Team9nine

Half the time yes, half no. Not the most popular, or the most common (actually rare these days), but I still lock my drag down well above popular wisdom or guidance and then backreel at times. Some of the newer reels don’t even have the “anti-reverse” switch any more, but many do. It’s the best form of ‘control’ if that's what you’re after, IMO. The beatings may now commence

You would have been impressed by the aerial acrobatics the bass put on display today Yes, partially. There is some deeper open water outside the weedline, but more/most bites come at it, so its inevitable you “catch” them…but it’s mostly Chara, so you can snatch it through the tops of it pretty well, and half the time they eat it while still attached to the weed stem ?

Retired now, but never called in “sick” to go fishing. Scheduled time off via vacation or personal days usually. Might leave early and go, but took vac. time to do it and let supervisor know. Nothing I hated more than actually being sick, so never wanted to jinx myself by saying I was when I wasn’t ?

High 80s with dewpoints in the upper 70s made it miserable outside, but storms just south of me brought some cloud cover, so I made a dash to a small lake to try and catch a few - tomorrow is high in the upper 90s with heat indexes in the 100s. Managed a baker’s dozen which wasn’t bad since this spot has a big year class of bass running 14” or better - decent sized fish. You rarely catch dinks but you rarely catch big bass, either. Today’s largest was 17.5”, and most fish here run between 1.5 to 3 pounds. Everything split between wacky and Ned today.

Agree with that The effort and desire required is just as strong, but the “amount of time” actually spent on the water it now takes (i.e., ‘time on the water’ ergo ‘experience’) to get to point ‘A’ in catches compared to the old days is considerably less than what it used to take IME thanks to technology; I think our thought paths are on the same circle, just rotating around slight definition/perspective differences Edit: per Tom’s JJ mention above, I can see both sides of this argument being completely valid. Good discussion ?

I’m looking for ‘C’ - neither of the above ? at least the way the OP defined ‘presentation.’ Define it as ‘depth and speed’ and I’ll take ‘A’ all day, with a shoutout to @A-Jay for the “timing” component

Not saying they aren’t working for it, just that technology has made it so that they don’t need 20 years of experience on the water to catch fish good these days. I personally wouldn’t agree that “getting fish to bite lures which takes the same amount of practice and nuance and understanding as it ever did.” Before the technology, how much more in tune and experience did you have to have before you figured out the bass weren’t on the bottom, but were instead suspended a foot or two over the tops of the stumps? You could fish under and through those fish all day and never figure it out unless you had one bite your bait on the drop and you put 2 + 2 together and completely altered your presentation based on that one subtle clue…or just take a few seconds now days and look at your FFS and see their position immediately and then throw an appropriate bait or presentation first cast at them. Yes, you still have to figure out the trigger, but that’s not experience as much as simple trial and error at that point, IMO. Maybe its partly a difference in defining ‘experience,’ but time on the water can be measured, and it just doesn’t seem “hours/days/years” matter as much with the technological “shortcuts” available. Call it ‘efficiency’ as you say, but less is more, or at least ‘as good’ it seems to me when talking ‘time’ on the water.

