The Right Stuff

[Swamp Girl]

In the "What have you learned?" thread, A-Jay wrote: "Putting an average basshead on an above average body of water, can produce surprising results."

 

I've thought a lot about A-Jay's assertion and I also recall what @PhishLI said to me, that some anglers simply don't have what might be summarized as the right stuff, bass-wise, so no matter where they're fishing, they'll catch less than is possible.

 

I admittedly lack the ability to tell you what hook I used, whereas so many of you can easily recall that you used an Owner EWG X88922333TC size 02, as well as the brand and color names of all soft plastics. And I freely fan cast questions because I want to hook and net as much information as I can. 

 

For me, the right stuff might be best indicated not by your biggest fish, for you might never fish water that holds 10-pound bass and a kid with a Snoopy rod can luck into a 10-pound bass, but this:

 

Can you replicate? The best example is @WRB. Look at his five biggest bass. That's not luck when you do it again and again and again and if he were to list his hundred biggest bass, the numbers would be even more jaw-dropping.

 

Can you all-weather fish? Can you catch them in fog, the rain, the wind, the dark, and the mid-day heat? The best test might be cold front bass. When the water's whitecapping and your teeth are chattering, can you still catch them?

 

Can you catch them everywhere? This is my wheelhouse, for I've caught thousands of bass in the Mississippi. I've also caught countless bass in farm ponds. Big lakes? Yep, I love Lakes Michigan and Superior. Wilderness lakes? Oh, yeah, they're my home away from home. Whitewater? Yep. Bogs? You betcha, although they were challenging when I first started fishing swamps and they're still challenging. Streams? For sure. Small to mid-sized lakes? Uh-huh. 

 

Can you catch them from the shore? From a boat? Wading? Wading might be my favorite way to fish, for being in the water is literal and figurative immersion. 

 

Can you keep fishing when you're stumped and puzzle through the skunk? In short, are you tenacious and adaptive? 

 

Please feel free to add to my little list of what constitutes the right stuff for bassheads. 

 

 

[Team9nine]

“It seems like I've spent a lot of time trying to copy what better fly-fishers were doing, and it's surprising how often that hasn't worked. You know the drill: Your partner is just hammering fish. He generously gives you the secret fly pattern, he tells you what size tippet he's using and what kind of drift he's trying for, maybe he even trades spots with you. He continues to hammer fish. You still can't buy a strike, and his kindness only makes you feel more dimwitted than you felt before.

So what the hell has he got that you don't? Whatever it is, it's just too elusive. You can't steal it, and he can't give it away. The more you watch him, the more he seems to just be letting it happen instead of making it happen (the smug wretched), but when you try to just let it happen, it doesn't. If you come right out and ask him what he's doing, he'll either say he doesn't know himself, or he'll tell you something too simple and obvious to be of any use.”

 

John Gierach

[Swamp Girl]

Perfect, @Team9nine!

[Jar11591]

Can you catch them in the middle of the day, fishing in the middle of jet skiers and wake boarders and pleasure cruisers that batter the lake into a froth to the point where you wonder if there are even any fish left in this torrential wave pool of human activity? This is where I really struggle. But for me it’s the motivation to keep fishing surrounded by so much human activity that gets me. 

[roadwarrior]

The primary factor is the water you fish. Big O told me his goal is to catch the biggest

fish IN THE WATER HE IS FISHING. Can't catch what doesn't exist. That means if your

goal is double digit you need to fish in Florida, Texas or California for your best chance.

 

A more realistic approach is to fish water that produces 20-25 lb limits. You will

catch some fine fish with the possibility of a big one or two.

[Swamp Girl]

8 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

Big O told me his goal is to catch the biggest

fish IN THE WATER HE IS FISHING.

 

I like this. 

[Mobasser]

I can catch some  on most days, weather conditions etc. But, not always. Sometimes the bass have me stumped. For me the right stuff is the simple plastic worm.         It works on most days. Rain or shine.

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

Can you keep fishing when you're stumped and puzzle through the skunk? In short, are you tenacious and adaptive? 

When I got heavily into bass fishing there were more bad days than good days. I fished anyways, hour after hour of fruitless casting. So, yeah I'm tenacious. I   thought the poor fishing was due to    being in the wrong places, or using the wrong lure ...but no, I just was bad at casting. I thought I was good but I stunk. 

[Susky River Rat]

I just wish I could catch fish. 

[TnRiver46]

New kids on the block, anyone? 
 

🕺 
 

 

[gim]

1 hour ago, Jar11591 said:

Can you catch them in the middle of the day, fishing in the middle of jet skiers and wake boarders and pleasure cruisers that batter the lake into a froth to the point where you wonder if there are even any fish left in this torrential wave pool of human activity? This is where I really struggle. But for me it’s the motivation to keep fishing surrounded by so much human activity that gets me. 

