Can't Find The Fish

[chilliblanket]

Im catching fish here and there, but I've been up and down my little pond in the backyard looking for the fish, and I cant find any concentration of them. Im looking for breaks or really steep drops around the creek channel and the flats but im having trouble finding where these fish are holding. The past few days the water has been at or around 55 and the water clarity is around 1 feet with a brownish hue. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks for the help.

[Raider Nation Fisher]

Others may disagree with me on this, but throw some cranks at em. Fish em slow, fast, medium speed just change it up. Try a chart. or fire tiger color. Run em along the bottom and threw the water column. I have met very few fish that can resist a nice noisy crankbait. Once you locate said fish with the crank, throw a jig or plastic in and around that area to clean it out. I catch them on cranks year round and have more confidence in them than any other lure.

[chilliblanket]

Others may disagree with me on this, but throw some cranks at em. Fish em slow, fast, medium speed just change it up. Try a chart. or fire tiger color. Run em along the bottom and threw the water column. I have met very few fish that can resist a nice noisy crankbait. Once you locate said fish with the crank, throw a jig or plastic in and around that area to clean it out. I catch them on cranks year round and have more confidence in them than any other lure.

actually i totally agree with you. Thats what ive been throwing recently. i cant find any consistent area or pattern though. Im catching fish here and there.

[Raider Nation Fisher]

Let's see..... What's the depth? Is there structure? Are there weed edges? Where are the fish hitting, ie off the structure, on weed edges, etc. What depths are they generally hitting at? At what retrieve speed are they hitting? Have the fish gotten used to seeing certain presentations all the time? It could be that a different presentation or variation in retrieve will set them back on the bite. Sometimes when fishing my smaller ponds ie five acres or less. I have noticed that the bass will sort of spread out more than in a larger pond or in a lake. There are times when they'll school up but only 1 or 2 will bite. Regardless of what you throw at them.

Probably the most helpful thing you can do is keep a log, while your fishing. Record date, time, temp (air and water), weather patterns that have recently occured or are occuring. Where when and what lure, retrieve, and speed you were fishing. After a few weeks or several trips out a pattern will start to emerge. Sometimes writing it out and actually being able to see it helps make it appearent or helps you notice something you missed. If you want any tricks I've picked up on or developed on crank baits let me know and ill pm them to you. I would post for all to see, but I've worked my tail off learning all I can about that lure so currently its privleged information.

[Raider Nation Fisher]

Also are you working a slower bait after one hits? If you like working the crank slower through the same area may make a difference. Generally though throwing a jig or plastic after the first catch in that area will get any sluggish bass that may be lurking there.

[Bluebasser86]

55 degree water to me says rattlebaits, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits. At that temp they should have the feedbag on and those baits are some of my favorites for finding them. Once you find them slow down and saturate the area with a jig.

[chilliblanket]

55 degree water to me says rattlebaits, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits. At that temp they should have the feedbag on and those baits are some of my favorites for finding them. Once you find them slow down and saturate the area with a jig.

well im not entirely sure if the fish are still feeding up for winter.. seems to mee theyre already done with that... this small pond can heat up really quick and stayed at around high 80 and low 90s during the days of the summer... i think the 55 degree temperature might still mean fall patterns for areas more north but since im in the south i think they might be done with that.. what do you think?

[Big-O]

6" Lizard or Smaller Craw like 3 to 4" rigged with the following and fished very slowly with a slow - short drag - pause.

T-rig or C rig with 1/4oz max weight.

Weightless in the shallows or an 1/8 to 1/4oz Rage Rig(weighted hook) for a slightly quicker horizontal fall.

Great fish Finders and Catchers too...

www.ragetail.com

[Bluebasser86]

well im not entirely sure if the fish are still feeding up for winter.. seems to mee theyre already done with that... this small pond can heat up really quick and stayed at around high 80 and low 90s during the days of the summer... i think the 55 degree temperature might still mean fall patterns for areas more north but since im in the south i think they might be done with that.. what do you think?

I think you might be right, southern fish seem to go into "winter" mode at a much higher tempature but I also know that rattletraps ripped through weeds and fished through timber is a top producer in a lot of sothern states throughout the winter months along with a slow rolled spinnerbait. In all but the coldest and hottest water temps it has always made sense to me to try a search bait for active fish first and then slow down as needed. That doesn't have to be a crankbait or spinnerbait though, could just be a heavy jig or plastic fished quickly until fish are found and then slow down and work slowly through the area.

[chilliblanket]

yeah ive always been real interested in using the carolina rig to fidn some fish. I have a little trouble with it here though because there are so many branches and laydown trees at the bottom..

