When Nothing is working...

[Bass_Akwards]

Is there a time of year when it's just time to hang up the fishing gear?  I was catching fish all day every time I went out all summer.  September rolled around here in the rocky mountains, and the days got shorter.  The temps stayed in the 70's all september and most of october.  I couldn't catch but maybe ONE bass every time I went out, and half the time I got skunked.  I probably went to my local ponds and fished 20 days in october and I think I caught 3 fish.  The last 4 times I've gone out, I have't caught a darn thing.

I'm not talking about big bodys of water either.  I'm talking ponds of about 15-30  acres, which I'm fishing from shore.  The daily high temps here have been in the 60's for a month and at night the lows get to the mid and upper 30's.  I havent measured the water temps at all, but the water is very clear.

All I know is, I fish senkos, jigs, swimming jigs, carolina rigs with heavy weight to get them through vegetation, brush hogs, x-raps, crank baits, Yum Dingers, chatter baits, and buzzbaits at dusk.  I'm targeting isolated weed beds, fishing in open water, and any other cover I can find.  I move from one side of the ponds to the other and just can't catch a d**n thing.  

I've sped up, I've slowed down.  I've "popped" my soft plastics back to shore, and I've slow rolled them.  The only thing I cant do is fish vertically in weeds with heavy Jigs because I'm fishing from shore.

What on earth can I do do get some fish here guys?  This is killing me, seriously.  Is there a time of year you guys just hang up the gear?  I wanted to fish till the ice was to thick for me to do so, but man, I dare say I'm getting a little bored going out 30 hours of fishing and catching pretty much nothing.

Help?

[tntitans21399]

My guess since your a shore angler, is that with the water temp dropping the fish might be slowing your movement and hanging out deeper for the winter months, unlike the summer months where they come shallow.  So my guess is that the fish might in deeper water that might be to far from you.  But that is just my guess, and I'm no pro.  

There should be some better advice from others but that is my guess.  

[Tin]

Because of the temperatures is the grass still living? If not and it is not putting out O2 then you should try to target something else than the grass. What else does the lake have for cover? Stick-ups offshore, drops, anything?

[Raul]

Is there a time of year when it's just time to hang up the fishing gear?

NO

Oooops !    I 'm in the south !    

[jwo1124]

I feel you man. I have been fishing three or four times in the past couple weeks shore angling at my local ponds in MA and I can;t get a thing either. Funny thing is that they stock this one pond with trout twice a year and I still can;t get a thing. My only guess is that in the shallows all the weeds and veg. are dying off causing an Oxygen depletion. Match this with all the leaves falling into the water and dying, and you have a lot of decomposition going on. Anyone who has taken a high school bio class knows that decomp. uses lots of oxygen. This is my only theory.

I think for us northern anglers shore bass'n is out of the picture for now. I think the bass are moving to deeper waters towards the middle of the pond or lake.

I have been fishing from shore with inlines and smaller rapalas along with spoons for trout the past month and haven;t gotten one trout.

[Guest muddy]

When Nothing is working... then you know you are too old

[Guest avid]

When Nothing is working... then you know you are too old

I smell a new thread.

Check out the EE forum.

[Guest muddy]

I with you Brother 8-)

[Crestliner2008]

I don't agree with the premise that you can't catch fish after a certain time of the year. If I can find open water, I can catch fish from shore or in a boat. You just have to adapt to the conditions at hand. This past weekend the water temp here was 44 deg. and we killed the crappie and bass. You do have to slow down and you do have to fish where the fish are. Whenever I get into a slump, I pull out my 7' UL, tie on a 1/32 oz. marabou jig which I suspend under a slip bobber, and go fishing! Last week, shore fishing, I caught several rainbows, LM bass, crappie and bluegill with this slow approach. Not every area of a pond or lake is going to have fish, but if you move around and are versatile in your presentations, you will succeed. On the other hand, when all else fails, break out an M-80  ;D

[Davis]

You may be able to still catch fish as long as there is open water with no ice...............BUT I personally don't have the patience for it. I was done fishing at the end of October. My reels are all unspooled...cleaned...and put away. With me not having any electronics and fishing from shore mostly. Its just not worth my time. Let alone me not having any time now that its pitch black out at 5pm.

[BackOnTheWater]

My $.02:

As the weeds and grasses begin to die and decay, they deplete the water in the area of oxygen, and the bass will find water with a higher oxygen content. If this is the case, get away from the dying vegetation.

But I find that hard to believe, what with those warm temps over the last couple of months. You would think that they would be feeding heavily and the grasses would be healthy and the forage would be all up in them, as would the bass. BUT, the shorter days might have already impacted the health of the grasses.

Are you seeing any baitfish? Are you seeing any surface activity at all, anywhere, in these ponds? It's not likely that they have gone into "winter" mode, yet.

