A different look?

[Columbia Craw]

I’ve been hearing the term, “give them a different look” or “Show them something a little different.”  How far does an angler take that premise?  I totally grasp switching from one bait style ( deep crankbait ) to another ( football jig, hair jig, big spoon) but does a subtle change like a slightly thinner worm over a thicker worm produce a reaction that otherwise would not?  I guess I don’t lend as much credence into this concept as some.

[Darth-Baiter]

subscribed.  I have no clue.

 

yesterday I threw all green pumpkin worms.  then I ran out of them and went with a red root beer color.  no change. fish hit both.  

 

maybe profile difference?  like if they are heavy into eating bluegill, it might benefit to have a wider side profile?  

[LrgmouthShad]

I change shirt colors until they bite

[Cbump]

I’m of the belief that if you find the fish, It doesn’t make much difference what you throw to a reasonable degree. 

[813basstard]

We use this type of thought when we’re going after striper (hybrids). If you can pick 2 or 3 off for whatever reason it gets more difficult to get anymore. We’ll mostly switch color or size of bait first before we switch species of bait..

 

In my experience they have to be really grouped up and seen it multiple times before they start laying off a bait if they’re eating.

But then again, I don’t know much, and I still probably go down the bank throwing speed worms at hard objects instead of doing what I think would really work..

[Mobasser]

Craw, most times this hasn't worked for me. I've tried subtle changes in color or shape with poor results. So I usually move on.

[A-Jay]

I am one of those Bassheads who will 'switch things up'.

Perhaps not as much as I used to, but I still do it.

Mostly looking for a change in sound, size/profile, running depth & finally bait color/pattern. 

Being on fish that shut off in an area and changing something has gotten me a few more at times.

So I'll usually have an assortment rigged.

A-Jay

[Bird]

Willing to change and experiment trumps what we think we know.

Last week was throwing a 3" Keitech swimbait in clear water, it's been working.

The fish followed but simply wouldn't commit.

 

Threw a fluke in the same color and miraculously triggered their predator instinct.....the darting.

 

Bass are weird. Lol

[txchaser]

On soft plastics I've noticed more commonly it is flake vs no flake is more important than small color change.  Dipped tail vs not dipped tail has mattered too. 

 

On crankbaits, 100% true - small color changes (or sometimes big) has been the difference between a meh day and 'get the net'.

 

On a-rigs, 100% true too, at least in my experience.  

 

 

[Hammer 4]

In my experience, and this applies maybe more toward shore fishing than from a boat. I normally watch what others are using, and If I see them make multiple casts w/o any bites, I'll go to a totally different bait, and it's not always about color.

 

OTH, I may throw the kitchen sink at them and no bites, then as my last resort, I tie on a 6" grape roboworm and Bamb.

I also start with topwater, and work my way down the water column.

On a big lake it's kinda hard to see what some of the guys are using nearby, then I'm pretty much on my own. One thing I try to do is think outside the box, and that thinking has paid of more than once, in fact twice to the tune of a few hundred  bucks.

[Bluebasser86]

It makes a pretty big difference at times. Sunday, I was getting a few bites on a jig with a green pumpkin Craw Papi trailer, but not as many as I thought I should be. Switched to a 4" watermelon red flake Menace with the tail dipped in chartreuse JJ's, bite went up noticeably. 

 

When I hear that saying, I think more like major changes though. A couple weeks ago while I was at Table Rock and the threadfin shad were spawning, 2-3 inch shad were everywhere. Most guys were tossing small 2.8 fat impacts to catch their fish. I caught a few doing that but when I went to a 7" Chad Shad glide bait, they acted like they were starving and my bait was possibly their last chance for a meal. 

[Hammer 4]

1 minute ago, Bluebasser86 said:

It makes a pretty big difference at times. Sunday, I was getting a few bites on a jig with a green pumpkin Craw Papi trailer, but not as many as I thought I should be. Switched to a 4" watermelon red flake Menace with the tail dipped in chartreuse JJ's, bite went up noticeably. 

 

When I hear that saying, I think more like major changes though. A couple weeks ago while I was at Table Rock and the threadfin shad were spawning, 2-3 inch shad were everywhere. Most guys were tossing small 2.8 fat impacts to catch their fish. I caught a few doing that but when I went to a 7" Chad Shad glide bait, they acted like they were starving and my bait was possibly their last chance for a meal. 

Funny, I've had just the opposite happen, nada on the glide, but they hit the jig big time..

