An Observation

[Mobasser]

When I first learned to fish soft plastic baits, I was taught to cast, pay out some line if needed to get a straight fall, then, raise the rod  to 12 o clock position, and work my plastic baits with hops, between 10 and 12 o clock position. Back then ( early 80s), our rods were 51/2 ft long.                            This retrieve style has worked well for a long time. I just picked up my first 7ft rod, a Fenwick casting rod. I've been using 6'6 and 6' ft rods. Last night, my friend Mike and I were fishing a quarry lake near home. Mike likes a 6 ft rod for plastic worm fishing, and he's good at it. On this lake, were almost always target casting. Blowdowns, an old dock, weed lines etc.                        Mike was catching two fish to my one. After an hr or so, he said," I can tell what's wrong here. Your moving the bait away from the fish".                   It never occurred to me that the longer rod  would take up slack line so much faster. It's simple, but Mike's bait was staying in the strike zone with short hops. My bait, fished on the longer rod, was probably moving the bait three ft or more away from the target. I had failed to adjust my distance, in moving the bait forward.                Sometimes,( many times) the bass won't leave the security of a good cover spot, and chase your bait into open water.                                Many folks have started bass fishing with longer rods, but they weren't available years ago.                                          Just an observation, and I thought I'd put this out there. It pays to adjust your lift/ drop retrieve based on your rod length.                                I'll get used to the longer rod in time, and, I can see many benefits to a longer stick.                                                  It's what I love about bass fishing. There's always something new to learn.

[softwateronly]

I'd like to add, when dragging downhill, your bait often looks similar to small hops on a flat, or to put it another way, it's very easy to miss the strike zone while hopping your bait from shallow to deep.

 

scott

[WRB]

Back in the day we also played out line after a worm strike counting to 10 before crossing their eyes hook set.

Good friend was Rip Nunnery, his worm presentation technique was unusual. Rip would make cast lift the rod straight up while pulling off line, Shake the rod tip several times then set the rod down and watch the floating mono line for a strike. Rip would pick up his rod, slowly reel up slack line and rock the boat hook set. Shaky dead stick!

Rip held the 1 day B.A.S.S. Limit record for decades at 97 lbs.

Tom

[MickD]

There are times when fishing tubes and smaller swimbaits for SMB and LMB that I don't let out line to get a vertical fall because many time fish hit on the fall and keeping slack out of the system makes them easier to detect.  

[Catt]

3 hours ago, Mobasser said:

It pays to adjust your lift/ drop retrieve based on your rod length. 

 

I adjust based off of the bass's activity level.

 

Sometimes it's short & fast, sometimes it's short & slow.

 

Sometimes it's longer & fast, sometimes it's longer & slow.

 

I will do 3 "hops" in a row

[WRB]

My experience using a sliding bullet weight Texas rigged worm ( with glass bead) is most strikes occurs on the initial fall or within a few feet. I always work the cast back and sometimes get bit near the boat.

Make my cast watching and feeling the for anything that could be a strike. After the worm has settled I shake it several times against controlled slack. Most of the time it just gets a little heavier and set the hook. Retrieving is a try various hops, slides, shakes etc until a strike occurs. Sometimes I get a strike reeling in to make another cast. Every strike tells you something, even missed strikes.

For me worm fishing works better on gentle sloping banks with brush or cover then jigs. 45 degree sloping banks with brush and rocks I prefer a jig. Always try both.

Tom

[LrgmouthShad]

So much going on underwater that is not necessarily easily understood. 
 

I like that there are different ways to work a worm. When I was taught one way to fish shaky head, I was told to very slowly reel while bouncing my rod tip with pauses in between. When I first tried it, I was reeling too fast. The result when reeled slow enough is dragging and short hops simultaneously. It looks like a moving, feeding baitfish. Cannot achieve this through only lifting or bouncing your rod. 

[Deleted account]

15 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

So much going on underwater that is not necessarily easily understood.

Like what?

[J Francho]

18 hours ago, Catt said:

 

I adjust based off of the bass's activity level.

 

Sometimes it's short & fast, sometimes it's short & slow.

