Fishing the same places/trying new presentations

[bigbill]

As some of you will remember me, I'm disabled but i can still walk a little but i fish the same places not too far from the car from shore. I'm fishing one old place that has an old road dam that was once used as water power for an old mill. I have a combination of everything in this one area. I have a 9' to 10' dropoff, I have 6' deep flats on the left, and the 10' dropoff tapers to the shallows on my right and about 30 yards infront of me past the dropoff. The dropoff is about a 30yd circle + or - in size. Over the past 5 years the 10' deep area really hasn't been too productive but everywhere else has been. This place is fed by a small river and it gets the winter runoff from a very large lake here and in the spring the smaller fish get trapped in this place and they just sit there and grow. My largest LMB so far is 6lbs and my biggest pickerels that i caught there have been between 28" to 29" inches so far too. I have seen larger bass in this body of water too.

Now my point we get into a groove of what works for us and sometimes we hit a lull in catching fish because what were doing just isn't working. Ok we try jigs, crankbaits, worm'in and topwater presentations but end up comming up short. I went out the other day to this spot determined to try something new, something different and out of my normal style of fishing. After trying my most productive lures and presentations in the past. I put on a rapala shad rap that sinks(countdown) and started using it. I would cast it out and try jigging it were i could see it and trying to match a drying baitfish presentation. After a few casts i got my presentation down so i casted into the 10' hole letting it fall. After letting it fall about 7 seconds(falls 1' per second) I started jigging it. On my second cast my new presentation paid off I nailed a 22" pickerel and the fight was on. While it wasn't a bass the pickerel told me my new presentation/lure combination was working in this situation(10' hole). It pays to try that new lure that we never tried before with a different presentation if your spot were your fishing will allow it we do have deep holes, flats, rocky points and shallows in certain areas were we shore fish. The portable hummingbird fish finder is a big plus in us finding these holes, dropoff's and other areas too. It helps us to pick a lure selection for that one area so we can adjust on how were going to approach fishing it.

In shore fishing i have noticed if the cover hasn't grown yet because its still early spring there are no bass or other fish in the area until there is cover for them. The cover brings in the baitfish which the bass follow too. The lilly pads are just starting to hit the surface now and the bottom is just starting to turn a new green so life is comming back slow this year because of the colder than normal spring weather.

Lets talk livebait and lures for a moment too. When i started bass fishing we were using livebait(minnows and worms) and it was costing me near $50 a week to fish. This is when i started using two rods, one with livebait and the other with a lure. I got to the point of learning how to use lures successfully and i started catching more fish on lures than livebait.

My point is i have two older retired guys fishing with me every morning and there really funny at times. When there not cathing anything on lures they will swear that livebait is the best. But they don't realize that if live minnows are working than a minnow lure would be the same of course with a shot of YUM shad. With the live minnows here hitting $4 to $5 a dozen i stopped using them all together now because of cost and i just use lures. I have nothing against using livebait its just the trade off in cost. Again we have to use a lure that matches the livebait or the bait the bass are feeding on at the time.

Every fishing trip is a learning process for us. Try a new lure on a short cast so you can see the action of it and how to focus on the presentation of it. Watching your speed or adding a twitch can sure be the difference in your success too. Don't rush go slow and learn the lure then try it.

Stop Wishing and Start Fishing!!!!!!!!

BTW;  My fishing time has been cut shorter now too due to back pain and i'm sure i'm not alone.  I never had it until this year.  I could make 1,000 casts on a trip before with no problems and now forget it, the back pain can start at anytime now.  How do you guys deal with this if you have it? I did switch to longer rods like 6'6" to 7' rods the past few years too.  I may try going back to the 6' and 5'6" rods to see if that helps.  The pain is so bad i can just make it to the car.