Your Starting Lineup

[Pat Brown]

1 hour ago, Kelvin said:

Jigs.  Not my forte.  The kind of fishing that makes me want to stick my head in the oven.  Slow, plodding, bore you to tears.   Hate this kind of fishing even though its effective.  

Very near every jig bite I've ever gotten from a fish that was over 5 lb came on the fall almost instantly.

 

I do NOT fish jigs slowly MOST of the time. 

 

There are times when bass REFUSE to eat a horizontal presentation as much as I want them to and they refuse to eat it on the fall as much as I want them to.

 

These are the times where a dragging/hopping/dead sticking presentation becomes necessary regardless of bait.

 

I find this is most often when water is on the clearer side and fish are closer to the bottom/not actively feeding.

 

I don't like fishing slow at all though (it can help get bites on certain days).

[RHuff]

I'm certainly no expert and am still learning things myself but I've tried to do better in the last year or two about not having preconceived notions regarding when and what to throw before I actually see the lake I am fishing. I've been taking all of my baits off when I get home from a day out to clean and organize my tackle and make the decision on what to tie on after getting on the water. I'm trying to break myself from throwing "what I think the fish should be eating" to "what the data says to throw," if that makes sense. 

 

After launching, I immediately look at the water color, what temperature, and then I try to identify what depth the baitfish are holding at. That will help me decide on what type of baits to throw. Next I try to identify actual bass in the vicinity of bait fish either holding on bottom or suspended. That helps me key in. From there I pick baits that fit each of those four criteria. It's sort of a process of elimination. 

 

For example, lets say the water is stained, moderate wind, 55 degrees, baitfish is holding in 5-10ft of water, and bass seem to be high in the water column, that tells me they are up and active so I am gonna throw moving flashy baits such as jerkbaits, shallow crankbaits, burn a spinnerbait or chatterbait, or a swimbait with heavy tail action..... 

 

If the water is clear, 80 degrees, little wind, sunny, baitfish is in 20ft of water I'm gonna be flipping mats or looking for fish out deep....  Deep diving cranks, football jigs, flipping heavy cover, etc...

 

If water is 38 degrees, baitfish scattered, water is clear, and no wind, and I see bass bellied on the bottom I'm gonna throw something slow and deep like a jig or a blade bait.... 

 

 

 

[Jar11591]

44 minutes ago, RHuff said:

I'm trying to break myself from throwing "what I think the fish should be eating" to "what the data says to throw," if that makes sense.

This is a double edged sword. If I only threw a spinnerbait when traditional thinking says it’s a good idea (windy, choppy, murky water), I’d catch a lot less fish. I catch as many fish with a spinnerbait in clear calm water as I do in choppy stained water. What the data says is often a dud in my experience, and possibly based on some anecdotal evidence that people ran with for so long it became “fishing law”. My point is if I only threw “what the data says to throw”, I’d catch a lot less fish. 

[MN Fisher]

8 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

This is a double edged sword. If I only threw a spinnerbait when traditional thinking says it’s a good idea (windy, choppy, murky water), I’d catch a lot less fish. I catch as many fish with a spinnerbait in clear calm water as I do in choppy stained water. What the data says is often a dud in my experience, and possibly based on some anecdotal evidence that people ran with for so long it became “fishing law”. My point is if I only threw “what the data says to throw”, I’d catch a lot less fish. 

Case in point - the one in my avatar pic? Caught on a spinnerbait on a calm day, middle of the day, just a few clouds overhead (you can see a couple of them in the pic).

 

Spinners work whenever...

[gim]

2 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Spinners work whenever

Let's bring in @TnRiver46 on this subject.

[Mobasser]

15 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

This is a double edged sword. If I only threw a spinnerbait when traditional thinking says it’s a good idea (windy, choppy, murky water), I’d catch a lot less fish. I catch as many fish with a spinnerbait in clear calm water as I do in choppy stained water. What the data says is often a dud in my experience, and possibly based on some anecdotal evidence that people ran with for so long it became “fishing law”. My point is if I only threw “what the data says to throw”, I’d catch a lot less fish. 

Yes. Think outside the box.

