What are you doing differently this summer?

[PondHoppinPete]

29 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Spend a day at a spot with two spinning rods. One setup using a split shot rig. Rig half an earth worm on the hook. The other setup will be a light crappie jig with a mealworm rigged on and fished under a bobber. Good chance you'll find out exactly what's living in there and where. The "where" will change over the season. Don't be surprised if you catch your PB while looking for which types of baitfish a pond is holding.

Nice, sounds like a good plan. I have 2 short medium light rods I bought at Walmart for under $10. Will make good use of these this week! 

[NavyVet1204]

8 hours ago, nmatthes said:

Feels to me as you are junk fishing, I could be wrong though. Throwing differing baits depending on the environment you are immediately faced with in front of you and there is nothing wrong with that. If you are fishing from shore this is probably your most productive strategy and trying to pattern fish may not be the most helpful. 

 

Patterning fish could look a million different ways. Here is an example: You show up to a lake and know fish will be chasing bait fish early morning and you chose to throw topwater baits along your most most productive shore lines. Choosing specific shore lines based on past experiences and trip logs that you know have active fish on them. If the sun is out, this particular lake has standing timber and you have figured out the fish chase bait in the standing timber in 20 ft of water, so you choose specific spots with standing timber and 20ft of water. If cloudy you know the fish will stay a little shallower and hand out of hard spots and rock, chasing these fish with crank baits is most productive. 

 

Patterning = Planning ahead in my mind. If I get on a pattern then I know exactly the next 3-5 spots I am going to fish if I am at a lake I know well. Versus the opposite which is free wheeling it and saying ohhh this spot looks good lets see if it is productive.

My friend I am a junk fishing aficionado then because I am limited to shore fishing as you described which is fine and I am comfortable with that. I guess there’s no point in keeping a log to really pattern anything as a bank fisherman. Thank you!

[T-Billy]

On 5/10/2022 at 4:41 PM, Bankbeater said:

I'll be fishing more in the vegetation.  Punching mats when I can find them.

I spent a bunch of hours punching mats last summer with pretty limited success. Doesn't seem to be the best way to go in the waters I fish.

 Throwing that punch rig into the nastiest, most weed choked wood tangles I could find was a different story. It's all I wanna do during the daylight hours in summer now.

 If the weed mats aren't producing for ya, go find some choked out laydowns and put that rig right into the heart of em. They'll produce clear into the fall, even after the weeds are dead and brown.

[papajoe222]

I really don't plan on doing anything different this season.

You asked for topwater recommendations and two must haves, IMO, are a buzzbait and a hollow body frog.  Don't limit yourself to fishing visible cover with these lures. Both will draw fish from cover.  The exception would be tough conditions. Then you want to be as close to the cover as possible and slow your retrieve speed as much as possible.

[PondHoppinPete]

28 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

I really don't plan on doing anything different this season.

You asked for topwater recommendations and two must haves, IMO, are a buzzbait and a hollow body frog.  Don't limit yourself to fishing visible cover with these lures. Both will draw fish from cover.  The exception would be tough conditions. Then you want to be as close to the cover as possible and slow your retrieve speed as much as possible.

Thanks for the recommendations and very much noted on the cover tip you gave me. It's common to be told to fish the weed lines but I wasn't sure how much drawing power top waters have. Will more top waters that make a loud wake (ie buzzbait) have more drawing power (distance wise) then something like walking frog or pop r?

[Skunkmaster-k]

I fish at night a lot more in the summertime. 

[papajoe222]

On 5/12/2022 at 9:46 PM, PondHoppinPete said:

 Will more top waters that make a loud wake (ie buzzbait) have more drawing power (distance wise) then something like walking frog or pop r?

IMO, no.  The activity level of the fish will increase, or decrease their strike zone. 

A lure can draw the attention of a fish and possibly get one to follow. What a buzzbait, or other noisy lure, can do is trigger a bass' agressive nature and get them to strike.  That is one reason you should make multiple casts to a piece of cover as it make take three or more to trip that trigger.

[PondHoppinPete]

10 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

IMO, no.  The activity level of the fish will increase, or decrease their strike zone. 

A lure can draw the attention of a fish and possibly get one to follow. What a buzzbait, or other noisy lure, can do is trigger a bass' agressive nature and get them to strike.  That is one reason you should make multiple casts to a piece of cover as it make take three or more to trip that trigger.

Noted, thanks papajoe. Do you see burning a paddle tail or speed worm the same way? Will burning it multiple times past a bass also trigger an aggressive bite? 

[Mobasser]

Fishing slower, and trying for a big fish. It's been hard so far.

[Mike L]

Nothing really equipment or lures related but what I’m gonna try to do differently is to fine tune my discipline and time management “skills”. 
I’ve been doin this a long time.

After competing in Regional and National Circuits you’d think that I’d have all that down pat especially when money and sponsorships are on the line. 

 

I have a tendency to become overly impatient when working an area or a particular spot. 
Down here every where you look you’d swear would hold a fish, but sometimes the run and gun, power fisherman in me takes over where focus and discipline should be primary. 
 

