Becoming more versatile

zippyduck · July 15, 2019, 01:30:41 PM

After spending some time with fishballer06 I realized that hard baits are seldom used by me.
I have made a conscious effort to change my way of thinking. And I have caught fish in situations that a jig may not have worked in.
I now have a crank and a jerkbait tied on for every trip. On Lake Winnipesauke both caught the majority of the fish I caught.
Try to use those techniques you have been neglecting and you will have less fishless days.
This jerkbait caught over 100 bass this year.

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Smallie_Stalker · July 15, 2019, 01:57:18 PM

I didn't get to see the crank catches but you absolutely slayed them with the jerkbait.

I really need to work on using a bladed jig. Now that I have a few lead-free versions that is the bait I am going to concentrate on learning better.

Great post Zippy!

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Princeton_Man · July 15, 2019, 02:08:34 PM

I do love a jerkbait.

Cuervo Jones · July 18, 2019, 06:32:16 AM

Lake Winnipesauke is one of those places I've always wanted to throw some baits. Years ago, probably around 30, I saw one of Billy Westmorland's shows where he fished there for spawning smallmouth. He and another guy were throwing the Dance's Crawfish and having a hard time hooking all but the biggest fish. I actually bought a few of those baits though, being an impressionable youngster. I threw them in some of the lakes in Wyoming that had smallmouth and never got a single strike. Still have the baits. Thinking back to Billy's show, it makes sense he had problems booking fish because the big, rubbery craw has a small, short shank treble placed midway down its body. This makes it all but impossible for anything that hasn't fully engulfed the lure to get hooked. The bait looks great, it just doesn't work great!

Of course, Billy and his buddy were probably doing Bill Dance a favor by hawking his wares and could no doubt have done better throwing grubs or tubes. But his folksy way of talking and the large size of the females they were plucking off nests (yikes) probably got more than a few of us eager young anglers to throw down some bread for the rubbery crustaceans. Maybe I should try them on a smallmouth lake down here in Tejas. Maybe they're a diamond in the rough after all!

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zippyduck · July 18, 2019, 01:29:27 PM

Cuervo I never caught anything except weeds on the hunk of plastic. We all fell for that kind of crap as youngsters.

mygreenihc · July 18, 2019, 05:01:09 PM

I have never used those particular baits, but I have used some others and my experience was the same as yours. nothing.

it is funny that a bass will not touch a bait that looks very much like everyday forage, but will hit a jig and craw that doesn't really look natural. Fish are like women, we will never completely understand. =)

Brad

Smallie_Stalker · July 18, 2019, 05:07:11 PM

Fish are like women, we will never completely understand.

Too funny Brad. True, but still hysterical.

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Cuervo Jones · July 18, 2019, 05:37:29 PM

We also spend a lot of time and money pursuing them...with mixed results.

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Oldfart9999 · July 19, 2019, 07:27:27 AM

Hard plastics work far more often than most of us would like to admit, I know I don't use them enough.
Rodney

LgMouthGambler · July 20, 2019, 04:13:33 AM

Truer words have never been spoken Brad. Lol

<")))>{

saltystick · July 20, 2019, 09:30:21 PM

Quoteit is funny that a bass will not touch a bait that looks very much like everyday forage, but will hit a jig and craw that doesn't really look natural.

You hit it on the head! Bass sense the differences between prey animals but cannot know what a lure is supposed to represent. It's just not in their scales /genes. Bass targeting something unknown is what makes fishing so much easier and the spinnerbait or chatterbait as well as the skirted jig & trailer are perfect examples where negative IQ along with tracking of sense-stimulating objects trigger attacks. Feeding could be the reason for an attack on a prey copy, but usually something is missing in lures which negates that idea 99.999% of the time.

Easy to test the above and (most) anglers that catch fish on different lure types and designs figure out what are the important differences between lures in the same category. Fish sense those difference and bite only those that have what it takes. The others they ignore.