Stitching

[bowhunter63]

Has anyone ever tried this technique. I was reading about Bill Murphy using it. Can’t find a lot of info on it Still looking. It seems to have worked for him. Just looking for tips on setups ect. Might give it try I don’t think they seen that for a while 

[A-Jay]

Funny you should ask.

A while back (OK 11 years ago) I went all in on the Stitching Thing.

And I do mean all in. 

Never could make it work for me and eventually abandoned the technique all together.

One reason might be that I was fishing in predominantly Brown bass water.

Just did 't know it at the time.

Either way, here's some light reading regarding my personal experience with it.

A-Jay

[WRB]

I have a unique view on stitching as a original Picese  bass club member with Bill Murphy during that time.

Stitching began as a retrieve technique using nose hooked live crawdads. The technique was borrowed from fly fishing retrieve line over the index finger under the pinky finger alternating back and forth. This allows you to feel the line and slowly walk the crawdad along the bottom.

I used a small bucket with water in it to drop the stitched line into to prevent tangling when the crawdad acted up indicating a bass was about to eat it.

During the strike have time you reel up the slack line and set the hook.

The item that is essential is a stationary platform like anchored boat or standing on shore.

Stitching is very slow requiring patients, it’s a saturation presentation.

When semi buoyant hand poured worms became available we stitched a split shot worm because they worked and didn’t crawl into brush like a crawdad did.

Today’s bass anglers don’t have the patients needed to stitch or double anchoring system. We do have hydraulic anchoring today but few if anyone stitch today….it’s too slow!

Tom 

[Fried Lemons]

I have a specific spot where my go to technique is to stitch a big worm. I've caught plenty of fish doing it but I've never had the patience to fully commit and sit on the spot for hours. Usually I'll give it an hour then leave and do something else. I use copolymer for this because the bait sits for so long on the bottom fluorocarbon will sink down into rocks and get snagged. For the same reason it's best to use as light a weight as you can get away with. Spinning is probably better for this purpose.

[Mobasser]

I tried stitching many years ago, after reading about Bill Murphy. I made a basket from a plastic bucket to catch the slack line. I even ordered some 9" plastic worms from De Long.                    At the time, I didn't have the patience for it. Now I'm much older, and slower, so I may try stitching again. To do it correctly, it takes more patience than most fisherman have, but has been proven to be a deadly technique.

[Pat Brown]

I do a very similar technique a LOT this time of year called 'tightlining' a swim jig.

 

I cast it out - let it hit the bottom and pop my reel handle Forward 1/8-1/4 turns and then let it sit.  The bait moves very slowly but naturally and stays in the strike zone a long time.  You always feel the bite and the hookset can be absolutely instantly.

 

I love doing it when they're biting it.

 

Tried stitching but found it harder to control how small the increments I was moving the bait were and harder to feel bites and react.

[ironbjorn]

I pay the extra fee to remove 30-60 second ads from my steaming services. No way I could stitch. 

[WRB]

To put the stitching presentation into perspective the late 60’s we were trying to catch Florida strain LMB that didn’t respond to traditional Northern LMB lures or techniques. 
We learned to camp out on high percentage areas by double anchoring (100’ of anchor rope off the bow and stern) moving the boat quietly between the 2 anchors. This allowed covering the area without relocating the boat and re anchoring. 
Our belief was the bass would move into the good area eventually and not detecting our presence. The very quite stitching presentation allows keeping a low profile sitting in the boat without a lot of rod movements. We were stocking wary big bass that were hard to catch.

The stitching technique required anchoring the boat parallel close the shore and casting outwards 180 degrees working the crawdad or worm slowly along the bottom and through brush.

Fishing for hours and catching a few big bass was well worth the effort. You could cast traditional lures all day and only catch a few dinks.

Today’s F1’s-F3’s have lost the original pure FLMB wariness and willing to strike a wider range of lures developed for these Florida strain bass. It’s different today then back in the late 60’d early 70’s. 
I haven’t stitched or double anchored in decades since developing my Horizontal jig presentation.

The trophy live bait anglers continued to double anchor and stitch crawdads to this day.

Tom

[papajoe222]

As has been mentioned, this technique requires a certain mind set. What hasn't been is that it, similar to drop-shotting, is one you use in high percentage areas. For me, that means one of the few spots on a lake that I have caught larger than average fish as the only time I've used it is when targeting the big girls. 

If you can find those areas on your lake, or one you plan to try, forget about numbers and plan on getting only one to three bites in an outing. If you can commit to being content with that, the results (big ones) could very well hook you on to the stitching train.

Almost every Bass I've caught over 6lbs. has been caught using my variation of this technique.