“Strategy” for the year?

[DinkDreams]

23 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

Ponds are much easier to fish from the bank. I prefer soft plastics and jigs verses hard

baits from the shore.

I’ve used soft plastics (TX rig, Ned, wacky rig, soft swim baits on jig heads) a ton and found success. I just feel that there’s a gaping hole in my angling skills that are essentially the hard bait category as a whole. I’ve yet to catch a fish on a chatterbait, jerkbait, or a lipless even when using them regularly. Could just be a weird quirk of the pond. I’ve noticed a lot of ponds to be more “quirky” when it comes to what they want and don’t. Certain ponds near me I can catch them almost year round on topwater, and being in SW Ohio it’s gets “too cold for topwater” pretty quickly. Other places they won’t touch a bottom contact presentation.

 

Fish are weird!

[Holetail]

On 3/20/2022 at 7:24 PM, DinkDreams said:

Yeah the “weedless” Ned heads from ZMan aren’t very weedless IMO. They won’t get hung up in weeds but you’re dragging some salad back in.

Maybe look into the EWG tungsten heads by Harmony on Amazon. The head is much smaller and I’ve had good luck with them. Was skeptical at first, but the hooks have stayed sharp, haven’t bent, and definitely reduce the amount of salad coming in. Specifically using the 1/16 oz but have some 1/32 oz I’m hoping to try next time out. 

[Bankbeater]

My strategy this year is to change up the presentation of the bait.  I have a few small lakes near me that see an unreal amount of fishing pressure.  Using some presentations that haven't been seen before may get the bigger bass to bite.

[ABrugs]

This will be my 3rd season/year bass fishing and I’m completely changing my strategy to be as versatile as possible. My first 2 years were about trying to dedicate 4 different rods to 4 different techniques and I decided to go completely away from that. I’m a shore angler as well and sold/consolidated those 4 rods into 1 versatile Loomis MBR. I’ll be using a variety of different lures/techniques, which is why I went w/ the MBR action. Overall, I’m really looking forward to this season and learned a lot over the past 2 that led me to this approach.

[txchaser]

1) keep moving deeper, when I can, and getting better at what that changes. 

2) start to get a better sense for not just how water changes day to day but how it changes during the same day. There's a lot more going on than just the two low-light periods, and really have no good instincts to start with there. Examples might be how a spot reloads, or how changing sun angle might require a different casting angle.

3) Figure out how to get my electronics to show me more color variation - when I'm in a spot that has 1' to 30' of what it is tough to quickly see whats up without tracing contour lines. Using the depth range helps a little if I know what I want to target, but deeper structure is all washed out with just shades of mostly the same color.

[TnRiver46]

I do this all the time with all kinds of baits, I just never catch any fish with them 

[softwateronly]

On 3/22/2022 at 3:52 PM, Bankbeater said:

My strategy this year is to change up the presentation of the bait.  I have a few small lakes near me that see an unreal amount of fishing pressure.  Using some presentations that haven't been seen before may get the bigger bass to bite.

 

I struggle with this as well during the summer and have plans as well.  I did take a short cut last year, and spent many more hours night fishing.  If that's possible for you, I highly recommend.

 

scott

[whitwolf]

Simply to fish more, have fun, and catch or not, be grateful I can still do something I love to do.

[The Maestro]

I keep telling myself that I really need to start incorporating and understanding how to better use my electronics but every time I get out i just want to start fishing since I still catch tons of fish with just using the most basic functions like 2d sonar to know depth and water temperature.