Continue to search for active bass vs slowing down -when?

[Catt]

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

Adapt to changing conditions before and after you get to where you’re going. 

 

Long before Larry Nixon became the "General" he was known as Mr. Versititly. Not for using every technique known to man but for his ability to read subtle changes in conditions & quickly adapt. 

[Drawdown]

Yesterday was tough on the Hiwassee, with lots of brown water (though it actually rained on Friday). The key was finding the sections where visibility was higher—some areas were chocolate milk, others you could see 6-8”.

 

And the fish I caught was shallow, in the rocks, and I caught it on a very slowly-twitched Texas rigged Zoom UV Speed Craw. With water temps in the low 50s and poor visibility, I probably wasted my time with moving baits; might have caught more if I’d switched to bottom contact sooner.

 

When that water is 60+ degrees though, even in brown-green water, I’m expecting some good crankbait and chatterbait action—maybe I’m wrong.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Drawdown said:

Yesterday was tough on the Hiwassee, with lots of brown water (though it actually rained on Friday). The key was finding the sections where visibility was higher—some areas were chocolate milk, others you could see 6-8”.

 

And the fish I caught was shallow, in the rocks, and I caught it on a very slowly-twitched Texas rigged Zoom UV Speed Craw. With water temps in the low 50s and poor visibility, I probably wasted my time with moving baits; might have caught more if I’d switched to bottom contact sooner.

 

When that water is 60+ degrees though, even in brown-green water, I’m expecting some good crankbait and chatterbait action—maybe I’m wrong.

Thanks for the info! The ole wassee sure gets muddy 

[thediscochef]

imma zombiepost because boredom

on a calm sunny day i'm probably gonna find the clearest water I can near some bushes, throw a weightless fluke in some sort of green as far as I can towards those bushes, and then bring it back to me as slowly as I can...feeling as much bottom as possible ? 

[Pat Brown]

On 3/5/2023 at 8:21 AM, GreenPig said:

I always start a little faster than the water temperture might call for. I'll hit 5 or 6 places, throwing multiple different moving baits and then start slowing down until they tell me something. I never want to be dragging a worm/jig, when they'll hit a chatterbait, spinnerbait, or topwater. I fished a tournament years ago and after dragging jigs for hours in the 50 degree water with 4 - 6" visibilty, we won it in the last couple hours throwing black buzzbaits. 

 

 

 

 

I just wanted to quote this particular reply because I'm rereading this thread right now and I feel like this particular reply is such an important part for me personally of successful bass fishing.

 

I think the sooner that we as anglers can internalize that moving around and looking for active fish is the first order of business, the sooner we get that first bite that tells us there are fish around that wanna chew and that builds our confidence to the point where we can start to really get down to business.  Fishing is all about momentum.  You've gotta get that first bite.

 

I recently watched a video on YouTube about tough days and one thing that really helped me was the angler on the video explained that they like to have two techniques ready to go for days like this. That pretty much always get bit even when fish don't want to bite.

 

I think learning a few techniques like this is a really important thing to do if you have a lot of days on the water where you're around fish but not getting bit.

 

Drop shot, neko rig, shaky head, Jerkbait, swimbait on a jig head seem like the ones that most people go straight to when they go an hour or two in high % areas with no bites.

 

For what it's worth, I am currently trying to add drop shot, shaky head and jerk bait fishing to my arsenal this year for this exact reason!

[clemsondds]

2 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

I just wanted to quote this particular reply because I'm rereading this thread right now and I feel like this particular reply is such an important part for me personally of successful bass fishing.

 

I think the sooner that we as anglers can internalize that moving around and looking for active fish is the first order of business, the sooner we get that first bite that tells us there are fish around that wanna chew and that builds our confidence to the point where we can start to really get down to business.  Fishing is all about momentum.  You've gotta get that first bite.

 

I recently watched a video on YouTube about tough days and one thing that really helped me was the angler on the video explained that they like to have two techniques ready to go for days like this. That pretty much always get bit even when fish don't want to bite.

 

I think learning a few techniques like this is a really important thing to do if you have a lot of days on the water where you're around fish but not getting bit.

 

Drop shot, neko rig, shaky head, Jerkbait, swimbait on a jig head seem like the ones that most people go straight to when they go an hour or two in high % areas with no bites.

 

For what it's worth, I am currently trying to add drop shot, shaky head and jerk bait fishing to my arsenal this year for this exact reason!