 

Sometimes it's longer & fast, sometimes it's longer & slow.

 

I will do 3 "hops" in a row

Everything in threes. My grandfather stressed this point. It's all over anything natural. 

[Team9nine]

…And then you get out on the water with FFS and really see how your baits react on the fall (and lift/hop/retrieve) ?

[Catt]

21 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Everything in threes. My grandfather stressed this point. It's all over anything natural. 

 

Ya ever watch a crawfish fleeing danger?

 

It flips it's tail which lifts it upwards & backwards. It will do this 3 times in rapid succession kinda dropping slightly between tail flips. 

[Boomstick]

23 hours ago, Mobasser said:

When I first learned to fish soft plastic baits, I was taught to cast, pay out some line if needed to get a straight fall, then, raise the rod  to 12 o clock position, and work my plastic baits with hops, between 10 and 12 o clock position

Going from 10 to 12 is basically dragging the bait, not hopping it. You don't need nearly that much movement, even on a 5 ft rod to just hop it in location.

 

I mean, I do this all the time but that's usually more of a method to find fish more than to get fish that I know are in the area to take the bait.

[LrgmouthShad]

51 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

Like what?

How different bottom compositions interact with the weight of your lure. For example, I notice in very soft bottoms like in a mud bottom pond, even a 3/16 weight digs in quite a bit. I started leaning towards lighter weights or weightless because of this. How much your lure can lift up off the bottom when trying to pull free of grass. And, as Mobasser mentioned, rod length affecting how far your lure moves when dragged/twitched. These are a few things off the top of my head. Are you satisfied? 
 

[Bird]

23 hours ago, Mobasser said:

I just picked up my first 7ft rod, a Fenwick casting rod. I've been using 6'6 and 6' ft rods.

My long time fishing partner and I have always shied away from the longer rod movement.

Skipping docks and precision casting, I do much better with shorter rods.

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

How different bottom compositions interact with the weight of your lure. For example, I notice in very soft bottoms like in a mud bottom pond, even a 3/16 weight digs in quite a bit. I started leaning towards lighter weights or weightless because of this. How much your lure can lift up off the bottom when trying to pull free of grass. And, as Mobasser mentioned, rod length affecting how far your lure moves when dragged/twitched. These are a few things off the top of my head. Are you satisfied? 
 

"Things I don't understand or know", copy all...

[LrgmouthShad]

9 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

"Things I don't understand or know", copy all...

? come school me then! I like to learn if I think I’m not right. 

[Deleted account]

2 hours ago, Bird said:

My long time fishing partner and I have always shied away from the longer rod movement.

Skipping docks and precision casting, I do much better with shorter rods.

I always start with the least amount of rod (in terms of length, power, action, and recoil speed) and work my way up on each as required.

[Boomstick]

51 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

I always start with the least amount of rod (in terms of length, power, action, and recoil speed) and work my way up on each as required.

I do the same thing. Sometimes I find a rod that is a happy medium that works equally well for most situations, like my T-Rig rod (M-MH) and my jig rod (a MH-H) but the rest of the time I go with the lightest rod and line I can get away with.

[The Bassman]

This kind of strays from the subject of rod length but over time I've developed the ability to know what my lure is doing underwater, what I call using my "mind's eye". Really hard to describe but a lot of you probably know what I mean. It's a sense of being connected like you're right there. For example, I've been doing well with bladed jigs lately. Some bites are unmistakable while others are a series of bumps that require that I "feed" the lure to the fish to get a committed take. I can't imagine being fixed on a screen to accomplish this. Takes all the mystique away IMO.

[softwateronly]

7 hours ago, J Francho said:

Everything in threes. My grandfather stressed this point. It's all over anything natural. 

 

7 hours ago, Catt said:

 

Ya ever watch a crawfish fleeing danger?

 

It flips it's tail which lifts it upwards & backwards. It will do this 3 times in rapid succession kinda dropping slightly between tail flips. 

 

I too am a fan of Nikola Tesla, and also hit jerkbaits in groups of 3's...

 

scott