No, because when it gets to this point, I am already either long gone or not even out that that day.  lol

[RipzLipz]

Too long, don’t read

 

For me, my most impactful "a-ha" moment was after taking a guided smallmouth trip to Lake St. Clair. This was when MI still had closed seasons for smallmouth. We booked a trip for opening day, somewhere around the end of April. The weather forecast didn’t look too favorable (high of 51°, overcast & winds 15-20mph). I wasn’t expecting much other than to be chilly. Not really my kind of weather for fishing. I’m usually out once it’s nice & warm, not when it’s still football weather.

 

Met the guide at the ramp near St. Clair Shores & peeking down the canal that led out to the main lake, I could see a bass boat just beyond the end of the canal just bouncing up & down. The trolling motor coming completely out of the water as the peak of each wave rolled by. Air temp wasn’t even 50°. Not what I’m used to but I figured the guide would lead us to the promised land but it wasn’t going to be a fun boat ride judging by those 3-4’ rollers. Our guide took a look down that same canal & walked up to us & told us if we didn’t mind a 20 minute drive, we could follow him to another ramp where we might be able to get out of the wind. We agreed & followed him.

 

Launched out of Metro Beach area & water was a bit calmer but still a bit rough. Made our way to an island & tossed some blade baits with me quickly losing 3-4 & none of us getting bites. My confidence was dropping but it had only been an hour. The guide told us the fish were there yesterday but he felt he could get us back on them. Tried a couple of other places & nothing. Guide was a bit stumped it seemed & I was beginning to worry if we’d just set our money on fire. The guide looked at the mapping on his unit & said it was a bit early but we could try another area but he didn’t sound too confident. Pulled into a bay that to me looked more like LMB habitat - shoreline was line with tall reeds & other than that & some vegetation on bottom it was quite unimpressive. Our guide told us to tie on some 1/4oz lipless cranks he’d handed us & told us to just throw it out & reel it in. Not my idea of fun, sitting in the middle of a bay, with nothing to target but shallow open water.

 

Next thing I know, the guide is swinging a 4lber in the boat, then my dad, then me. What followed was the single best day of fishing in my life. We never had one in the boat smaller than 3lbs & a few were pushing low 6lbs. Caught nearly 80 between the 3 of us in a matter of 5-6 hours. It was nirvana.  First time I’d encountered a smallmouth which I could not land using ultralight spinning gear - the fish were just too bullish & hot. They were not happy. To this day I am convinced that Great Lakes system smallies are a different strain - they’re just so thick & powerful.

 

In summary, my a-ha moment came when we were on our way home. I looked over at my dad & asked, "don’t you think if those smallies would bite in that cold weather that the LMB back home would as well?"  He shrugged & said something to the effect that you don’t know unless you try.

 

The following year, as soon as the temps were forecast to be close to 50° we hit a strip pit where we’d never caught a bass larger than 2lbs. Wind was very chilly but we were both dressed for it. Within 5 minutes of launching, my dad was questioning whether we’d made a mistake because he was cold. 10 minutes later, he sets the hook on a 6-1. That warmed him right up. We continued fishing, with a few low quality fish then came back within a cast of where he landed the 6-1. I tossed my jig along the bank & immediately my line hopped on the initial drop. Set the hook & I landed a 5-10. Sun was going down & we decided to head home.

 

No, we didn’t set the world on fire & load the boat up with fish. We had less than 6 bites all day. I’ve been doing this same thing, going out earlier & earlier in the year & we have more often than not hooked into a quality fish. It’s been over 10 years since that trip to LSC & I’ve set my PB 3 times in those 10 years and each time it’s been during periods where I previously would never have been on the water. I had a buddy lose one well over 5lbs at the boat on a day where it didn’t get above 20°. No, these aren’t DD but they’re very respectable fish given where I live. I’ve repeated this on a few other pits & most recently this year on a public lake. I used to avoid public waters like the plague but if I hit them when the weather isn’t so great I usually have the lake to myself.

 

You’d be surprised what lurks in the shallows as soon as the ice melts in some places. You’d also be surprised how quickly a big female bass feeding up for the spawn will hit a jig. 95% of these larger fish have hit those jigs on the cast before the jig has hit bottom.

 

Like I said, this isn’t DD & some may shrug it off as nothing. I could care less, to be honest, it’s the best I can find & I will spend hours waiting for that one tick of line because it’s liable to be a memory I won’t soon forget. Don’t need a bass boat or electronics. Just a rod, reel & a jig. You don’t catch bigger fish sitting at home waiting for the weather to get nicer.

[WRB]

 I talk a lot about strike detection and intuitive hook setting. 

