Help me get out of this slump

[nofishforme]

i live in central VA and for the past week or so the temps have dropped dramatically from around mid 70's to highs of 50. the water is now very cold, not sure how cold, but the spots where i usually catch fish are not coming thru for me the past 2 trips that ive taken. i usually catch them in 3-7ft of water using soft plastics like yum dingers, superflukes, and fat ikas. should i just fish these baits slower then normal or should i switch to sumthin else? :'(

[nofishforme]

nvmd, i got out of it myself. yesterday i went to dicks cause it was raining, and as i was skimming the senko section for some fat ikas....i noticed "swimming senko" in green pumpkin which is my #1 color. so i grab a bag and go home anxiously waitin until i can fish. so today after skool i get home and its still drizzling, but i said to my self crap it. so i walk down to my boat, push it out with a paddle and just sit there and fish for the remaining 30minutes of daylight..in the rain. i managed to pull 5 fish in the same spot within half an hour. the top 2 were 3.3lb and 2.5lb.  for me this is really good..i will post pics soon. ohyea, and a funny thing that happened on the 3.3lber was that after fighting the fish for like 20 seconds, all the pulll in my line let off and i actually put the pole down for 2 seconds while screamin and cussin cause i thought id lost the fish. but it had actually just swam at the boat really quickly and i landed the fish shortly after. ;D

[WhiteMike1018]

Nice. Sounds like you had a lot of fun, i never tried the swimming senko yet but i definately am gonna invest soon. Post them pics theese fish sound good  

[Craw]

I live in SW Va. and I agree with you on the rapidly cooling air temps. As of lately the soft plastic bite has been really poor here where I fish but we have been catching pretty good numbers of SM and LM on hardbaits and spinnerbaits. Jerkbaits have been taking the majority of bass(Lucky Craft Pointer and Rapala X-Rap) The Pointer 78 and the XR-8 are the models they really seem to want. Single spin colorado bladed spinnerbaits have also taken a few fish as well as medium running crankbaits.

My old faithful plastics(Senko, tube and even pig and jigs) are getting a few strikes but the fish are not taking these baits to allow for a good hookset. One thing that might also be worth mentioning is that a good percentage of bass we are catching on jerkbaits, cranks and spinners are often foul hooked outside of the mouth or just barely caught on the trailer hook. It's been my theory based on the last several trips that the fish are aggressive but not aggressively feeding. My advice to you would be to try for a reaction strike with baits that enable you to cover lots of water. Hope this helps you to break out of your slump.

[rocknfish9001]

Ive heard of the swimming senko, how do you fish it?

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

And get out of that shallow water!! All our fall/winter fish have been coming from a minimum of 15 ft.  

[nofishforme]

its weird, cause these 2 fish were pulled out of this cove that i hardly ever fish at and the water cant be more then like 3-4feet. anways, i fish the senko like a superfluke. i let it get towards the bottom and then i give it 2 small jerks and then steadily reel it in. i just repeat this slowly and it seems to do just fine

[Bassinfreak2]

I would start by changing your screen name.  ;D

Like LBH said shallow is usually not productive while the temps are dropping. I would try fishing deeper for more bites.

[VaBass80]

Carolina rigged centipede

[bass109]

Carolina rigged centipede

that was my first lure i used,( same choice).

[VAbacklash]

Your post says South Central VA. Try going to Buggs Island in South Central VA at the North Carolina border and start throwing crankbaits on every school of shad you find on your graph. If the shad are breaking, 20 or more bass catches are being reported. I have no reason to doubt these reports because I've been there and done that on rare occasions.

It's a beautiful time to fish there and I hate to see winter coming on to stop all the action. Try Rapala jerkbaits, c-rigs with craws and french fries and different crankbaits. You will have 800 miles of shoreline and water covering 50,000 acres almost all to yourself this time of year. ENJOY!! Catch and Release!!