Failure

[Ernie Boyd]

i live in western pa and usually fish lake arthur also known as moraine. i go out for 3 to 4 hours and usually only catch 2 to 4 fish.....not a very good ratio. i also have a pond i go to sometimes that doesnt see much action ive only ever seen 1 other person out there which was a week ago which brings me to my point. i usually throw buzzbaits spinners topwaters etc at this pond but still only catch 3 to 4 fish on average. last week a man was out at the same lake using a kinda smoke color tube bait just hooked with a split shot about 15-18 inches up the line and he caught about 9 bass that i saw.... so today i went out and bought a bunch of soft plastics to try at the lake.... my brother was using tube baits with split shot didnt even get 1 bite...my mom was using chigger craw texas rigged didnt even get 1 bite....i was using buzzbait and caught 2 bass then switched to 5 inch wacky rigged senko which got me hits but i couldnt hook the fish 4 times and all 4 times they ripped the senko off the hook....then on the 5th one it got slammed i rared back to set the hook it felt like the fish was fighting like crazy then when i get the bass up its like a 14 inch bass that i somehow hooked in his belly and ripped the poor guy wide open with the hook so now i feel like a jackass. how do you build confidence with this type of fishing? i used 5 senkos and got 1 fish thats probably gonna die now because of me.... those darn senkos are too expensive for that..... is there anything really difficult about this? the texas rigs we were slowly working across the bottom....the senkos i let sink then lift rod reel down sit...lift rod reel down sit...

[Sam]

Check out the Drop Shot rig and give it a shot with small plastics.

Try Texas rigged finesse worms with a light 1/8 bullet sinker on 6 or 8 pound fluorocarbon line on a spinnng rig.

Try a wacky rigged Trick Worm and a wacky rigged finesse worm unweighted and let it fall slow and bring it back to you s-l-o-w. After casting it, let it sit for about 30-seconds and then move it slowly back to you. Bass may hit it on the fall and while it is just sitting there.

If water is stained go with green pumpkin or Junebug colored plastics.

If water iw clear go with watermealon colored plastics.

Scale down your presentations and fish s-l-o-w.

Bass may be deep and are running to the shoreline to nab a tasty treat and then retreating back to the cooler water. Use the "fan" method of casting going from left to right and then back right to left, fanning the area in front of you three or four times before moving to another location.

May be a lot of small bass in the pond so don't be surprised if you continue to catch them.

Small bass, Crappie and bluegills will steal your Senkos. I am PMing you the way to rig your Senkos and finesse worms wacky style to avoid losing them, although no plastic is safe in the water from an aggressive animal.

Go smaller and let us know what happens.

Good luck.

[Sam]

By the way, how about introducing your self on the Introductinos section and using proper spelling and grammer to help us read your posts.

Also remember one of the rules of professional writting: Use a lot of white space.

This means do not put everythig into one large paragraph. Split up your post into two and three sentence paragraphis so we can read it easily.

Thanks.

[Sam]

One more suggestion: Use the shaky head presentation with a finesse or trick worm.

[Ernie Boyd]

i apologize for the crappily prepared post. i have never been good at writing and typing sorts of things. my handwriting looks like a 3 year old did it lol. what is the shaky head presentation?

[Ernie Boyd]

oh where are my manners....thank you for the suggestions so far