[RHuff]

Maybe I misunderstood the point of the thread. I thought the OP asked what lures to start fishing with. I use that process as a starting point to pick my FIRST lures that I tie on. If things don't work out you adjust. How and when you adjust is just as important as where you begin. No arguing that going against the grain or thinking outside the box doesn't produce fish. To me, it makes sense to start with something logical though rather than picking something random. It's just how my brain works lol

[Mobasser]

12 minutes ago, RHuff said:

Maybe I misunderstood the point of the thread. I thought the OP asked what lures to start fishing with. I use that process as a starting point to pick my FIRST lures that I tie on. If things don't work out you adjust. How and when you adjust is just as important as where you begin. No arguing that going against the grain or thinking outside the box doesn't produce fish. To me, it makes sense to start with something logical though rather than picking something random. It's just how my brain works lol

Understood. But I think most guys would start with something that's worked before, be it a spinnerbait or any other baits.  If this doesn't work, try something different or new.

[CM-fisher]

I don't really get a chance to fish pre-spawn, so usually on opener the bass are on beds. For me that means a weightless senko wacky or texas rigged. Come to think of it, the past 3-4 years I've fished the opener using a wacky rig with a lot of success. Maybe I'll try something else, but why change something that works?

 

If we get a late spawn, I would throw chatterbait, spinnerbait, and jerkbait on the opener.

 

PS I got some SK caffeine shads to try, I have a feeling that they might do a number on shallow spring largemouth rigged weightless. I might experiment with some bigger worms, and I'll have a swim jig tied on because I use those year-round

 

[waymont]

20 hours ago, Junk Fisherman said:

This is easy for me.  We have a powerplant lake that opens on 3-1 so I'll be there on the Saturday.  Water will be in the high 50s to 70 depending on where I go.  Here's what I'll have tied on:

Chatterbait, spinnerbait, a couple different swimbaits, rattle trap, Ned, Neko, and a dropshot (trying out a new rod).   I'll fish fast-moving baits in several spots before moving to slower stuff if the bite is slow (it shouldn't be).  

 

 

Which lake?

[Kelvin]

5 hours ago, Cbump said:

How about the week prior on Big O when the MLF tackle warehouse pro tournament was won on jackhammer and 8 of the top 10 threw It exclusively? 
I tend to believe the elites, fishing a week later of warming waters, were flipping more to spawn/bed fish where the week prior they were still more in prespawn chasing and eating heavily. 

Edit: I thought you meant the Elites who were doing more pitching. The MLF pro tourney on Big O was absolutely won with jackhammer. I watched every minute of that tournament. 

 

Jackhammers are overrated, overpriced but it does have a place next to spinnerbaits.   I was out there during MLF practice with the pros pre fishing lake O.  They were flipping most of the time bc on that day moving baits weren't getting a sniff. 

 

A week later Tyler Rivet fishing in the Bassmasters Elite livescoped the kissimimee river, skipped the lake and won with a deep diving jerkbait going after suspended bass at around 14 ft deep.   I use livescope and even though in Florida its limited it has a high ceiling. 

 

 

 

 

[Mike L]

1 hour ago, Kelvin said:

 

Jackhammers are overrated, overpriced but it does have a place next to spinnerbaits.   I was out there during MLF practice with the pros pre fishing lake O.  They were flipping most of the time bc on that day moving baits weren't getting a sniff. 

 

A week later Tyler Rivet fishing in the Bassmasters Elite livescoped the kissimimee river, skipped the lake and won with a deep diving jerkbait going after suspended bass at around 14 ft deep.   I use livescope and even though in Florida its limited it has a high ceiling. 

 

 

 

 

I was there also!

 

Most people don’t even think about fishing the river especially if launching from somewhere else. 
If they did most would be lost ? 

 

 

 

Mike

[Deleted account]

5 hours ago, Mobasser said:

Yes. Think outside the box.

I don't accept the existence of the box, I envision a fluid  continuum where all things are possible and uncharacterized...

[Junk Fisherman]

5 hours ago, waymont said:

Which lake?

Braidwood opens Wednesday.  

[LonnieP]

Jig with Rage Craw trailer

all sorts of different crankbaits 

[Cbump]

Got my jackhammer ready to go for tournament tomorrow. Overrated my butt! 
 

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

On 2/23/2023 at 4:46 PM, Jar11591 said:

What makes it worse is that we’ve had an extremely mild winter, both temperature and snow-wise, but are getting our most winterlike weather this week. Nasty ice storm last night, temps dropping to single digits, and getting whacked with huge snow storm Monday into Tuesday.

Really struggling to contain my enthusiasm to get back out there, especially since my reels just arrived back from DVT. ?

Really. 50* two weeks ago and 3* tonight. 

[Tackleholic]

15 hours ago, waymont said:

Which lake?

Sounds like Dresden.  Been a long time.