Totally serious. I’m looking at it from the changes I’ve seen over a lifetime of fishing, largely in the area of tournaments. Technology has erased nearly all the advantages experience and time on the water used to give an angler. The best anglers by and large were the ones who spent the most time on the water. It’s why so many professional anglers started their careers out by guiding, and guides were frequently banned from fishing tournaments on their home waters. Maps were crap with 10 or 20 ft contour intervals, if you could even find one of your lake. As such, there were still “secret spots” to be had, found only by spending countless hours on the water graphing just using flashers and paper graphs, which required some mental abilities to interpret - no SI, DI, 360, FFS, Google Earth, etc. that gives you near perfect images of everything underwater. It was largely all fishing trial and error, day after day - time on the water to learn these areas. There were no hi-def 1’ contour maps to look at and study on your iPhone or laptop at home or on the water, or “live mapping” options. When you found these spots, you had to mark ‘em on paper and try and find shoreline references to return to them (no GPS). You also had to learn boat control, be able to hold on a spot with the wind blowing one way, the current pushing you another, all while trying to cast, hook and land a fish without spooking the school or ending up 40 yds downlake off your spot - now days just drop your PowerPoles or hit Spotlock on your trolling motor and forget about boat control - just fish, you’re boat isn’t going anywhere. Need to move up the breakline a bit? Just hit “jog” on your trolling motor. After finding all this stuff, then winning the big regional tournament, you hid your baits and tackle, maybe a little white lie or two about what and how, and basically told your partner to keep his mouth shut - lol. A hot new technique you developed could be kept from most of the rest of the country for 2 or 3 years before they ever even heard about it by reading it in Bassmaster magazine. Even then you’d only get part of the details. And even locals took a while to figure out what you were doing through word of mouth and following you around the lake. These days, your results are posted online the next day, the live cameras follow you around with drone and ‘in boat’ coverage. You can’t hide or lie about what you used. The writeup comes a day or two later on another site or a similar site. I can go to your YouTube and get all the specifics, and/or watch a replay of the tourney coverage and see how you did it all; your casts; how you worked your baits; your hooksetting technique; how much time you spent on each spot and rotated through your holes; how often you rotated through baits; how you played your fish; even get your GPS tracks, time of your fish catches and their sizes by being a paid channel subscriber. Now I go online to Tackle Warehouse that night, order your exact rod, reel and line setups, two dozen of your baits in the same colors and sizes, and have it all delivered to my house before I hit the water next weekend, where I’ll be fully ready to apply your stuff on the water for the first time, just a week after learning about it. Yeah, I’ll have to still figure out nuances with presentation, feel, decision making and such on my waters, but i’ll just watch how the bass react on my FFS to see how all those little changes I make change their mood. If I’m close enough to where you fished, I might even take a weekend trip and rerun your exact holes to see if I can repeat what you did, all within a week or two of your headlining success. Experience and time on the water aren’t anywhere near as important these days as they used to be. They still play a role in fishing success, but a much smaller one. A technologically savvy twenty-something kid can now whip the pants off a 40, 50 or 60 year old guy who spent most of his life gaining experience on the water, most days, largely because of these technology advances. We see it every week on tour. The tournament results don’t lie.

Satisfying afternoon at a local lake given the conditions. A mix of clouds and passing showers, sprinkled with some occasional bursts of sunshine. A high of 88, a heat index into the 90s, and wind gusts of nearly 40 mph. Was still able to garner 27 bites on a jig, though size was again lacking - but the action wasn’t, so its all good

I’m going to take a slightly different tack and say that while time on the water IS still important, in the overall picture of fishing/catching these days, it has never been LESS important than it is right now, IMO. I could go down the rabbit hole of reasoning, and I still might, but I’m currently just pecking away at my cell phone while writing this and don’t feel like trying to write a small booklet with just one finger ?

I encounter this frequently, and it took me a bit to figure out before I started to score heavily on these fish. I’ve discovered 3 options that all work well at times and can be implemented by anglers, a couple of which have already been touched on above. First is casting tight to, if not on the bank and pulling the bait back into the water. Obviously weightless or very lightweight baits work best here, as well as (semi)weedless, but open hooks can be fine depending on bank cover. Take advantage of shoreline angles or narrowed areas that allow you to throw all the way across a section of the pond. Second is to fish small lightweight baits just a few feet out from the shoreline and parallel, making long, quiet casts well past the fish and then swimming the baits in that shallow water behind the fish. Too close might scare them, but a few feet out gives them a chance to turn and attack in time. Baits like tubes and small swimbaits or similar seem to work particularly well for this. Lastly, let the fish see you and swim off, but watch where he goes, then just pitch a bait like a wacky, Neko or weightless presentation to the area. What they most often do is just swim out to the first edge of deep water and then pause or turn and look back toward the bank, not completely flee the area. You might not see them, but trust it is happening in many cases. I actually had this confirmed via conversations with Paul Roberts. So many of these fish are catchable with this tactic - just be subtle and stealthy in your approach. Give these a try, as one or all three could work in your situation.

Any way to test whether there is ample oxygen below that shallow thermocline? If not and the fish are stuck to living in 5’ of water or less, you’ll probably want to play with timing. The most oxygen in the water will likely be on sunny afternoons, later in the day. Might try fishing then since they might be the most active. I would also focus heavy effort on very windy days fishing the side of the lake getting blown into, as well as right at dusk to see if they move toward the bank after the sun goes down. Early evening could be good before the lake loses too much oxygen. Topwaters (poppers, wakebaits, frogs, etc.), light swimbaits or Slider rigs, or similar baits (weightless Senkos or wacky worms?) you can fish slow and higher up in the water column would be my first choices.

Thank, God ! Goodnight Irene!!

