When everyone Zigs, do you Zag?

[LrgmouthShad]

3 minutes ago, SpellCaster said:

I've never caught a bass on a spinnerbait.

[TnRiver46]

18 minutes ago, SpellCaster said:

 

and I've never caught a bass on a spinnerbait.

I feel ya brother 

[SpellCaster]

7 hours ago, omegapd said:

Rarely throw hard baits at all.

 

Same here! As I've gotten into fishing I initially got sucked into buying all kinds of lures, and the only hard lures that I felt have been worth buying are spoons, spooks, and ploppers. I throw soft plastics the vast majority of the time because they're so versatile and if, I mean, WHEN I lose one to the depths I don't feel quite the same pang of loss.

[softwateronly]

10 hours ago, SpellCaster said:

 

YEAH. I rarely throw those either. Just listed them b/c it's often the first lures mentioned in many of the "If you could only use 1 lure forever" threads... I catch more bass on flukes than senkos, more bass on spooks than poppers, and I've never caught a bass on a spinnerbait.

Almost same exact here; flukes, spooks/frogs, and swim jigs for me!  Spinnerbaits slow rolled at night in the summer, and up high and fast in the fall, but I'm sure I'm leaving fish behind by not trying it more often.

 

 

scott

[Zcoker]

It’s what we all do: mimic. That’s not to say all proven lures will work for everyone but some baits have withstood the test of time, like the plastic worm, which anyone can use to catch a bass. Some say it’s the #1 bait that bass can’t remember. I tend to agree and keep zinging with it. When all else fails, the worm rules. No need to zag. Other lures that were once very productive seem to fade, like the Whopper Plopper. I got sucked into that fad just like everyone else and it ruled…for a while, at least. I can hardly buy a bite on one nowadays. Strange how that works, almost ghostly! 

[SpellCaster]

3 hours ago, Zcoker said:

Other lures that were once very productive seem to fade, like the Whopper Plopper. I got sucked into that fad just like everyone else and it ruled…for a while, at least. I can hardly buy a bite on one nowadays. Strange how that works, almost ghostly! 

 

That's what I was getting at in the original post. I've heard the same thing about the Alabama Rig. 

[Bankbeater]

I just play it by ear and wing it until I get a feel for what the bass are wanting.  Sometimes I need to do a complete 180 and use a different bait than everyone else and then sometimes I just have to change the presentation or change up the retrieve a bit.

[LrgmouthShad]

Try zagging by making your own creations with spinnerbaits. Modifying stock ones or starting from scratch. I have discovered some phenomenal combinations by just thinking “Ah, what the heck. Let’s see how this does.”

[gim]

On 12/25/2023 at 9:03 AM, Zcoker said:

I got sucked into that fad just like everyone else and it ruled…for a while, at least.

I also got sucked into that fad.  The only difference here is that it never ruled anything other than as an ornament on the xmas tree.

[Zcoker]

13 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I also got sucked into that fad.  The only difference here is that it never ruled anything other than as an ornament on the xmas tree.

 

Too bad you didn't get to experience the craze because they were awesome for me down here in south Florida, especially in shallow water for the bigger fish. The hits were insane--boom! I even won a tournament using only them. Then, slowly, the hits became fewer and fewer. I would pull on one half a day without so much as a nibble. It got so dull that I stopped using them altogether. It's as if, telepathically, all the fish around where I fish said no more. Weird. 

[MAN]

If I am watching everyone zigging and zagging and not getting anything in a pressured environment I get off in the distance with live bait and start raking them in.  Works the first time...everytime.  

[Mr. Aquarium]

Pretty much my entire saltwater fishing is I should have  zigged when I zagged 

[Jar11591]

I zig and zag and I dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge jet skiiers. 

[Buzzbaiter]

“When you replicate someone else’s pattern, the best you can do is as good or slightly worse than them.” -Matt Allen

 

I’m paraphrasing there, but I remember hearing Matt Allen say that in one of his videos, and it stuck with me. I don’t pay attention to fishing reports because that forces me to approach a situation from someone else’s eyes. I do things my own way, not so much to escape pressure or show the fish something new, but because I know what works for me. 
 

I have my own understanding of what bass are, and how to catch them. I stick to what’s tried and true for myself, until I get some new idea or am forced to switch things up.  For instance, I fish a small creek every summer that holds a ton of small bass. A kicker fish is anything over 11”. Last summer, my usual grubs and worms weren’t getting the job done. Where I would expect to catch a bunch of >8” fish, I was only getting sunfish and some ~6” bass. I was forced to adapt. I had a little lipless that was oversized for the water I was fishing. I tossed that out and started winding it back, and I realized that the lipless was hardly able to stay up. It just sort of ground itself against the bottom, much in the same was that a swinging jig does. I fished it anyways, and started catching fish I didn’t even know were there. I found that grinding a lipless was fantastically effective. I have yet to try this on bigger smallmouth, but that’s a project for next summer. Here, I had to change things up and ended up adding to my toolbox.

 

Change isn’t always forced. I often change just because I get some crazy idea or because things get revealed to me in my sleep. When this happens, I start asking myself questions. Does this stream have a lot of sculpin? I’ll fish bottom baits that imitate those. Does this river get a herring run? I’ll start tying on larger shad imitators. What size/color are the crawfish? I’ll turn over some rocks and fish baits that imitate my findings. A lot of times, these changes don’t help. Sometimes they do, and become part of my repertoire. Regardless, I do not pay attention to what other people are throwing when I make these decisions; if I zag instead of zigging, it’s because I have to change, or because I’m testing out a hypothesis.

[Fishin Dad]

I really try to zig and zag and I really do think it can work at times, but I also end up fishing my confidence baits an awful lot more it seems.  I think I need to learn to switch it up more and change more often to see what the fish want, but those darn confidence baits just stay glued to my hands too often!!