 

 

 

Mike
 

 

[king fisher]

     What am I doing different this summer?  I'm not catching big bass.  May is by far the best month for fishing here, and I have only been out one day.  I'm working, going to weddings, trying to catch up on a honey do list, that is a mile long, and getting longer, no matter how hard I try to get caught up.  Why would anyone get married during the prime fishing months?  The rainy season would be a better time to ask a family member to drive a ridiculous, long way and spend almost a week in a place with no bass.  Getting married in May here, is equivalent to getting married on opening day of deer season in Michigan. 

      If I do get the time to fish, I am planning on using a bladed jig, A rig, and Carolina rig more than last year.  Last year I relied on crankbaits to much, and now that I own every crankbait made, the Bait Monkey wants me to start buying other baits.  He really wants me to get hooked on expensive glide baits, but I compromised and got some A rigs and two Jack hammers.  Both are expensive, but hopefully they wont lead to worse habits.  An inexpensive glide bait, would only be a gateway bait to a very expensive habit that might lead to divorce, bankruptcy, and a trip to the psychiatric wing of the hospital.  The C Rig is inexpensive, and the Bait Monkey is not happy that I did well with the technique this spring.  I think it will work well on some points and humps, this summer when the crankbaits don't.  Once the rain comes in July it's all buzz baits, and frogs.  

[DinkDreams]

I’m going to work on my moving bait skills more this summer. I spent all last summer throwing 4” senkos on a wacky rig or dropshotting little worms. I caught bass, sure. But I know there’s a moving bait/power fishing bite that could allow me to catch bigger and more fish than if I just keep throwing the finesse stuff.

[PondHoppinPete]

18 minutes ago, DinkDreams said:

I’m going to work on my moving bait skills more this summer. I spent all last summer throwing 4” senkos on a wacky rig or dropshotting little worms. I caught bass, sure. But I know there’s a moving bait/power fishing bite that could allow me to catch bigger and more fish than if I just keep throwing the finesse stuff.

Yea same here! I rely too much in the wacky rig. Bought a couple of swimming worms and paddle tail swimbaits. I don't really have a lot of confidence when throwing them out there tho because slow presentations make the most sense to me intuitively but i know you can catch some big ones as a power fisherman. It's good to be versatile, so hopping I pick up on it quick. My issues so far has been figuring out where to burn these baits and how long to stay at the same spot until it's time to move on 

[DinkDreams]

4 minutes ago, PondHoppinPete said:

Yea same here! I rely too much in the wacky rig. Bought a couple of swimming worms and paddle tail swimbaits. I don't really have a lot of confidence when throwing them out there tho because slow presentations make the most sense to me intuitively but i know you can catch some big ones as a power fisherman. It's good to be versatile, so hopping I pick up on it quick. My issues so far has been figuring out where to burn these baits and how long to stay at the same spot until it's time to move on 

Judging by your username, you are a pond fisherman like I am. 
 

my rule of thumb is to walk up, make 6-8 casts basically fan casting an area, and then I move down the bank 15 feet or so, and repeat. 
 

there is a lot more nuance to it regarding cover, grass or no grass, floating algae, wood, etc. but my general rule of thumb is a handful of casts with a moving bait in a pond will be enough to find out if they’re there or not. 
 

I don’t pretend to be an expert, but that is the approach I have taken this year and it has worked very well, especially with a spinnerbait. 

[PondHoppinPete]

4 hours ago, DinkDreams said:

Judging by your username, you are a pond fisherman like I am. 
 

my rule of thumb is to walk up, make 6-8 casts basically fan casting an area, and then I move down the bank 15 feet or so, and repeat. 
 

there is a lot more nuance to it regarding cover, grass or no grass, floating algae, wood, etc. but my general rule of thumb is a handful of casts with a moving bait in a pond will be enough to find out if they’re there or not. 
 

I don’t pretend to be an expert, but that is the approach I have taken this year and it has worked very well, especially with a spinnerbait. 

Thanks for sharing what you've been doing so far. That is the general approach I've been trying to do but it's easy to second guess yourself. When fan casting, do you go from one clock position to the next or do repeat casts in the same direction before slightly changing direction? I've heard somewhere about burning a bait multiple times past the same fish will sometimes result in a bite. 

[DinkDreams]

1 hour ago, PondHoppinPete said:

Thanks for sharing what you've been doing so far. That is the general approach I've been trying to do but it's easy to second guess yourself. When fan casting, do you go from one clock position to the next or do repeat casts in the same direction before slightly changing direction? I've heard somewhere about burning a bait multiple times past the same fish will sometimes result in a bite. 

Personally, I will do one or two casts at each angle unless it’s a particularly “fishy” spot I.e a lay down, some submerged grass, or any other structure that would lead me to believe there are definitely bass there.

 

If I see something like that I will usually make 10 casts or so all around the structure and move on.

 

Keep in mind that this is a mindset when you’re looking for active, biting fish. Sometimes you just have to fish more finesse or slower presentations. Ponds are naturally more temperamental to temperature changes and pressure changes due to smaller size.