Slow or fast presentations

[Nick]

In the last two weeks in very different latitudes, I've had to really vary my retrieve speed and pauses to get bit consistently. I don't believe that there is an absolute rule that can be relied upon to get results, but please try a different retrieve, lure, or speed of retrieve if you are not having success.  

Example 1: While floating the Menominee in Wisconsin, we sere struggling a bit.  The depth with the severe drought was very shallow, under six feet and fairly clear.  After trying spinnerbaits and tubes with little success for 30 minutes(we could actually see the bass ingore them), the  Pop R worked wonders especially when rested at least 8 seconds between gentle pops.  This type retrieve rarely works as well in my home state, but those Wisconsin smallies couldn't stand it.  We caught upwards of fifty per day there.

Example 2:  Fished Mark Twain Lake in Missouri yesterday way up a heavily stained creek. While watching a squirrel chasing a mate up a tree, I let my tandem willow spinnerbait sink to the botom in about four feet of water.  Peck, Peck, I got bit like I was using a worm. Up comes a fine 3 pound bass.  That told me to slow down and work the blade like a worm hopping it gently off the bottom. It worked.  I caught two more nice keepers, and just for the sake of argument, took the same spinnerbait and worked it conventionally steadily and near the surfacefor fifty casts and never had a strike. Just goes to show that presentations, when adjusted just a little, can be very productive.  

[nwgabassmaster]

Most professional anglers will tell you that retrieving any lure "normally" is a wasted cast.  They will make their spinnerbait look like a baitfish, so that means making hop, jump, etc.  

[Grey Wolf]

I sure caught a lot of bass on wasted cast's this year.

[nwgabassmaster]

There will be times where the conventional presentation will work, but most anglers will do something to their presentation to make the spinnerbait act erratic.

I bet that there are times where you think that you are just casting and retrieving, but you make moves that you do not realize.  Such as, you look to see where a fish just surfaced, after hearing the noise, you look over to talk to your fishing buddy, etc.  Even when you do those, your body will move with you, and when that happens, the bait will make a different move.

[roadwarrior]

I'm with you Bass-Brat.

If I'm on the right structure or cover, a steady, do-nothing retrieve seems to be deadly. I don't even like fishing spinnerbaits, but have had some great days this year with a nothing retrieve (Thank you BassResource members!). The only retrieve that has worked for me with Bomber Square A and Bagley BII has been steady, sometimes a little slower or faster, but steady none the less. Same story with the LV500 (Lucky Craft Rat-L-Trap).

I think it's all about cover, structure and speed.

[bassackwards]

with deep divers, thats what I do is just retrieve it.  sometimes faster, soemtimes slower.  in the middle, I kill it.  

with hard jerkbaits, I have fished a while givin it short jerks, pause, and continue.  no response, so I just gave it a steady retrieve and thats what they were lookin for.  

the other night, me and a buddy were fishin, and he was usin that square lipped crankbait.  we hadn't had any bites all night, he put that thing on and retrieved it rather quickly.  and had a few bites.

but I see what nwgabass is talkin about.  I donno if I'd go as far as to say a wasted cast.  them bass must have been quite wasted then.

[Nick]

Nearly all really big bass have struck my crankbait or spinnerbait just after it contacted an object: bottom, wood branch, boulder, piling or even a dock.  That deflection is a key thing. To not get a crank bait hung up like a BB 2, I like to retrieve it at a medium slow pace and let the object I hit deflect the bait instead of me trying to make it act erratically.  Ditto on the spinnebait.

[roadwarrior]

Wow! Talk about different strokes for different folks, I've read many articles and seen several posts on this forum like Nick's "most strikes occurring after the lure has struck something". My experience has been 100% opposite, I can't recall EVER having a strike after hitting anything.

I plan to take this good advice and put it to use. Are we talking rocks or timber or pilings or what? Anything? Everything? It seems to me that I read a piece written by Skeet Reese that he NEVER uses this technique mainly because baitfish do not swim around banging into things. What do you say to that?

Just curious. I'm all eyes and ears.

[Brad_Coovert]

RW - I get hit on baits when not hitting anything and when hitting objects, but I get far more when I am hitting something, the bottom, weeds, rocks, wood - anything to make the bait do a change-up.

IMO, Skeet has banged his head a few too many times on the rod deck dancing.   ;D   Some will say I'm crazy :, but when you fish a spinnerbait, crankbait or topwater, you are not trying to emulate a healthy baitfish or crawfish.  You are trying to emulate something injured, something erratic and out of place OR you are trying to just to get a reaction strike.  Injured baitfish do not swim straight.  Crawfish have to crawl around and over things.

A crankbait moving along steadily above a grassbed becomes stuck in the grass and is suddenly popped free from the grass by the angler an bass suddenly slams it.