[the reel ess]

nm

[scaleface]

When I see peolple throwing spinnerbaits its almost always a bright chartruse or white . I rearely throw those . More natural and duller  baitfish or bluegill patterns does it for me . Also a gold/copper blade combo kills it in off colored waters . 

  I like to take a chartreuse Spike-It marker and draw a straght line down the entire length of a june bug or purple worm . It doesnt turn it chartreuse but gives it a two tone appearnce  . Nothing a bass eats is a solid color . There are no solid white shad , no solid brown crawdads . 

[OkobojiEagle]

Soft plastic fishing:  speed change, both drop speed and retrieve speed accomplished with more or less weight; followed by silhouette change, then major color change from dark to light or light to dark.

 

oe

[WRB]

Unless you designed and made lure someone else did.

For tinkering around with lures to increase strike ratio and catching more bass is a big part of fishing.

Like everything else you are trying solve a problem off the shelf lures have to improve it. Sometimes a small modification  makes a big difference.

Take something like scented soft plastic dye, JJ’s or Spike-It and dipping the tail can turn a bite on. Those products got on the self because someone thought of it and developed the product.

I credit my own success jig fishing because the standard football head jig didn’t stand the trailer up. Designed a jig that  could be fished in rocks and sparse cover that stands the trailer off the bottom, doesn’t roll side ways positioning the hook upwards and back away from the head. 

Today the only time a bass see’s a hair jig with 4” split tail pork trailer is tied on the end of my line.

Tom

[the reel ess]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

When I see peolple throwing spinnerbaits its almost always a bright chartruse or white . I rearely throw those . More natural and duller  baitfish or bluegill patterns does it for me . Also a gold/copper blade combo kills it in off colored waters . 

  I like to take a chartreuse Spike-It marker and draw a straght line down the entire length of a june bug or purple worm . It doesnt turn it chartreuse but gives it a two tone appearnce  . Nothing a bass eats is a solid color . There are no solid white shad , no solid brown crawdads . 

I almost always throw a gold shiner pattern spinnerbait. I've tried others with little success, but the gold simply does the best, even in latevwinter when the water looks like chocolate milk.

[Captain Phil]

21 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

I almost always throw a gold shiner pattern spinnerbait. I've tried others with little success, but the gold simply does the best, even in latevwinter when the water looks like chocolate milk.

 

 

[the reel ess]

7 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

 

 

Partial to these two

[RDB]

17 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I am one of those Bassheads who will 'switch things up'.

Perhaps not as much as I used to, but I still do it.

Mostly looking for a change in sound, size/profile, running depth & finally bait color/pattern. 

Agree ?

 

12 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

When I hear that saying, I think more like major changes though.

Agree?
 

As far as color, I typically don’t do super subtle changes like go from green pumpkin red flake to green pumpkin purple flake with plastics.  If it is a color change, it’s usually more dramatic.

 

I’ve also found that on some bodies of water, beyond specific trip or seasonal adjustments, preferences sometimes change from year to year.  On one lake I fish frequently, plum apple was super hot last year but this year, they don’t seem interested.  However, now they are crushing chartreuse (I am going through bags of chartreuse w/black flake Senko’s rigged all kinds of ways).  It is a heavily pressured lake, so I don’t know if it’s about the specific color or it’s just a look they are not used to…I have never seen another rod with a bright plastic tied on.

[ErieCan]

Some days, they'll only eat one brand of stick bait (senko style bait). Other days they'll eat anything. 

 

Every body and their brother throws spinnerbaits up here. I own a grand total of zero spinnerbaits.  

[LrgmouthShad]

White and chartreuse skirt sucks on a spinnerbait. Fight me

[QED]

I've had excellent success with chartreuse spinnerbaits, black spinnerbaits, and chartreuse and black spinnerbaits at most venues, so I've never found the need to explore much beyond those colors.

[Bankbeater]

A few years ago I started changing up the presentation before I would change the bait.  If I was fishing with a weightless worm, and getting no bites, I would add a split shot up the line.  Instant bite magnet.

Same with a jig.  If the trailer was just hooked on the jig, I would pull it off and thread it on for a smaller profile.

Made me think that the bass weren't so much remembering the bait itself, but what the bait was doing during the retrieve.

[the reel ess]

14 hours ago, ErieCan said:

Some days, they'll only eat one brand of stick bait (senko style bait). Other days they'll eat anything. 

 

How do fish discern the brand of the stick bait?