fish history because it's cover, not because it's history. 

[Catt]

35 minutes ago, WRB said:

Buck Perry was 1st and foremost a “promoter” of his Spoon Plugs. He gets credit for promoting structure fishing, he didn’t mention “Structure” fishing when spoke to him.

 

I attended a week long seminar given by Buck, he never once mentioned Spoon Plugs. He did however go into great detail on structure.

 

The point of this discussion is not about "camping" on a spot vs run-n-gun.

 

It's about the fact that unless a catastrophic event takes place structure doesn't change.

 

Toledo Bend was flooded in 1968, guess what the Sabine River & all it's tributaries are still there.

 

Therefore it is safe to fish memories (history)!

 

As I've mentioned before all of the grass on Toledo Bend died off, the bass didn't pack up & move to Sam Rayburn. They're still on the same structure, they just moved to the next available cover.

 

There is structure where the bass live, there is structure where the bass feed, the is structure where the bass spawn, & there is structure the bass use to move between from location to location.

 

[Trox]

6 hours ago, WRB said:

“if they ain’t where they are go where they ani’t”.

This broke my brain...

[jbsoonerfan]

I have more productive waypoints saved in my head than I do on my graphs.

[Bankbeater]

For me history is more about learning what happens to a lake throughout the year.  In one lake I fish I know the water will be muddy from after ice out until the grass starts to grow around mid May.  I also know that from roughly mid May until around the middle of June the bite is going to slack off, most likely from the spawn. After say the first of July you will be able to catch bass in, and around, the grass until that grass starts to die off in October.  Every year may not be the same, but at least I have a reference to go by.

[BrianMDTX]

On 12/15/2021 at 7:07 PM, Mobasser said:

Here in Missouri, guys used to say" you can't catch em where they ain't". Simple but true. Our job as fisherman is to find where they are. Then , figure out how to catch them. That's what makes our sport so enjoyable.

In deer hunting, we say “you can’t kill ‘em from the couch”. Especially when the weather isn’t what we’d have liked. Same applies to fishing. 

[Catt]

10 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

In deer hunting, we say “you can’t kill ‘em from the couch”. Especially when the weather isn’t what we’d have liked. Same applies to fishing. 

 

Some of my best hunting & fishing trips were during adverse conditions.

[fin]

On 12/15/2021 at 8:07 PM, Mobasser said:

Here in Missouri, guys used to say" you can't catch em where they ain't".

 

The way I always heard it was after a long conversation and debate about why we couldn't catch anything. Many complex theories of why the fish wouldn't bite this or that bait would be discussed, like the water temperature, oxygen content of the water, not enough wind, too much wind, phase of the moon, etc., then the old timer would say "They won't bite it if they ain't there." End of discussion.

[Mobasser]

Good post Catt. For me,my history lesson is thinking about mistakes I've made in the past, and trying to correct them. Also, as you've said, remembering good spots each season.                      Like you, I've caught many bass off the same hump and small channel bend each year. Certain spots never change. Some of these areas can be harder to locate, but I remember where they are each season.

Our history is our experience.

[T-Billy]

12 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

In deer hunting, we say “you can’t kill ‘em from the couch”. Especially when the weather isn’t what we’d have liked. Same applies to fishing. 

Yup. Caught my 2nd best LM the other day. Air in the 40's, water 40 at the surface, 10-15 mph winds. Not exactly what most would consider prime bass'n conditions. Most of my best bass have come from cold water, or at night. The big girls bite best when most folks aren't fishing.

[T-Billy]

History is also a help on new waters. Looking at the available structure and cover on a new lake will surely remind you of places you had success on lake X,Y, or Z, and give you a starting point.

[scaleface]

Fishing history gives you a good starting point . Bodies of water change over time . Places that use to be so-so might become a favorite destination . That happenned to me this year .

[Catt]

I was discussing this last night with a couple friends, my 15 year old grandson & his good friend who is a high school tournament angler. They came up with an interesting view, Aiden asked if y'all are fishing a 3-4 day tournament & in the top 10 what are you fishing on day 2, day 3, day 4. His answer, you're fishing memories!