A crankbait running on the bottom suddenly jumps off the side of a stump where a bass was sitting and he eats it.

A spinnerbait is run down the side of a log and then is "killed" near a branch and a fish engulfs it.

All of these bites came on triggers when the bait did something different from its normal course.  IMO, none of the bites would have occured on steady, uniterrupted retrieves.

Brad

[Pond-Pro]

    On the Woo's Clues DVD he is banging logs with a crankbait. He didnt catch a bass till he bounced his bait on the log.  

     Kevin Vandam's Spinnerbait DVD : He bumps his spinnerbait off the dock pilings to catch bass. He also catches a nice smallie while bumping his spinnerbait down a log.  

      Both anglers stressed that it is important for their bait to have contact with the cover. It must create a reaction strike.  

      I never tried it because I dont fish wood hardly at all.  

[Phishn_Phool]

I have said this on here before, but when I'm fishing buzzbaits around dock U will tune 1 to run left and another to run right.  Then on thr left side I fish the right runner and try to hit the dock, as soon as I get to the other side of the dock I pick up the other 1 and do the same.  It has worked for me quite often.  BTW Nick I learned that from an ol'timer at the Lake of the Ozarks about 35 years ago.

                              CPR ;D

[bassackwards]

u said they stressed reaction strikes...  might they be referring to bouncing it off of stuff to, basically, hit the bass in the head thats sittin on the other side of some cover?

a crankbait gettin stuck in grass, coming free, and a bass strikes it makes sense.  I could see how that looks like the bait is injured and weak.

I haven't tried it much, but have tried it, just gotta try some more.  haven't had much luck on bouncin off of things.  

now falling out of things.   like trees, docks, etc into the water is great stuff.  dont get stuck though.  er, I use plastics often.  mostly never mean to, but am not mad when it happens, cause I can get it out as long as I aint yankin and sendin the hook thru anything.

I think that new squared lipped crankbait is meant to have a steady retrieve, because of its extremely wide wobble it does.

[Grey Wolf]

Hey guys , all the techniques we've been discussing on this issue  work at one time or another. I just took issue with the statement " normal retrieves don't work most of the time". It's just me ,no big deal.

[nwgabassmaster]

Just FYI.......from the BASSMASTER magazine, September of 2004, on page 54, and I quote,:

".....in fact many (pros) consider a 'normal' cast-and-wind retrieve with a spinnerbait to be a wasted cast most of the time."

This is from an article that discusses different spinnerbait retrieves.   It is also an article that features Edwin Evers as the main angler in that article.

[Ben]

Finding what retrieve works best is all part of developing a pattern.

[nwgabassmaster]

Are you referring to an inline spinner, or a spinnerbait?

When you say spinner, I have pictures of a Panter Martin coming to mind.  However, if you mean a spinnerbait, then, as it is defined in the article that I quoted, the "normal" retrieve is just making a cast, and steadily retrieving it in.

Even when I first started fishing spinnerbaits, I never did a normal retrieve.  I have always made it jump, dance, killed it, etc.

I have even fished deep water, from 15-20 ft., and let the bait fall to bottom, and then, hop it up and down.  This is especially effective if you are finding baitfish located on a deep point, or on the edges of the channel.

[Nick]

To Road Warrior and others: I fondly remember when the 600 Bomber was the go to (about the only) deep diving crankbait, and the first summer I fished it ( '69), I caught two 7 pound largemouth when I banged it off some wood in about 9 feet of water.  I'll bet that if anyone is man enough to throw one of these (and can find one), the results would be very good today.  That is a pulling son of a gun, even with the 3-1 Ambassadors we used those days!  

I've been banging baits off stuff ever since. If I'm not hitting bottom with a deep diving crank, I'll change up until I do hit it.

[Rattlinrogue]

I fish like I want.I Vary speed,hit cover,etc.The bass "pros"didn't invent everything( as some may believe.).I'm out for fun ,not to win the Classic.

[kbj3579]

As too skeet reese.  I have yet seen a bait fish that rattles.  But rattles work!  I know this has come up before in here, personally I hadn't had much success with cranks unless I am banging it off of something.  The true reason for that I am not Doug Hannan so I'm not sure, could be that when your banging it off of stuff, that's structure and that's were bass are so they eat it.  Could be that it looks like an injured bait fish so that's why they eat it.  I do know this with spinnerbaits I have caught them both ways, probably equally.  I do have a lot more to learn though on throwing the blades.  I know RW has said this many times before and it's the truth, bait profile makes a big difference in what they want to eat.  And a side effect of different profile baits, or maybe the other way around,  is the way that bait comes through the water.

[bassaddict62]

The one lure I always retrieve with a slow, very steady manner is the Heddon Mini-Torpedo. It's supposed to simulate a mouse that fell in the water, and is trying to get back to shore. Not many mice would stop - they're hell-bent for safety!