What is dead sticking

[Bassassasin12]

good one muddy man ;D,

dead sticking is one of my favorite presentations because, well, its the easiest presentation....

[Guest avid]

It happens to a lot of fellas after they reach 60,, OOHH Darn I misunderstood the question again

Hey muddy,

There's this little blue pill.  

Guanteed to make the flag pole worth salutin'  

[Siebert Outdoors]

Is it safe to say that a Senko is the best deatsticking plastic or would something with a little life be better, like a ribbon tail, or a brush hog or a tube?

IMO when dead sticking the senko is the ultimate lure.  Fluke style works ok, but I will take a senko over anything else

[FatBoy]

I don't have the patience for deadsticking a bait most of the time.  The one time it worked for me I was fishing a super fluke and picking out a "backlash" just like RW said.  Except I WAS using spinning gear!  Don't think it's possible to "backlash" a spinning reel?  Well, that's a story for another thread, but believe me, I've screwed up every way possible.  

[WhiteMike1018]

I personally think deadsticking is an amazing tactic, 95% of the time when my rod is just sitting there and im going through a box, on my cell phone etc, ill get a strike on an unoccupied rod. This reminds me of a tactic i learned in Homer Circle's "Bass Wisdom" book. I forget what the "tactic" was called but he basically said: Bass see lures come and go out of their hangouts quite frequently, they notice how most of the lures hit the water and start to move shortly after when you begin your retrieve. Him and his buddy were out one day on a lake and tried somthing different, they threw thelure 15 away from where they knew a bass would be, and let it sit there. NOTE: the fish located the lure as soon as it hit the water with its lateral line that detects vibrations and movement. He let the lure or soft plastic etc... sit there for 5-10 minutes than gave it a few quick nudges and jerks. This is what triggers the strike, the bass are more apprehensive about checking the lure out because once again its "different" from the norm. The hardest part is having the patience of actually letting the lure sit for that long without moving it. This is coming right from the book..just somthing to think about -WM

[liquidsoap]

Dead sticking is a really deadly technique, but the only time I do it is in tournaments.  Its a great technique but I tend to gut hook a ton of fish doing it.  

Senkos, tubes, and jigs

[GAMEOVER]

Dead Sticking: The art of looking at the water and envisioning a fish eat your bait while you do nothing but wait. You may find yourself putting your ear to the water to hear the fish swim around.

[Syfer420]

For dead sticking i like too use senkos and gulp earthworms 5 inches and up. Ive cought most of my bass this way period, but like road said the big one's to tend to hit it more when dead sticking. I think the larger smater bass will go for somthing freshly wounded or dying instead of somthing that will require a chase, imo that why dead sticking works well. Ive only cought one bass in the 4lb range that hit somthing moving. Than agian i fish plastic worms 90 percent of the time :-/

[jomatty]

for me a senko is the ultimate deadsticking lure but i also deadstick jigs, but generally not for as long.  generally i like to fish somewhat fast, but there are days that i know if i can just force myself to leave the senko alone i will catch some fish while if i use a more standard retrieve i would never catch one.

my 3 year old son taught me this lesson.  we were at the local pond and he had thrown out his senko, put his rod down and walked away (not uncommon when the fishing is even a little slow)

im catching nothing and after a few minutes his rod tip is moving across the ground and he catches a nice sized bass (after i set the hook and track him down).  what a lucky duck i think and continue about my business.  well he does the same thing.  on about the third fish for him i decided that maybe he was doing something i wasnt and slowed down and caught soem fish.

matt

[Valascus]

Deadsticking does work, but it's just not for me. I do not have the patience to allow a bait just to sit for long periods of time. I think part of the reason that may be for me though is the uncertainty of whether or not there is actually a fish where I am deadsticking. If I KNOW for a fact that there is a good fish in the brushpile I am casting to then I will let the bait sit there all day. If I am in search mode and am uncertain of where the fish are I won't deadstick.

[Zebco202]

Deadsticking = the way I fish senko's most (if not all) of the time.  just toss it out there and let it sit for awhile, maybe give it a twitch or two and let it sit again.

