Craig P

On busy days when I can’t dedicate boating time but still want to get out for a couple of hours, I leave the boat at home and fish my local lake, walking the trails and jumping in at good spots. I noticed a pattern though, I lost a couple of pounds! So if the lake does eventually freeze?? (SE Pa) I’m going to continue to just hike around the lake a couple times a week. We all love the bite but I’m sure most would agree, we love just being outdoors.

Thanks it helps to know people have been where I am! How did you go about picking colors? I've did the two aforementioned colors because EVERY youtuber says those are the two colors they would choose but youtube fisherman and real people are very different. Thank you so much! To be honest, finding the right color was luck. I have a friend who went through it with me if you will. Every time we went out, we always made sure to use something different from each other and that included stick bait color. We’d pick up a pack here and there and wing it and one day we finally started producing bites. We’ve since found a few other colors that work for us as well but only because we finally found something that gave us confidence. To go a little deeper, find the style you like to fish and fish it. To me, that is enjoyable fishing. I mentioned in another thread that when I can’t get bit using the popular bass methods, I go to an in-line spinner like a CP or Swiss Swing and I can always muster a fish or two, sometimes more. Is that bait magical? Nah, I’ve just been fishing it forever and I know how to fish that bait / style.

As others have said, hang in there and trim down your tackle. Take with you only a couple of presentations and that’s it. Learn them fully! As for Senkos, I fish a lake where I couldn’t buy a bite with Senkos until one day I bought a different color, then it changed dramatically. I was never a believer in color as I have a trout spin fishing background, color was always for the angler so I could see the spinner depending on water color. I’ve obviously since changed that opinion so get fancy with some color. Orange / Black (I forget the real name) has never failed me, regardless of water color. About those Senkos. Next time out, try wacky rig on a standard J hook without any weight. Cast it into tight areas along the bank and brush and then watch that slack line. Yep, you’re going to get snags but your production will increase and your confidence will sky rocket. I speak from experience of being exactly where you are at, I’m just a year ahead of you now. It will come together for you.

Tournaments, it’s just keeping up with the Jones’ so to speak but for the everyday angler, I think it takes the fun out of fishing. I can see the allure the first couple of times using something like livescope but I could also see me getting bored with it quickly. I’ve seen a fair share of people selling their livescopes after just 6 months, I assume it is because the allure wore out.

Spinner, and not the traditional bass spinner, the old CP or Swiss Style you would use for trout. I've been making them myself for many years when I was a trout fanatic, I've just upsized them a bit for bass. When I get blanked at a pond or lake, I goto that spinner. Without fail, it gets me bass. Not sure if it's a confidence thing or simply that 20 years of spinfishing for trout with them has me so in tune with that method. While I love that method on streams, in lakes and ponds, it creates a lot of line twist so I do try to use it sparingly so I'm not stripping / replacing line every trip.