I spent much of last spring at a local 30 acre public fishing lake. It had steep banks, stained to muddy water clarity, lots of flooded trees, lots of laydowns, and lots of brush. Most of the pressure the lake recieved was from crappie and catfishermen. The jungle of laydowns and brush made it very hard for anyone who didn't know what they were doing to fish for bass.
For all of march and the first week of April, i averaged about one fish under 15 inches a day. What kept me going was a 6lber i had caught last fall and another bass angler who was catching two to three a day with many in the 2 to 5 lb range. I talked to him every time i ran into him and i eyed him from across the lake to see what he was doing differently. He was flipping a 4" smoke tube with a red fleck. Most of my fish came on a weightless green pumpkin senko, but i switched to a tube many times throughout that month with no success. When April came around and the fish came up to spawn, things changed for both of us. My average went from 1 fish to 7 fish with a few 18-20 inchers thrown into the mix. I caught lots of fish on my senko, but the tube turned on as well and i even threw a brush hog into the mix. He was averaging 15 fish a day with two to three 18-22" fish every day, basically flipping the same tube and occasionally a brush hog.
I could not figure out why he was consistently doubling my best efforts. I tried switching times of day. I tried to get there before he did. I tried pretty much everything. Then one day, he told me that he always chose the side of the lake opposite the sun so that his shadow wouldn't scare off the fish. IDT that that is why he did better than me, but i realized that it was probably the combination of a bunch of little details that he paid attention to that made a big difference. What are some of the modifications to your baits and presentations that you guys make that help you to catch bigger fish?
