Bass getting familiar with my lures?

[carrollton-fisher]

I fish a 2 acre pond in my neighborhood frequently.  There are plenty of good bass in it, even 10 pounders.  The problem is, the fish will not bite!  When i first moved in, i would catch a few good ones, then it was like they got used to seeing the lures.  I switch to a lure they've never seen, they bite for about a week, then stop.  I'm lucky to catch 1 bass each time fishing.  The like has little cover and little structure.  I fish from the deepest to the shallowest and nothing.  Any help?

[Grey Wolf]

Is it heavily fished ?

[WanderLust]

hmmm... Maybe not fishing during active feeding? Or perhaps use a less visible line? If you can find where the fish are holding you can trigger a reaction strike by rippinng through vegetation or bumping off something?

[Avalonjohn44]

I don't know that I buy fish remembering baits.  I would think a more patient and subtle presentation of the same baits would produce.  A switch to a smaller line might be a good idea too.  Maybe even standing back a ways from the bank, maybe if it is a small pond your profile/silouette might be spooking them.

[IntroC]

What kinda baits are you using and what time of day are you fishing?

[Fishing Rhino]

Hey Carrollton, our younger daughter lives in Temple, just to the north of you. She has a small pond behind her home. It's maybe four acres, and has a good population of bass.

It's shallow, and seems to have very little vegetation, until you start dragging stuff around the bottom.

I fished it pretty regularly when we were there for November last fall. I'd catch 8 to fifteen bass in two or three hours.

I was concerned they'd get used to the bait, but in four weeks, they never stopped biting.

Try swimming a drop shot rig, with a weedless hook (I prefer the Gamakatsu weedless finesse hooks with the plastic weed guard, and a quarter ounce cylindrical sinker at the end. The hook was a foot to a foot and a half above the sinker, and I used plastic worms from three to six inches rigged wacky style.

I'd make a cast, count to ten, and then very slowly retrieve the bait with a variety of twitches, from subtle to a sharp jerk from time to time.

When the sinker would hit a patch of vegetation you could feel it snag, then release. The bait was off the bottom, twitching around above the plants. Most of the fish were caught when I could feel the sinker working through the plants.

On Thanksgiving morning I caught this one using the technique described above. This old gal bit on a four inch *** yellow and black Bumblebee which they stopped selling.

[CJ]

Avalonjohn, had my same thought. Switching presentation can be better than switching lures.

Nice fish Rhino!

[CSimon2]

Try fishing with ultra light gear.  Many bass fisherman do not use UL that often, but the smaller lures may help trigger the bass into biting.  There is a good article on this site about fishing for bass with UL gear.

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/Ultralight.html

[midnighthrasher]

try using a black jointed jitterbug at night. you can thank me later

[Fishing Rhino]

One more bit of info.  I was using 6 pound fluorocarbon line.  For drop shotting, in most cases I use either mono or fluoro.

Because it stretches, it absorbs some of the rod twitch input, rather than transmitting it directly to the bait, making the action of the bait more subtle.

[carrollton-fisher]

I fish it from the shore.  I fish year round so the temps vary from 40 degrees in winter, 80 degrees in the summer.  This is a year round issue.  The deepest part is about 14-16 feet.  I've fished everything, senkos, crainkbaits, jigs, lizards, spinnerbaits (never bit), drop shot, i've done it all. The lake is not heavily fished. I've got 2 brush piles i sank that i can get a bite out of, fished with a jig getting an idea of what's on the bottom and there doesn't seem to be much there, just a muddy bottom with a few rocks. There is a good bream population, tried lures mimicking bream but that doesn't work either. I usually fish the last hour or so before dark. I ripped red eye shads looking for reaction bites, and creeped baits slow trying to pick them off, all on different lines. It's amazing, then i see a kid catch a 4 pounder on a piece of bread, you talk about frustrating! I've pretty much got about 5 areas i try that i've caught bass, if i don't catch any there, i go home. >

[Crestliner2008]

Awesome fish rhino! And some good information.

carrollton - are you fishing from shore or from a small boat like rhino? Makes a difference as to what we can offer you for suggestions. Also, what is the water clarity like? And water temp at the time you're fishing?

Just how deep is the "deep" water and what is the forage base? Knowing the answers to these questions, I think we can offer you a lot more in the way how to approach your situation.

[carrollton-fisher]

Crestliner, I modified my post above to answer your questions, thanks for the help.

[senile1]

I've fished everything, senkos, crainkbaits, jigs, lizards, spinnerbaits (never bit), drop shot, i've done it all. The lake is not heavily fished. I've got 2 brush piles i sank that i can get a bite out of, fished with a jig getting an idea of what's on the bottom and there doesn't seem to be much there, just a muddy bottom with a few rocks. There is a good bream population, tried lures mimicking bream but that doesn't work either. I usually fish the last hour or so before dark. I ripped red eye shads looking for reaction bites, and creeped baits slow trying to pick them off, all on different lines. It's amazing, then i see a kid catch a 4 pounder on a piece of bread, you talk about frustrating! I've pretty much got about 5 areas i try that i've caught bass, if i don't catch any there, i go home. >

Even if one believes that bass become conditioned to a particular presentation that just means you have to change the presentation, somewhat, to something they haven't seen. Eventually, you can change back to the presentation they stopped biting to begin with because they will have forgotten it. However, I suspect this isn't what you are experiencing. In the post above you state that you fish the last hour or so before dark. Do you fish well into the night or just for this hour or two? That's not enough time to say the fish aren't biting or the fish are conditioned to a lure. And that's not enough time to give a slow finesse presentation or a slowly fished jig or t-rig the time to fully produce. Fish the pond all day or at various times during the day and fish it for at least 4 - 6 hours at a time if not more. I believe if you would fish the pond all day there would be a period or two where the fish would become active and you will get some bites. Add a little patience and more time to some of the techniques suggested in this thread and see what transpires.