I think you might be right, southern fish seem to go into "winter" mode at a much higher tempature but I also know that rattletraps ripped through weeds and fished through timber is a top producer in a lot of sothern states throughout the winter months along with a slow rolled spinnerbait. In all but the coldest and hottest water temps it has always made sense to me to try a search bait for active fish first and then slow down as needed. That doesn't have to be a crankbait or spinnerbait though, could just be a heavy jig or plastic fished quickly until fish are found and then slow down and work slowly through the area.

the weeds in this particular body of water are very shallow.. makes it difficult to rip rattle traps out.. i agree with finding fish before slowing down and really taking time to dissect the fish, but i cant seem to find any concentrations of fish fishing any baits quickly up and down this lake lol

[Fishing Rhino]

It occurs to me that the fish might want a slower presentation. If that's the case, a fast retrieve/presentation isn't going to find them.

I've never really understood the "find 'em with a fast bait, then catch 'em with a slow bait" theory.

I'm still catching plenty of bass in SE Mass with water temps in the low 40s. Three weeks ago, when the water temps were in the mid to upper 40s, the bass were tight to the emergent vegetation, in a foot and a half to two feet of water. Upon returning from a trip to our daughter's in GA, the water temps were in the low 40s, and the fish had moved into three to five feet of water. The only way I could catch them was using the method Big O described, slowing my retrieve to just about a dead stop, retrieving the line in maybe six inch pulls max, then pausing.

The bass moved deeper, if you can call three to five feet of water deeper, but they still want the bait presented at just about a standstill.

The bass are extremely sluggish. The best they can do is shake their heads. They don't even try to pull directly away from you. They'll swim like a dog walks around at the end of its tether, not trying to get directly away. If they try to jump, they barely break the surface of the water.

Put the bait a few inches from their nose, moving it very slowly and they'll likely grab it, but they sure as heck aren't going to move very far or fast to grab it.

I may be wrong, but I doubt anything would produce a "reaction strike" from the bass I'm catching. They are far too sluggish.

I'm not fishing for the thrill of the hit and the fight. I'm curious to see how long they'll keep biting and plan to keep at it until the pond is covered with ice.

My goal is to catch a fish in January and February. Then I can say I've caught a bass in all twelve months from the same pond.

While it may be no big deal since some catch them ice fishing around here, it surely shortens the off season considerably. This is the first year I've fished into November, and I'm still catching 'em well into December.

I don't know where you're fishing, but your 50+ degree water temps may be my 40ish temps.

[Fishing Rhino]

I've got one other thought for you to consider. The fish may not be any less concentrated than they are in the summer with warmer temps.

Let's say a fish will move two feet to get to a bait as they get sluggish, as opposed to six feet when they are at their peak of activity. That distance makes the radius of a circle in which they will strike at a bait. The area of a circle is the radius squared time 3.1416

Two feet squared is four, six feet squared is 36. The area in times of peak activity is nine times larger than when they are sluggish. Since a fish will travel further, you will naturally catch more of them when casting to the same spot. If they were evenly dispersed, you have the potential to catch nine times as many from casting to any given spot which makes it seem like they are concentrated in any given area.

The mathematical reality is that the more sluggish fish get, the fewer you will catch of them. Find the combination of bait/presentation that works the best and stick with it.

[NBR]

Not sure that this applies to grennies but the Minnesota DNR determined that smallies congregated in closely packed groups and when the group was found they were highly susceptible to over fishing. They established a catch and immediate release rule starting in the fall. I don't recall the date. I have found here in NH that when I find the fall smallies I catch a bunch but I've got to find them first.

[Fishing Rhino]

Not sure that this applies to grennies but the Minnesota DNR determined that smallies congregated in closely packed groups and when the group was found they were highly susceptible to over fishing. They established a catch and immediate release rule starting in the fall. I don't recall the date. I have found here in NH that when I find the fall smallies I catch a bunch but I've got to find them first.

The pond I'm now fishing is one of only two ponds I fish that does not have both species. I cannot say with certainty, but it seems to me that the largemouth get more sluggish than the smallmouth bass when the water temps cool. That's not to say the smallmouth don't slow down, but the change is more dramatic in the largemouth.

My thoughts are based on anecdotal, not scientific research.

[chilliblanket]

thanks for all the replies! i went out yesterday after a rain-- weather was still overcast and a little misty. I found a really shallow flat and threw a spook. Action was great.. but it cleared up today and i plan on trying to slow down if that topwater bite isnt on.