Thinking outside of your box

[slonezp]

I was invited by an ex coworker to fish on "his" lake. The lake he lives on is semi private. The lake has 1 spot for public access and the rest of it is either wooded or private access. I've known this guy for about 10 years. He's lived on the lake a few years and I have fished it twice, both times for crappies. The grandson pulls a 5 pound LMB out of the lake a couple weeks ago on a minnow from the public access pier. This was my first time fishing from the public pier. No one else caught fish while we were there. 

 

I was with the kid so I wasn't fishing, just untangling lines and baiting hooks. There was another bass guy out there throwing jigs and swimbaits. He got nothing. I asked my buddy, later that evening, if he had ever thrown a suspending jerk bait off the pier. Specifically, a 5" Husky Jerk in Baby bass. He said no. I told him I'd be throwing it thru post spawn. He hasn't been getting giants but, he's been getting big numbers of buck bass throwing the HJ, since we spoke. 

 

Point of my post. Don't get stuck on one or two presentations. It happens to all of us. Pay attention to everything. A second set of eyes might be all you need to clear your head. 

 

    

[BrianMDTX]

I have (and am) guilty of that, but lately I’ve been forcing myself to try new things. Or old things that worked but have been neglected at times. It’s an easy trap to fall into. But nothing works great forever. 

[Bird]

A husky Jerkbait works year around.

[Catt]

While I keep a Texas Rig & a Jig-n-Craw on deck 24/7/365,  I do have 3 others on deck. Topwaters & mid-depths of various types depending on body of water.

 

Think outside the 📦 

 

I've been known to throw a 1/4 oz Rat-l-traps in the marshes. Give me 12-18" of water above the grass & I'll chunk a Trap. Hold the rod tip high & reel fast, you'll be amazed at the violent strikes. 

[slonezp]

8 hours ago, Bird said:

A husky Jerkbait works year around.

Kind of the point of my thread. My buddy, a walleye fisherman, never even considered throwing a jerk bait for bass on the lake he lives on. The other guy fishing last weekend, didn't have any in his arsenal either. My first thought after determining the depth and lack of vegetation was " a jerkbait would work well here".

[Zcoker]

Sometimes ya gotta think outside of the box to get the job done, making your own way with your own ideas, presentation, and techniques...or even inventions. Sometimes the so called "norm" is not so normal after all, which means change needs to happen. Never fear to dive off the deep end. I've done it a number of times and haven't hit bottom yet! 

[Pat Brown]

The only thing that gets me outside of my box is committing to a new technique and learning it inside and out and then reaffirming old techniques and then adding it to my quiver of tricks/ repertoire of confusion. 

 

Every year I try to take advantage of a really hot bite and use it to learn something new. 

 

The trick is finding those really hot bites and sometimes you got to find a really unpressured private pond or something like that to learn a new technique and get used to it, which can be tough LOL.

[Catt]

Thinking outside the 📦 

 

Quite trying to the bass in the 📦  

[Swamp Girl]

14 hours ago, slonezp said:

Don't get stuck on one or two presentations. It happens to all of us. Pay attention to everything. A second set of eyes might be all you need to clear your head. 

 

24K.

 

13 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

But nothing works great forever. 

 

More gold.

 

I do think there are regional differences in bass behavior. I live on the coast of Maine, where the wind never stops blowing in the Spring and the air and water warm ever so slowly. Contrast this with interior states, where you can have temperature swings of thirty or forty degrees in a day. Then there's the South, where it's pretty much never cold, even though it feels cold to heat-acclimated Southerners (I see you guys wearing your coats on 55-degree days!). 

 

My point is that bass are living in sharply different environments and what works for bass at X won't necessarily work at Y. Since coming to Bass Resource, I have bought so many lures because other BR anglers touted them. Some worked. Some didn't. Going forward, I'm going to stick with the lures that I've found to work where I fish.

[Pat Brown]

I have to rotate baits because my lakes are small and the bass learn what I'm doing to them repeatedly lol - and there's layers to that because eventually they completely learn techniques that are obviously not at all in the right ballpark of what they eat regularly/situationally/seasonally.

 

There is nothing that works all the time. You basically have to learn how to fish the conditions when you deal with fish that have seen a lot of things and will only bite the right bait presented the right way for the situation. 

 

There are days when the bite is wide open and those usually coincide with compounding factors like wind and low light and lots of bait fish activity in the area that I happen to be fishing or something along those lines.

[Swamp Girl]

2 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I have to rotate Bairs because my lakes are small and the bass learn what I'm doing to them repeatedly.

 

Agreed! We should rotate baits, even though I'm guilty of not doing that this spring, as my Keitech Fat Swing Impacts are what the bass have been hitting. I'm going to cast some T-rigged soft plastics this week to show them something different, although they haven't sniffed at my wacky worms, and do some more strolling. Maybe flukes too. 

[T-Billy]

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Agreed! We should rotate baits, even though I'm guilty of not doing that this spring, as my Keitech Fat Swing Impacts are what the bass have been hitting. I'm going to cast some T-rigged soft plastics this week to show them something different, although they haven't sniffed at my wacky worms, and do some more strolling. Maybe flukes too. 

As long as they're still eating them, keep throwing them Katie. You're bog bass aren't seeing a ton of pressure, plus some baits, especially soft plastics, don't rattle and flash etc. and give off a bunch of negative cues. Bass won't get conditioned to them and quit biting. Think about how long bass have been eating worms, and jigs, and tubes. They're all still top tier producers in heavily pressured waters after decades.

In your shallow weedy waters, that Keitech rig and a T-rig are two baits I would always have tied on, ice out till ice over.