[Avalonjohn44]

I fish it from the shore. I fish year round so the temps vary from 40 degrees in winter, 80 degrees in the summer. This is a year round issue. The deepest part is about 14-16 feet. I've fished everything, senkos, crainkbaits, jigs, lizards, spinnerbaits (never bit), drop shot, i've done it all. The lake is not heavily fished. I've got 2 brush piles i sank that i can get a bite out of, fished with a jig getting an idea of what's on the bottom and there doesn't seem to be much there, just a muddy bottom with a few rocks. There is a good bream population, tried lures mimicking bream but that doesn't work either. I usually fish the last hour or so before dark. I ripped red eye shads looking for reaction bites, and creeped baits slow trying to pick them off, all on different lines. It's amazing, then i see a kid catch a 4 pounder on a piece of bread, you talk about frustrating! I've pretty much got about 5 areas i try that i've caught bass, if i don't catch any there, i go home. >

Dude, walk around some.  It sounds like you give up too easily.  That or try some bread.

[Grey Wolf]

I fish it from the shore. I fish year round so the temps vary from 40 degrees in winter, 80 degrees in the summer. This is a year round issue. The deepest part is about 14-16 feet. I've fished everything, senkos, crainkbaits, jigs, lizards, spinnerbaits (never bit), drop shot, i've done it all. The lake is not heavily fished. I've got 2 brush piles i sank that i can get a bite out of, fished with a jig getting an idea of what's on the bottom and there doesn't seem to be much there, just a muddy bottom with a few rocks. There is a good bream population, tried lures mimicking bream but that doesn't work either. I usually fish the last hour or so before dark. I ripped red eye shads looking for reaction bites, and creeped baits slow trying to pick them off, all on different lines. It's amazing, then i see a kid catch a 4 pounder on a piece of bread, you talk about frustrating! I've pretty much got about 5 areas i try that i've caught bass, if i don't catch any there, i go home. >

Dude, walk around some. It sounds like you give up too easily. That or try some bread.

X 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sometimes you've got to work a little bit to catch bass !!!!!!!!!!!

[LunkerBandit]

I've caught some of my biggest fish by switching to unfamiliar spots or using unfamiliar presentations. Don't be afraid to work areas you haven't fished before. Even if you get skunked you spent all day at the lake and you didn't get a raw deal.

[carrollton-fisher]

Probably poor wording on my part as far as the "fish 5 places and go home".  I can actually only fish partof the lake due to that pesky trespassing law.  So i fish where i can, when i can.  I do have a newborn so fishing all day is kind of out of the question.  The spots I do fish definitely hold fish, i just can't get them to bite after a while.

[SENKOSAM]

When all else fails, go finesse! Downsize, slow down and make sure the lure gets near the bottom when the surface bite is dead. How much weed does the area have you're allowed to fish? If thick and you don't have a boat to fish baits vertically, you're out of luck.

I suggest the following lures:

small 3" grubs on 1/16 oz jigs

1/4-3/8 oz jigs and Rage Tail craw trailers and pork frogs

3" XRaps

drop shot 4" soft worms that float horizontally

live bait on a drop shot or beneath a bobber

Johnson Silver Minnow weedless spoon with pork frog

4" Senkos or Yum Dingers - wacky

If anything you should be able to catch some panfish. If you get zero bites, either move along the shore line and cast or find a different body of water.

[bigbill]

There's 3 of us who fish the same places everyday every year. At these three places i'm sure the fish learn our baits(lures) too. What was a killer lure lastyear won't catch zip this year. But not all my lures are like this. My old topnocker from BPS still works in these places. But my other crankbaits have stopped or slowed down. I mentioned this before here in the beginning of this awesome forum that were like a baseball pitcher and need to do a change up with our lures every year if were fishing the same smaller spots. I have noticed that one key change is the color. I picked up a cheap odd spook in orange on clearance one day. I think it was 99 cents so i had to buy it. The three of us were at our usual spot and i caught 4 bass right away on 4 casts. I did notice one more thing too, my buddy who was down stream caught a big bass at this time too. I figured the scent i used helped him out too. Thats my only problem with using scents it will turn the fish on in that whole area so most of them will catch fish too who are close to me.

So my advise is to use cranks(example) but change colors year to year. And to try the cheap / different lures too. You will find that the new stuff will work next season. I say park the old stuff to try next season too. But down the road they will work again too. The fish will forget what they have been taught by you. Bill

Remember i'm talking about the smaller places we fish from shore. And this i what i notice too.

now i approach it this way;

I go thru my ritual of hotter lures, if nothing is going on i practice my different presentations with the same lures again.  If zip happens again i will throw every bait in my tacklebox again practicing every different presentation again.  Its when i focus on making my presentation exactly the way it should be i find this is when the fish will interupt me. I just have fun with my lures and presentations if its slow.  Trust me when we stay focused and motivated it works too. Just toss the lures you never use and watch what happens.

[Raul]

Two acres is not that big, 2 acres doesn 't hold a lot of fish so you catch the same fish over and over again, man they have smaller than pea sized brains but if you fish a lot the same water with the same lures and presentation they do get familiar with lures and avoid them. I know it because I fish a lot of ponds and if I visit a pond several times in a row without giving them a break in between the fish become used to a lures and presentations.

Don 't change the lure, change the presentation until they stop biting.