Working Lures in Odd Manners

[JediAmoeba]

After reading the spook thread it made me think of a funny thing that happened to me a few summers ago. My community has a bunch of bodies of water and I will drive around and hit a bunch of areas and sometimes run into people. I usually take it upon myself to help kids out so they can catch fish and learn something. I frequently hand out lures and advice and it makes fishing more rewarding. Well there was a kid and an old gentleman sitting in a chair fishing. He was casting out with his spinning rod upside down and just straight reeling in a popper: no rod twitches just steady reeling. The kid was just fishing a bobber and worms. I asked the man how he was doing and he said he caught a few at the other spot across the lake but hadn't caught anything here yet. 

 

Insert me explaining that usually a popper is fished differently. I explained the ways I typically fish it and told him he may have better luck. He proceeded to tell me he has been fishing longer than I have been alive and he didn't need my help from someone fishing for sharks(I was tjrpwing a large wake bait at the time). Darn it if on the next cast did he not catch a 4# bass. When he picked the bass up he held it up and said "I bet you have never caught one this big with your fancy schmancy gear." My ego was rightfully knocked down a few pegs and I told him nice fish, got in my var and went home.

 

Anyway, that got me thinking that there are more than a few ways to skin a cat - I should be slower to judge how YOU fish a lure.

 

Are there any lures you don't fish traditionally with success? 

 

 

P.S. I am still not advocating for fishing a popper as such and definitely not supporting upside down spinning reels!

 

 

[A-Jay]

 

From "Brown Bass Tools"

 

***Old School Crankbait Tip for colored or even cold water; OVER Weight your bait so IT SINKS.  Suspending baits are good and floating cranks catch fish, but there are times when smallies will love & choke, a mid-sized crank that will sit on the bottom at rest - you can even work it like a jig over a clean(er) bottom.  Not even close to a new deal - Rapala made the Countdown (sinking) minnow like 50 years ago - but somehow - they seemed to really lose favor with bass anglers - don't know why - they catch the heck out of the bass.  I even do it with jerkbaits - Just don't talk about - Imagine paying all this money for a super suspending Megabass 110 only to really want it to sink like a rock !  Yup- Guilty as charged.  A couple of different ways to do it - Suspend strips (the little lead strips made by Storm) - or sometimes even just bigger trebles will do it - I've even used both on one bait - try it you might like it. 

A-Jay

 

[Pat Brown]

I caught a fish on a lipless today where I just stopped the bait and let it sit in muddy shallow water on a flat.  Dang fish hit it on a ten second pause!  Nice lil chunk as pale as could be.

[looking45]

When I run into other people who are fishing, I don’t offer advice unless they ask. I go fishing to relax, not to upset others. 

[Tennessee Boy]

Sounds like the guy learned through experience instead of through Bassmaster magazine.   There's a lot to be said for that approach.

[WRB]

It’s difficult sometimes to keep your tongue in your cheek and let things take their course. When my son was just learning to fish I would let him pick through my tackle and choose a lure after already initially rigging his rod. So I would tie on a snap and he pick out something. Good learning experience for both of us. If he asked I would give him advice but letting him do his own techniques he caught bass using the lure the wrong way imo.

I am so stuck in my ways to change but different strokes for different folks is a good life lesson. Only took me about 50 years to learn this lesson.

Tom

[OmegaDPW]

I've read a lot about people dead sticking their baits. I never expected it to do anything.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was fishing two farm ponds connected by a dam and had just reeled in a stickbait when I heard a huge commotion coming from the other pond. I turned with the lure in about a foot of water at the bank to watch a group of deer run through the woods and jump into the pond to swim to the other side. There were six of them and I continued to watch them after they swam and got to the far bank and ran off into the woods. While all this was happening, my rod jerked so hard that I almost dropped the whole rig into the water. I didn't catch the fish that found that dead-sticked stickbait, but it made a believer out of me- at least this one time. 

 

 Unfortunately, I'm way too impatient to just cast out and wait forever, so it'll never happen again unless it's just another fluke of nature. 

[Mobasser]

When I was a kid, my dad made a cast near some pads with a Bass O Reno and put the rod under his arm to light his cigar.                                            When he got it lit, he stuck his lighter in his pocket, and, no sooner did he get his rod in position a 5lb bass smashed the popper. He landed it. It was probably 100 degrees, with the sun beating down. Nobody else was catching anything. My dad was the lucky one that day...

[softwateronly]

Casting and tightlining jigging spoons was something I stumbled on this year that isn't correct but certainly catches fish at the right time.

 

scott

[RRocket]

I had a 3" popper on one day with no takers. I was getting ready to pack it in but thought I'd try something for fun.

 

I had earlier watched a fishing program for Peacock Bass and the fisherman were violently ripping topwater popper-type baits. So I just wanted to see what it would look like with my popper. 

 

It looked amazing with water flying everywhere and a huge, bubbling wake. Just super, super aggressive. And fast.

 

Next thing I know it starts getting smashed! Again and again! 

 

 Have tried it again in that same spot from time to time but nothing since that day.

[GreenPig]

I often cast and retrieve jigging spoons and catch plenty bass. I've worked rattle traps just like a jig in the cold and it works fine depending on your cover. 

[Ski]

Floating jerkbait on a 1/4 oz Mojo rig, is unorthodox but will catch fish in 10 foot when fish are not taking your deep cranks or texas rigged baits.  

[Bankbeater]

I'll cast a crankbait around vegetation and pop it like a popper.  I also have pretty good luck casting out a Stanley Ribbit Frog, or a Zoom Horny Toad, on a T-rig and working it back along the bottom.

[Mr. Aquarium]

I dead stick baits alot. Big topwaters or bottom baits like jigs, hair jigs, plastics and what not. I also fish floating hard baits like cranks  and big swimbaits on top. I’ll twitch them around cover. I also fish a weightless t rig craw like a topwater. 

[Woody B]

I probably work a bunch of stuff wrong.  For some reason this incident, and the technique that morphed from it came to mind.  I was "trying" to cast a shad rap between a dock and pontoon, a space of a foot or less in the wind.   I don't know if the Bass could "see" what was happening, but for 3 casts the wind got it and I ended up thumbing the reel and jerking the lure back to stay off the dock and boat.   It landed at the end of the dock all 3 times.  The 3rd time it landed a 3 pound Spot clobbered it.   This was before I had live/ffs so I didn't "see" the Bass.   The technique that morphed from that?  I could see fish that I believed to be Bass under docks, and near other cover but couldn't get them to respond to anything.   They wouldn't respond to a buzz bait either, but I finally found out if I "buzzed" them a couple times they'd hit a wacky, shaky head or a few other baits after the buzz bait.   

 

Now if I see docile fish on sonar I'll buzz them a few times with a buzz bait, then follow with something else.  Sometimes it works.   

[scaleface]

I fish a lot of baits with unique retrieves. One of my craziest is ripping crankbaits hard and fast, reel up the slack and repeat. I didnt invent it but never see anyone doing it. The Bomber Flat A is one I use a bunch.

[Zcoker]

I don't fish anything traditionally. I work baits in all kinds of ways until I find what works. I use a lot of saltwater lures and they work just as good as the traditional bass lures, sometimes even better. Always think outside of the box, would the best way to work any fishing lure. Find out what the fish want and then fish for them that way, whatever way it is.