The Jig Bite - What do you think?

[BlakeMolone]

Just a thought, I bet adding a max scent trailer would do more to make a bass hold on than removing the weed guard.

[softwateronly]

1 hour ago, Deleted account said:

This^.

I have actually witnessed this first hand with striped bass, and it was an eye opener. Way before 9/11, you could just walk onto the ship piers in Norfolk and fish, and I was stationed there at the time. I would walk the piers at night and look for a spot where a light was shined onto the water, which concentrated bait, which concentrated the striped bass. Once the tide started moving, you could catch as many as you wanted, with pretty much anything that approached the size/ shape of the bait de jeur. I usually went with a white bucktail jig and a piece of plastic to match the hatch. The water was fairly clear and you could clearly see the fish from the surface down 3-10 feet most nights. Most of these fish ran 4-10 lbs most times. Surprisingly, when fishing is this easy, it gets a bit boring, so I'd start just doing different things trying to entertain myself, and started just watching the fish eat and spit the lure one night, and a couple of things became really apparent,

-A lot of fish inhale the bait, and nothing is felt.

-The "bite" that is felt is sometimes the fish spitting out the lure, after not feeling the take.

-The larger the fish to lure size ratio, the lighter the bite feels.

I've seen this same thing with most fish that feed by inhaling baits, like bass, and grouper as well.

 

My PB this winter was an eye opener for me as well.  I was slow rolling a 4" swimbait on a flashy swimmer, sometimes contacting the bottom.  I could just barely, sporadically feel the tail kick at this speed.  Working a tight area between 2 docks and a marked brush pile, my line goes sideways quickly and before I can reel down, I feel the tick, then see slack.  I change angles and rework the triangle knowing there's an active hungry bass, next thing I felt is momentary nothing.  Missed her again.  This happened one more time before I really reacted to the faintest first nothing or oddity.  Set it, had a heck of a fight and got a bit lucky.  What I learned is that the biggest bass are most likely to be felt as nothing, that nothing can certainly mess with your head when "bites" are far and few between.

 

scott