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

They're all still top tier producers in heavily pressured waters after decades.

In your shallow weedy waters, that Keitech rig and a T-rig are two baits I would always have tied on, ice out till ice over.

 

Going forward, Tim, I will. 

 

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

some baits, especially soft plastics, don't rattle and flash etc. and give off a bunch of negative cues.

 

^This^ sounds spot on, Tim. Thanks!

[WRB]

Always enjoyed “tinkering” with my lures just because I could. Adding fine glitter for more sparkle or contrasting color dots or bars to hard lures, paint and dye to soft plastics.

I definitely over use jigs it’s my favorite lure to use. My son when he pre teen often picked out a lure that I didn’t think would work and start catching bass, I learned to bite my tongue and let choose what he wanted.

Tom

[slonezp]

12 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Agreed! We should rotate baits, even though I'm guilty of not doing that this spring, as my Keitech Fat Swing Impacts are what the bass have been hitting. I'm going to cast some T-rigged soft plastics this week to show them something different, although they haven't sniffed at my wacky worms, and do some more strolling. Maybe flukes too. 

No need to rotate what works. I think a lot of us are "One trick pony's". I luvvvvvv fishing jigs all year. I'm wise enough to know I shouldn't. 

 

I'm not always wise enough to know when to switch it up, only that I should. 

  

[Swamp Girl]

9 hours ago, slonezp said:

I think a lot of us are "One trick pony's".

 

I admire the humility that underlies this statement. However, I think you're being too humble, as I'm guessing that you have three to five tricks up your sleeve, like I do.

[Catt]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

as I'm guessing that you have three to five tricks up your sleeve, like I do.

 

There are subjects discussed here that I be...Nope y'all ain't getting that!

[Bankc]

I probably need to think more inside the box.  I tend to catch more bass throwing a T-rig Senko than yo-yoing an old Heddon River Runt.  But my mind can't help but wonder... what happens if I rig up a bunch of different creature baits on an umbrella rig?  Why does no one put a soft plastic trailer on a weedless flutter spoon?   Surely the bass haven't seen that before...

I've had a few hits (like the back half of a lizard as a jig trailer) but a whole lot more misses (like dragging a C-rig with a floating, Elaztech Ned bait and Aberdeen hook so it will actually float).  

[Swamp Girl]

20 minutes ago, Bankc said:

I probably need to think more inside the box.  I tend to catch more bass throwing a T-rig Senko than yo-yoing an old Heddon River Runt.  But my mind can't help but wonder... what happens if I rig up a bunch of different creature baits on an umbrella rig?  Why does no one put a soft plastic trailer on a weedless flutter spoon?   Surely the bass haven't seen that before...

I've had a few hits (like the back half of a lizard as a jig trailer) but a whole lot more misses (like dragging a C-rig with a floating, Elaztech Ned bait and Aberdeen hook so it will actually float).  

 

I like your freewheeling, playful creativity.

[Tennessee Boy]

I fished tournaments at the club level in the 90s.   I had a lot of tricks up my sleeve but I had three that I was good at.  Every tournament I won or did well in was utilizing one of those three techniques and half of the tournaments was with my best technique.  Today I'm driven more by curiosity than a desire to catch the biggest 5 fish possible.  I'm more versatile now but I don't think I would do as well on a tournament trail.   I've always said you're better off being a master of a few techniques.  The more techniques you can master the better but you need to realize that it takes a lot of time to master them.  

[BayouSlide]

20 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

 I had a lot of tricks up my sleeve but I had three that I was good at.  Every tournament I won or did well in was utilizing one of those three techniques and half of the the tournaments I was with my best technique.

 

Don't be a tease...my curiosity has definitely been piqued...what are the techniques?  😉 😁

[Tennessee Boy]

3 hours ago, BayouSlide said:

 

Don't be a tease...my curiosity has definitely been piqued...what are the techniques?  😉 😁

They are obscure techniques that few people have ever heard of.  😆

 

1 - Texas Rig and countless variations that these days would have their own name.

2 - Jig

3 - Carolina Rig

 

I also caught a lot of fish on a frog but any time the frog bite was on, one of the frog masters in the club always won the tournament.

[MassBass]

On 4/29/2024 at 6:22 PM, T-Billy said:

 You're bog bass aren't seeing a ton of pressure, plus some baits, especially soft plastics, don't rattle and flash etc. and give off a bunch of negative cues. Bass won't get conditioned to them and quit biting.

I have to raise an issue with this. I feel you are saying attractor lures give off negative cues. They are not negative cues when presented the right way, they are attractors. Lures like spinnerbaits and rattletraps still have to be presented with care to actually work. I know for sure that sonar pings turn fish off of chasing rattletraps, but I digress. I don't care if a top bass tournament hasn't been won on a spinnerbait in 20 years or more, I will still be throwing spinnerbaits. I fish an urban river area for bass, and these fish see lures. Just a random spinnerbait isn't the answer. Too much attraction, and your right, then it turns into a negative, the fish shys away or spooks. It has to be just the right amount where the fish is so attracted that it bites. A spinnerbait on a steady retrieve really doesn't trigger the fish, it's just calling the fish in so much that they bite. Even if I told Joe Shmoe down at the river park, 'a spinnerbait', he would probably pick up a tandem silver or double willow silver, which seems to be a standard offering, but is actually A LOT of flash. Probably too much for most situations. A fish that has been caught before on a flashy spinnerbait will be more likely to spook from that. But a spinnerbait that looks more natural in the water, or with a different vibration profile, could make that fish bite though.

[J Francho]

Out of the box…Pink buzz bait on a drop shot. 

[Columbia Craw]

Think outside the sphere.