A little confused!

[jazzy0017]

Okay so Monday I went out fishing for about three hours and caught 14 fish on the edge of weed flat in about 7-12 feet of water on alot of different things. Most on lipless cranks but spinnerbaits, dingers, and a jig caught a few too. Basically if you found the baitfish u found the bass for the most part. and the water was about 66 degrees. Anyway I went out today in the same time frame and the same weather conditions and the water was 65 degrees. I caught one fish and had one other on. TRIED EVERYTHING i used monday and then some and then some more! What in the h*** changed?? Any advice at all?

[grimlin]

I experience the same thing....No logical reason other than they just weren't biting today.Those shut downs can drive you crazy,I know that much.

[OHIO]

Okay so Monday I went out fishing for about three hours and caught 14 fish on the edge of weed flat in about 7-12 feet of water on alot of different things. Most on lipless cranks but spinnerbaits, dingers, and a jig caught a few too. Basically if you found the baitfish u found the bass for the most part. and the water was about 66 degrees. Anyway I went out today in the same time frame and the same weather conditions and the water was 65 degrees. I caught one fish and had one other on. TRIED EVERYTHING i used monday and then some and then some more! What in the h*** changed?? Any advice at all?

Did you find the baitfish the second time you went out?

I am assuming you did and if so, I would have to agree with grimlin.

Sometimes the fish just don't bite.

[Fishing Rhino]

Same thing has been happening to me on one of my favorite ponds. The fishing has been gradually slowing down, and yesterday it was maybe a half dozen fish where two days earlier it had been about thirty.

The baitfish on the grass may provide a clue.

On Monday, we saw a few balls of "baitfish" on the sonar display. Yesterday, balls of "baitfish" everywhere. Lots and lots of them.

Alewives/herring enter this pond in the spring on their spawning run, but they do not spawn in it. The travel into the pond via its outlet, through the pond to its inlet, then through a small stream into another, smaller pond to spawn.

They are apparently in a mass exodus, back to the sea, and are easy picking for smallmouth, largemouth and pickerel.

On Monday, there was a Gray Heron at the ponds shallow inlet. It was like it had a symbiotic relationship with the bass. The waiting bass and pickerel would drive the exiting herring back to the shallows where the Heron was waiting to feed on them. The heron then frightened them back to deeper water, and so it went.

Yesterday, two days later, the heron was not there for the first time in weeks. Apparently it was no longer hungry. I'm speculating the same is true of the bass.

Weather conditions were the same on Monday and Wednesday.

[bassnleo]

Fish set up on the edge of a weed flat is a typical summertime pattern.

Your water temps are falling and most likely will continue to do so as Fall lengthens.

Often times the bait and bass will move shallower in preparation for Fall and Winter.

Personally, if I did not find the bass on the weed edge I would have moved shallower and into the weeds looking for the fish. Often times in the Fall the bass will be set up right smack dab in the middle of the cover (any weeds still alive or green) or on ditches, weed points, any irregularities, within in the flat.

Another key is to find the areas on the flat with hard bottom.

Fishing an entire flat in the Fall can be like having teeth pulled but once you locate the fish you often times can load the boat.

[brushhoggin]

its just one of those things where all of the variables for successful fishing came together that one day, then the next day, one key element was lacking and the bite was off or the baitfish moved, something was missing in the equation. i agree with bassnleo about moving shallower, and searching the flats. be the bass, and ask yourself, where am i? 

[Big Fish Rice]

its just one of those things where all of the variables for successful fishing came together that one day, then the next day, one key element was lacking and the bite was off or the baitfish moved, something was missing in the equation. i agree with bassnleo about moving shallower, and searching the flats. be the bass, and ask yourself, where am i?

Honestly, if you hooked large numbers of bass the previous day, putting heavy pressure on them two days in a row would certainly affect the bite.

If this area was jammed full of baitfish for several hours, then it could be a possibility that they are not actively feeding.

Together, that would make for a tough day, no matter what you were throwing. Give it a couple days, and head back to try again.

[jazzy0017]

Thanks everyone...couple of thoughts! I did find the baitfish just not the bass. And I did try to move up shallow in fact thats where I caught my only bass soo then I thought I found something so I explored shallow and nothing else shallow. It was very frusterating. And I know sometimes the fish arnt as active one day to another for obvious reasons its just these days were very similar and I wanna get to the point in my fishing career where every single time I go to the lake I wanna catch em and if I dont succeed I wanna at least learn something and I feel I really didnt do either. And it eats me alive!!! lol

[fishermantony]

It's like Bill Murphy said, a bass is still a wild animal.