Unless the bass hooks itself, and they do more often then we admit, strike detection is critical and separates the average angler from the those who catch bass consistently.

I am a line feeler for decades and that helps me to detect strikes day or night it’s the same feeling. The level that some us have and others don’t is the feeling called intuition when something tells you set the hook, you just know.

It’s hard to stay focused with distractions on or off the water, your mind drifts away from the moment of the strike and you often miss that fish. 

Intuition is something you are borne with.

Tom

[RipzLipz]

Hooksets are free, don’t cost an angler a penny……unless it’s not a fish.

[Swamp Girl]

54 minutes ago, WRB said:

I talk a lot about strike detection and intuitive hook setting. 

 

Agreed. This is an element of the passage that @Team9nine quoted. Sometimes I don't know why I set the hook, but when I do, there's a fish there. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, RipzLipz said:

Don’t need a bass boat or electronics. Just a rod, reel & a jig. You don’t catch bigger fish sitting at home waiting for the weather to get nicer.

 

Amen.

[Bankc]

3 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Can you catch them in the middle of the day, fishing in the middle of jet skiers and wake boarders and pleasure cruisers that batter the lake into a froth to the point where you wonder if there are even any fish left in this torrential wave pool of human activity? This is where I really struggle. But for me it’s the motivation to keep fishing surrounded by so much human activity that gets me. 

This is usually when I do my best fishing.  I think it's because by this point in the day, I've given up on thinking about the water temperature, angle of the sun, seasonal feeding patterns, wind direction, blah, blah, blah and just devolve into blindly pitching jigs at random pieces of wood.  It's been a common theme of my life that I have my best ideas when I'm not even thinking. 

[A-Jay]

22 minutes ago, Bankc said:

This is usually when I do my best fishing.  I think it's because by this point in the day, I've given up on thinking about the water temperature, angle of the sun, seasonal feeding patterns, wind direction, blah, blah, blah and just devolve into blindly pitching jigs at random pieces of wood.  It's been a common theme of my life that I have my best ideas when I'm not even thinking. 

This seems less like targeting specific fish and more like playing the Powerball to me. 

Either way, someone always wills . . . .eventually.

A-Jay

[Swamp Girl]

36 minutes ago, Bankc said:

It's been a common theme of my life that I have my best ideas when I'm not even thinking. 

 

^This^ reminds me again of @Team9nine's quote. Einstein said something similar, about how he always had his best ideas when he was reaching for an apple. I have a friend who's an MD + a PhD and he too believes in the potency of the unconscious. So did Rollo May in his book, "The Courage to Create."

 

I know that there are way more memories in my mind that I can recall. Every so often, something bubbles up, something as obscure as a dream I had 20 years ago. I think, and some others agree, that the unconscious has easier access to those memories that we can't retrieve and perhaps that's intuition. 

[Catt]

I can catch em when they let me!

[Susky River Rat]

1 hour ago, RipzLipz said:

Hooksets are free, don’t cost an angler a penny……unless it’s not a fish.

I say this at least 20 times a trip

[Mobasser]

I think some of the very best fisherman through the years had strong intuition. They just seemed to know where and how better than others.

[Susky River Rat]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Agreed. This is an element of the passage that @Team9nine quoted. Sometimes I don't know why I set the hook, but when I do, there's a fish there. 

Anything I deem to feel “different” I set that hook like it owes me money

[Catt]

Denny Brauer was asked, “what does a jig bite feel like?” Denny’s answer was “I don’t know but I know what it doesn’t feel like!”.

 

His next commit was “observers in my boat might think I’m a complete idiot because I set hook 20 times but only landed 5 bass so the other 15 times I didn’t have a clue want was going on and they may be right but one thing for sure the other 15 times were not bass.

 

When in doubt, drop the rod, reel the slack, & set the hook!

[FishTank]

Sometimes it isn't about having the right stuff as much as it having the right mindset.

 

I am reminded of two occasions when I think about this sort of thing. 

 

First, my daughter smoking me at a pond with Barbie poll. I had tons of gear and lures and I got blanked. My daughter was catching them left and right.

 

Second,  I was fishing a tournament last year and it was about 1 o'clock and we had caught two keepers all day. It was a rough one not only for us but for all the guys in our tournament.  We went passed a set of docks and a young lady was sitting there reading a book in one hand and holding a rod in another. She couldn't care less about the world around her. We asked "Doing any good? " She stood up and pulled a stringer out of the water with about 7 or 8 largemouth, all of them in 3lb± range. We were totally confused and asked "How?". She responded with one word "Patience". But she had just been sitting there using an old Rapala Silver Minnow and keeping any big ones she caught.  

 

Bass fishing can be a humbling sport.