Not sure what kind of answer you're expecting from anyone with your post outside of just agreeing with you to keep "just not throwing them" since you can't get them to work and you've already tried "everything." Guess you're just looking for someone to commiserate with in your misery. Several of our most respected and experienced members have said the same thing I did in their posts above, that jigs are one of the most basic, universal fish catchers in the bassin' world and will work given the time and effort. Why they won't work for you and your friends - who knows. I know several anglers who live in and fish Illinois/Wisconsin waters all the time who catch plenty of bass on jigs. If it's not mental, it seems like it would have to be technical. Maybe find someone local in your area who loves fishing jigs and challenge them to catch a bass on one. ...and sorry you didn't find humor in the meme. Being a "long time reader here," you must know a little lighthearted 'poke' now and then is the norm around here. I've been the recipient of many such posts recently.

? Just kidding, of course. It’s all in your head. Jigs are one of the most universal baits ever. Not sure I’ve ever come across a body of water where I couldn’t garner a bite or two on some variation of them, and they really shine on others. There can be some seasonality to it, but no reason for not being able to catch a fish for years on one. I wouldn’t fish anything else until I caught a bass on one and broke that mental block.

Just the opposite for me. I’m finding that I’m catching more fish because I’ve gotten much better at NOT reacting to every little bump, flash or last second hit at my feet. Now I stop, pause or hesitate instead of swing, and conversions have only gone up. Bass hang on to baits much longer than most realize, and they really want to eat your bait if just given the opportunity.

A fun afternoon fishing the slop. The storms just missed me, but the heavy cloud cover didn’t, which provided some welcome relief from the sun and heat for about 90% of the trip. A total of 18 “blow-ups” on the afternoon…a few were pretty chunky, even.

Good call Didn't even know they made that size bait - lol - also now apparently discontinued. From as big as it looks in his hand and the running depth listed, I'd agree: Bandit 250 Ledge

Looks very "Bandit-like" to me. Is it as big as it looks? Looks bigger than a 300 that runs about that depth. Maybe an old pre-Pradco Bandit 400 or similar. They made a 700 also, but the design was different.

Great news…and a great fish

Was waiting to see if anyone else chimed in with that thought. Other than some low productivity waters, mostly up north, but a few south central, “find the food, find the bass” seems like the most cliched, useless piece of fishing knowledge commonly shared, IMO…and that’s not a knock on Phil, as you can find that advice scattered everywhere on this site and others. In our eutrophic/hypereutrophic waters around here, which applies to most of the eastern U.S., I believe, there is food everywhere. Bass are generalist eaters, and you can simply find appropriate food everywhere you look for it. “Nature abhors a vacuum;” the bass and various food sources live together, not separately where the bass has to constantly be in search of some food source to eat - kind of like lions on the plain - lol. Just my $0.02

Agree with the above especially (1) & (2). I’ve gotten away from (3) myself because it seems to offer the least benefit and can actually hinder efforts because it slows down my rod and line reactions due to drag. The option of just holding the tip steady right above the waters surface and pulling as the bass just clear the surface (1) has replaced 3 for me these days, but option (2) of letting off pressure works well if you think the area is free of cover hazards.

Nothing worthy of a pic this afternoon, but I took one anyway ? Still, 10 bites is 10 bites. Gets super hot for here this week, low to mid 90s, so trips this week might be limited.

I’ve been dealing with some crazy acrobatic bass these past few weeks also, due, I believe, to this long spell of hot sunny weather. I was losing quite a few early on, but have since seemed to have largely solved that problem. Lots of good advice above, but try this “scientific” approach - its been working well for me Newton's Third Law of Motion: Action and reaction - for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. Instead of trying to overpower the fish and gain control, simply hold onto him. The harder you pull, the harder he fights. Instead, after setting the hook and getting tight to the fish, just stop reeling for a few seconds and hold him in place. Don’t try and horse him in, but don’t let him go anywhere either beyond the standard drag pulling. A short term stalemate. When you can tell he’s coming up to jump, just lower the rod toward the waters surface and let him. If he breaks the surface, wait until right after he clears and loses leverage, then just give him a good pull back down into the lake which keeps the line tight. Take your time and enjoy the fight and just let things play out. It’s very hard to put into words, but I think you’ll know the feeling when you get this tactic down right. My landing percentage has gone way up since I changed tactics on how I’ve been playing these fish. Might be worth a try.

My best advice is forget the fountain even exists, and then just fish it like any other lake based on weather and water conditions, along with cover types. I’ve rarely done good off the fountains themselves when they can be reached, and the few times I caught some was when the fountain was off, or the whole thing was found in shallow water in the back of a canal. I have found them suspended around the cables at times, but hooking and losing baits in them isn’t worth the effort most times. Typically there are 3 “cables” or lines you have to be aware of. One is the electrical running out to the fountain, and the other two are wire or rope cables used to secure the fountain head in place, often directly opposite each other. Even if you don’t fish the fountain, you don’t want to snag these just fishing down the shoreline, as all three will run clear to the bank.