The fish are eating...somewhere...maybe not as much as they have all summer, but they're still eating. The only way to get over a slump is to keep going out there and try to figure it out. If catching fish were always as easy as the good days are, we would not appreciate them. Therein lies the challenge of snagging the elusive bass.

Change colors, try a new style or lure...anything different. You'll figure it out.

[Grug]

First off, NEVER STOP FISHING! If the water is not TOTALLY ice covered, there is a chance (slight though it may be) of catching a nice big bass..

I fish local ponds from shore only and my best success is from now till ice up with 1 lure - 3" Brewer Grub..I hit the deepest part of whatever water I am fishing, deep water that is right at the shore and if its in a corner of the body of water, that is best...

6lb. line, 1/16oz. Slider jig head and work that sucker slow, slow, slow and steady..no hopping or jerking, minnows dont do that especially in cold water. Cast methodically from the shore line on your left all around to  your right, you find bass will be right up against the bank..I am not joking, they will hang there sometimes in dead of winter..I have pix to prove.

Dress warm cause at best I can do this for maybe 3 hours before the cold runs me off..but I have alway caught my biggest bass of the year right now thru New Years..

See-------

[Davis]

Props to you man.

I just can't do it lol.  ;D

[Grug]

I just got back from fishing a little muck pond up the street from me, work out of my house so I have that luxury..Post cold front, gusts to 40 mph + at my back and caught 1 - 12"er on a 3" worm worked on a 1/16oz. slider jib head. Man my hands are cold but water temp was a sizzling 46 deg!!

Now back to work, that sucks...

[xakazulu]

Get a kayak and try a senko drop shot rigged

[kbkindle]

When Nothing is working... then you know you are too old

kb here    know you tell me  just look at all the money you could have saved me. kb

[Raul]

When Nothing is working... then you know you are too old

Recreational prescription drugs will perk all your systems up.

[32251]

Try it at night.  Drop shot or 1/2oz Texas rig for long distance casting from bank.   Been in the low 30s here the last few nights and I caught a couple.  Just fished a hour+ each night.

[Guest avid]

when nothing is working ole avid fishes two rods,

one with a chrome/blue ratltrap, the other with a #194 senko.

Amazing how one or both of these lures will bust the skunk.

[paul.]

just a thought here.  i've learned there are three very important "W's" in bassin.  what, where, and when.  everyone usually wants to focus on the first, but i believe that where and when are far more important.  anyway, it sounds like you have pretty much covered "what" as you have thrown everything but the kitchen sink it seems, using a variety of presentations.  sounds like yours could be a "where" or a "when" problem.  it could very well be that for a variety of reasons, the bass have moved offshore making them inaccessible to you.  some good explainations have already been offered as to possibly why.  another thing to consider is that you might be missing the prime feeding window, which tends to really shorten as water temps drop in the late fall/ early winter after the big fall feed.  the fish you slayed all summer had jacked up metabolisms and were feeding often, maybe even  for hours at a time.  now, with dropping water temps, their metablolisms have slowed, and they do not need to eat nearly as often.  ironically, the bass' metabolism which was working FOR YOU in the summer now could be kinda working AGAINST YOU.  timing is at a premium as fishin' gets tough with dropping temps.  there have been times with cooling water temps that i have fished all day with little or no success - but then the fish "turn on" and in areas where i had been hauling water, the fish seem to suddenly be all over the place, and very cooperative.  you just whack em for a few minutes, sometimes on several consecutive casts.  but then it's over just as quickly as it began.  but that little flurry of activity can really make your day sometimes.  you just have to be there when it happens.  miss it by a minute, and you might as well have missed it by a week.  there are many fishing charts and calendars which might be able to help you predict hot bites.

but don't lose hope.  they still have to eat.  and they will still bite.  you just have to be there when the dinner bell rings.  well this turned out longer than i wanted, but i hope it helps you.  good luck.  there's no such thing as a bad fishin' trip, as long as you learn something.  

[Grug]

Hawg Caller is 100% Right! It is more a matter of where and when then What...I like others here focus on "What" alot cause for me at least, its something I can play with at home while waiting for the next trip...

But take today, 45 deg. water and nothing around the deepest sections of one of my ponds, tried everything..Move to east side of it and BAM, good action for 45 min. on 1/4 oz. x-raps fished slow with long pauses..nailed 7 total from 1-2.5 lbs..they were shallow over dying weeds, maybe 3ft. deep.

Action, slows down, head back to other side to see if things picked up, nothing on a brewer grub so I run back to the hot side, first cast with grub and get my best of the day..

So it was really where in my case, which when you think about it is all that really matters..find 'em and something in your bag of tricks should get some action most of the time..

Fun fun figuring them fish out...

Tight Lines!