 

He did state sometimes you do have to scrap what you were doing if conditions change. 

 

[OldManLure]

On 12/15/2021 at 1:05 PM, ironbjorn said:

Yes, but be willing to move when the place you caught them yesterday and perhaps many times over isn't panning out. A good way to have a bad day is staying put because of history.

I suspect that anyone who stays put in a ‘historical’ spot that now isn’t panning out is probably ignoring a few other memories that encourage  ‘moving on’.

[thediscochef]

On 12/15/2021 at 12:05 PM, ironbjorn said:

Yes, but be willing to move when the place you caught them yesterday and perhaps many times over isn't panning out. A good way to have a bad day is staying put because of history.

I use the history of my luck at a place to determine if I need to move. If I'm used to catching 5 bass in an hour somewhere, at a certain light level etc, and one day it's much less...time to move for that day. History can be used inclusively or exclusively depending on what you're hoping to learn from those memories

14 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Yup. Caught my 2nd best LM the other day. Air in the 40's, water 40 at the surface, 10-15 mph winds. Not exactly what most would consider prime bass'n conditions. Most of my best bass have come from cold water, or at night. The big girls bite best when most folks aren't fishing.

That was kinda my philosophy fishing cat spawn this summer...no monsters before 10AM 

Held true though, the many times I went out at 6a and was back at noon, I never did as well as when I'd go out at 9a and come in at 2p.

 

Whether that was the bigs coming out late, or me being a better angler when I'm fully awake...we may never know

[T-Billy]

13 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

That was kinda my philosophy fishing cat spawn this summer...no monsters before 10AM 

Held true though, the many times I went out at 6a and was back at noon, I never did as well as when I'd go out at 9a and come in at 2p.

 

Whether that was the bigs coming out late, or me being a better angler when I'm fully awake...we may never know

Now that you mention it, both of the big flatheads that kicked my butt last July did so mid day. Both ate my T-Rig and ran back under laydown piles and wrapped me up, and there was nothing I could do about it. I don't know what it takes to pull those bruisers out of there, but an 8' flippin stick, Lew's Super Duty, and 40# braid ain't up to that task. Not even close. First one left me with a braid burnt thumb, a bent reel handle, and had some terrible sounds coming from my rod before I surrendered.

[fin]

15 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Yup. Caught my 2nd best LM the other day. Air in the 40's, water 40 at the surface, 10-15 mph winds. Not exactly what most would consider prime bass'n conditions. Most of my best bass have come from cold water, or at night. The big girls bite best when most folks aren't fishing.

 

Good fishing weather and good weather aren't the same thing.

[OldManLure]

3 minutes ago, fin said:

 

Good fishing weather and good weather aren't the same thing.

“Weather shouldn’t determine whether or not to go.

It should only determine what to throw”.   - Dad

[Catt]

1 hour ago, OldManLure said:

I suspect that anyone who stays put in a ‘historical’ spot that now isn’t panning out is probably ignoring a few other memories that encourage  ‘moving on’.

 

Kinda proving my point ?

 

The decision to stay or go is based off what?

 

Evaluating current conditions using our memories, history, or experiences.

[Mobasser]

7 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Kinda proving my point ?

 

The decision to stay or go is based off what?

 

Evaluating current conditions using our memories, history, or experiences.

 Catt, when my historical tried and true spots don't produce, I don't hang around all day. I'll move on.

[Team9nine]

This is just one giant circular semantic argument. Do what I do and carry one of these in your tackle box, using it before your first cast each trip, and you’ll be in good shape…better than KVD Line and Lure for removing “memory.” 

 

[scaleface]

There is a creek arm with a lot of inlets that I fish a lot, often being the first stop I make . It gives me an idea how the fish are positioned at the time . They may be on the outside on the coves , in the back or in between .  It usually gets me on the right track , that   can then be expanded on through the rest of the lake ..