I understand what you are saying. But if you read my initial post…I was saying that I know everyone (as you said) says that you have to keep moving to find active fish…but at what point do you say…”Hey, maybe I need to slow down and it’s just going to be a shakyhead or Texas rig kind of day”? I’m all for going fast…but if you blank at the end of a full day of cranking…was it successful? A lot of good responses in this thread about how to determine the answer to that question.   I do agree that it’s good to keep moving, but there are a lot of tournaments won on a shakyhead or a jig and I bet there were those in that tournament that kept going fast and just missed the deal for that day. Thoughts? 

[Pat Brown]

1 hour ago, clemsondds said:

I understand what you are saying. But if you read my initial post…I was saying that I know everyone (as you said) says that you have to keep moving to find active fish…but at what point do you say…”Hey, maybe I need to slow down and it’s just going to be a shakyhead or Texas rig kind of day”? I’m all for going fast…but if you blank at the end of a full day of cranking…was it successful? A lot of good responses in this thread about how to determine the answer to that question.   I do agree that it’s good to keep moving, but there are a lot of tournaments won on a shakyhead or a jig and I bet there were those in that tournament that kept going fast and just missed the deal for that day. Thoughts? 

 

 

I think sometimes you find when you're moving that you don't get bit and that's when you pick high percentage areas that you believe will hold a good number of fish and slow down and the only way to know that is by fishing a lot and listening to the fish on the day you're on the water.

 

I think there are also certain conditions that necessitate fishing very slowly. I find that very muddy water produces very cautious fish that are not very likely to bite much of anything and I definitely feel that fishing very slowly and deliberately can produce in those sorts of situations. I also feel like if you're on a lake where everybody fish is fast all the time, fishing slow can be very very productive.

 

I think on the water my rule is about 20 minutes with a bait and if I'm not getting bit I switch even if I'm moving around or holding still.

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, clemsondds said:

I understand what you are saying. But if you read my initial post…I was saying that I know everyone (as you said) says that you have to keep moving to find active fish…but at what point do you say…”Hey, maybe I need to slow down and it’s just going to be a shakyhead or Texas rig kind of day”? I’m all for going fast…but if you blank at the end of a full day of cranking…was it successful? A lot of good responses in this thread about how to determine the answer to that question.   I do agree that it’s good to keep moving, but there are a lot of tournaments won on a shakyhead or a jig and I bet there were those in that tournament that kept going fast and just missed the deal for that day. Thoughts? 

 

I seldom stop looking for fish and hunker down in a spot hoping that they are there and have been ignoring my offering thus far. When I'm using a "search bait" looking for fish, I'm not so much trying to catch them, as I am teasing them into showing themselves, a swirl, bump, moving pad, etc. If I can't get them to commit, then I will slow down, where I've seen evidence of them. Of course this assumes Randy B is watching me with binos and I can't look at the FF...  

[TnRiver46]

I think it depends on where you are geographically 

 

The people that did well in the 2023 bassmaster classic on my home lake fished the same areas all 3 days, gussy barely casting and schmitt dragging a shakey head 

 

You can run and gun all day here and never catch much, I do it all the time after reading too much online 

 
 

john Cox (and gussy to an extent) even fished the exact same small areas they fished when the trail came here in 2021. If you know a good spot just saturate it , they will hit eventually. 
 

[Pat Brown]

33 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I think it depends on where you are geographically 

 

The people that did well in the 2023 bassmaster classic on my home lake fished the same areas all 3 days, gussy barely casting and schmitt dragging a shakey head 

 

You can run and gun all day here and never catch much, I do it all the time after reading too much online 

 
 

john Cox (and gussy to an extent) even fished the exact same small areas they fished when the trail came here in 2021. If you know a good spot just saturate it , they will hit eventually. 
 

 

 

I think for me, the purpose of running and gunning is finding a good area.

 

When you are in a good area that's when it's time to work it hard with lots of techniques and slow down.

 

Sometimes you get lucky and don't have to run and gun to be in a good area.  Just depends on how familiar you are with a body of water and of course conditions and the mood of the fish playing in your favor.

 

Another thing to consider is that running and gunning doesn't necessarily mean burning featureless miles of bank for hours.

 

It can mean studying maps ahead of time and fishing areas that you have determined will be high percentage spots given the season and conditions leading up to the day you fish.