It's not a technique for everyone but I feel like it works at times.  I don't ever do it in a tournament (but I probably should) I'm too much into the 'run and gun' type of tournament fishing.  sometimes i think i really need to learn to slow down.

[BD]

I personally think deadsticking is an amazing tactic, 95% of the time when my rod is just sitting there and im going through a box, on my cell phone etc, ill get a strike on an unoccupied rod. This reminds me of a tactic i learned in Homer Circle's "Bass Wisdom" book. I forget what the "tactic" was called but he basically said: Bass see lures come and go out of their hangouts quite frequently, they notice how most of the lures hit the water and start to move shortly after when you begin your retrieve. Him and his buddy were out one day on a lake and tried somthing different, they threw thelure 15 away from where they knew a bass would be, and let it sit there. NOTE: the fish located the lure as soon as it hit the water with its lateral line that detects vibrations and movement. He let the lure or soft plastic etc... sit there for 5-10 minutes than gave it a few quick nudges and jerks. This is what triggers the strike, the bass are more apprehensive about checking the lure out because once again its "different" from the norm. The hardest part is having the patience of actually letting the lure sit for that long without moving it. This is coming right from the book..just somthing to think about -WM

Also Murphy talked about sort of dead sticking, but it's called stitching. It also works VERY well, for a couple of reasons........one 95% of bass fisherman, will not take the time to stitch or dead stick, two, it's a different presentation than bass are normally use to seeing, and three bass will absolutely find the bait and eat it since they are gluttenous animals  

[Laggyman]

Deadsticking works well on pressured fish and inactive ones me thinks.  

I had a time when I was picking out some twisted line from my spinning reel and I had my 3in Senko dipped inside the water. The twist was so bad it curled around and created a couple of knots on my line so I had to cut the line off.  As I was recovering the cut line, I felt some weight on it and wondered what the heck I managed to snag myself onto. But then a nice sized one comes up from beneath makes a dash for cover. I hold onto my fluoro line and it makes a nice cut across the palm... YEOW! Those lines must be sharper than razors!

I got my fish, but I got a nice cut from it as well.

[LooksLikeSinbad]

I use spinning tackle for all soft plastics.

As a general rule of thumb, is spinning gear better for plastics and finesse fishing, while a baitcaster would be better for pulling crankbaits, spinnerbaits, tubes in heavy cover, etc?

By the way this is my first post - thanks for all of you sharing your knowledge. Hopefully I'll be able to return the favor.

[K_Mac]

By the way this is my first post - thanks for all of you sharing your knowledge. Hopefully I'll be able to return the favor.

Wecome aboard

[Chris]

Spinning gear is for lighter line and lighter lures that would be hard to throw or use with a baitcaster. Welcome to the forum

I dead stick a bunch! What I have found is that larger bass that tend not to be in the chasing mood will hit a slow moving long paused bait. The bass thinks it is an easy meal and unthreatened. I try to dead stick areas that I know there is a bass like a tree or stump or something. Some spots that hold larger fish tend to use the same cover year after year. You kinda wait them out so to speak and fish every inch of it. It is like bed fishing you put the lure in the bed enough times or leave it there long enough at some point you will make the bass mad enough to hit it. It is the same idea with dead sticking. I know of many tournament fishermen that win a bunch by doing this technique. It is a slow process but very effective.

[Banor]

I'll give you an example of productive dead sticking.  I was in a tournament with a non boater on the back, dock fishing.  Several good docks had overhanging trees between them hanging over rocks and sand flats with about a foot clearance between the water surface and the branches.

Simultaneously my non boater skipped under a dock as I made a perfect cast back under the trees.  As can happen alot, the non boater got hung up on the dock.  So I'm going through heck and high water to get this snag out from under the dock and completely forgot about my senko sitting under the trees.  It took me a good 5 minutes to get this dock snag unsnagged.

When I finally get back to my presentation I figure it's about time to reel in and cast somewhere else.  To my shock and glee I have a 4# smallie just sitting there at the other end with my senko.

I think that is called accidental dead sticking with maximum results.

B